Olive oil is more and more popular, as there is a great story to tell about it: the olive trees, the sun, the smells of Italy and south of France... But what about sunflower, rapeseed and other seed oils? Well, the sad truth about seed oils is that…NOBODY, ABSOLUTELY NOBODY CARES ABOUT SEED OILS. Despite the fact that 78% of French consumers buy them, the market has shrunk by 50% in the last 20 years. Most of the people don’t even know the brand of seed oils they are buying. Which is quite paradoxical for France, the country of haute cuisine, where like nowhere else, people say they care about everything they eat.

So, in this tough context, how can Lesieur, the leading French oil company, find a way to make people care about their freshly improved, pesticide free, and sustainably produced sunflower, rapeseed and special frying oils?

The idea is to use this hard category insight - the complete lack of interest for seed oils - as a provocative topic to disrupt the oils category.

“THE OILS NOBODY CARES ABOUT”. The campaign that made people care about Lesieur oils by honestly claiming that they don’t.

To provoke French food-savvy consumers to have a conversation about a product not given the attention it deserves, Lesieur did an experiment in supermarkets all over France, changing Lesieur’s oil labels to absurd ones demonstrating that French consumers are buying seed oils without even looking, then fueled the discussion with a nation-wide campaign: putting outdoor billboards saying that nobody cares in places where there’s nobody, using influencers that nobody follows, or even replacing Lesieur’s online ads that nobody watches with content everybody loves… always promoting Lesieur’s product benefits and bringing humor and provocation to our currently overly-serious industry.

With a modest budget and a social media led campaign, the brand needed a strong idea generating a. lot of PR and earned media to cover a nation-wide retail territory, make people talk, and switch the perception of the brand/product.

“THE OILS NOBODY CARES ABOUT”. The campaign that made people care about Lesieur oils by honestly claiming that they don’t.

To provoke French food-savvy consumers to have a conversation about seed oils, Lesieur did an in-store experiment in supermarkets all over France, changing Lesieur’s oil labels to absurd ones demonstrating that French consumers are buying seed oils without even looking, then fueled the discussion with a nation-wide campaign: putting outdoor billboards saying that nobody cares in places where there’s nobody, using influencers that nobody follows, or even replacing Lesieur’s online ads that nobody watches with content everybody loves… always promoting Lesieur’s product benefits. And to make people react, the campaign was massively shared on social channels.

“THE OILS NOBODY CARES ABOUT” have generated more than 10 million media impressions, with an average 12% engagement rate and 90% average completion rate for the video content, but most of all, a not so modest 7% increase in sales in a traditionally stagnant and un-conversational category, making it the most successful campaign in the brand’s 100 years’ history. The Oils Nobody Cares about campaign demonstrates like no other how a bold and provocative experience can make both a brand and product seen in a new light and impact brand consideration.