Trident had fallen out of touch with its core youth audience. Like most gum brands in Europe, Trident had been taking itself rather seriously and behaving like a functional food brand on the defensive: talking about how useful it is and the benefits it offers for health and wellness.We noticed that when Trident was more irreverent and light-hearted it was more successful with young people. Our audience take pride in being fun, spontaneous, impulsive and irrational and buy into brands that behave in ways that reflect these values and try to push the boundaries.

They don't ask why: They just do. If they want to have fun they don't need reasons. We took this insight and used it to reinvigorate the core youth brand in the Trident portfolio (Trident Senses). We created an urban artist collective to develop events, films and installations all in the name of ‘Pointless Fun’.

Our young consumers first encountered Pointless Fun through a coordinated series of banners and editorial across a selection of Microsoft-owned web, mobile and console properties.This activity directed them to PointlessFun.com. There they were inducted into the irreverent, spontaneous and fun world of the Pointless Fun Collective via a series of three films introducing three Pointless Fun ideas.

We then brought these ideas to life. Before each event, we ran a series of 10" TV spots on youth channels; fly posters near campuses and urban centres and a facebook page and youtube channel contributed extra traffic:-the World's Largest Shadow Puppet Show at the Valencia vs. Barcelona clash.-a version of Big Brother for chickens that made 12 well-dressed chickens into online celebrities. -an interactive text-to-dance Polar Bear floating off the coast of major Mediterranean resorts.Additional events ran throughout the campaign generating further social activity.

The challenge to re-connect with and engage a, notoriously difficult to reach, youth audience has been a success. The website was visited by just under 800,000 18-24 year olds which amounts to 10% of that audience in the region. Return visits average out at over 6 implying a strong affinity with the content. This is backed up by an average dwell time of 4.5 mins which is well above FMCG norms. 78% of visitors viewed the video content (double the MSN average) which demonstrates real traction with the Pointless Fun content.

The chatter on Facebook levelled out at 19.1% - well above FMCG norms of under 5% - and also peaked during the Chicken event at 30%. Altogether the results show that Pointless Fun made a real connection with the youth audience in the region.