The team's main insight was that Candy's most important issue was poor or non-existent relationships with its customers (core: 25-49, active). The client agreed that the longer it would take them to solve the issue, the more painful the cure would have to be. The primary objective was therefore to boost awareness of the brand among the core target while promoting the brand's main communication theme: the Candy Cool Attitude. The communication programme was used as a vehicle to do just that under various guises and through various channels.

Candy had run no advertising in France in 2000 and 2001 and had no plans to do so for the following year. So Mediaedge:cia realised that unless it came up with something really outstanding the brand would gradually sink into oblivion. The 'rescue team' created an overall plan based on the second series of Le Loft (the Gallic version of Big Brother) and brought the creative agency on board when it was time to shoot the commercials.

The radical nature of this campaign arose not from choosing Le Loft as a sponsorship vehicle, but from using it in a distinctive way and building a specific combination of media connections around it to enhance the brand strategy. For a start, buying airtime in regular breaks to run a daily competition with different content every day was a first in France. Furthermore for a brand to invest not just a little extra money but the whole of its communication budget was an act of great marketing bravery. And the results were just amazing.