This is the story of how Tazz, the only local player on the food delivery market in Romania, correlated app data, data from Chefs and behavioural data from an own study regarding cooking and created a real-time formula to show men the time women spend in the kitchen for the so called "cooking out of love".

Results? An emotional experiment on Women’s Day that put on the table a different perspective and sent people to "Thank you" app section generating sold out sales in sweets and flowers and a 70% growth on Gross Merchandise Value vs. same period last year.

Once the inflation hit, the no.1 saving method of Romanians was to cook at home instead of ordering or going out.

In Romania, cooking means showing affection towards the loved ones. A Tazz study revealed that almost half of Romanians spent the equivalent of an extra working day a week, cooking.

Who was cooking? 53% women, 28% both, 5% men. So, women were, in this context, under the pressure to cook both due to cultural and financial factors.

Tazz, a progressive and rebellious brand, constantly shaking up cliches, aimed to start a sensitive and much-needed conversation, to make the invisible efforts made by women every day, visible in a very clear, data-driven way.

On Women’s Day, we decided to “attack” the cultural norms and make men assume women's efforts in the kitchen, in order to make them get more involved in dividing cooking tasks and showing appreciation.

Being such a sensitive topic and considering the cultural complexity of the theme and the emotional involvement that Romanians prove towards food and cooking, our strategy was to go against the cultural norms by data and offer people an honest and transparent interpretation of what women’s efforts mean.

The big idea was to create a real-time formula that calculates the time spent by women to cook their loved one’s favorite dishes over the years and have an experiment-type of content surprising men reaction when they realise the effort in figures. Yes, you love that cake she cooks for you, but do you know how many years of her time it took?

Besides the content, we introduced a "Thank you" section in Tazz app, with flowers and gifts and free delivery for all the men who acknowledged the women's efforts to show appreciation.

Two key elements of our strategy were:

- the creation of the real time formula based on data

- the way we presented it for maximum emotional impact

In creating the formula, we correlated:

- data from consumers regarding their preferences and habits of cooking and eating

- data from Chefs (the average time of cooking a certain dish)

- for how many years has she (the woman in your life) been cooking that dish for you

In terms of how we delivered the message, our strategy was to have a real-time testing of the formula, through a transparent content, in which we would expose men to the calculation and see how they react to the figures and facts that would be generated. In terms of casting, the selected men had to be from fields and generations as diverse as possible, in order to have an inclusive approach.

Once we created the formula:

cooking habits +

+ favourite dish average cooking time

+ multiplied with years she has been cooking that dish for you,

on Women’s Day (8th of March), we invited 8 men from different regions, backgrounds and generations and, based on the data provided in real time by them, we applied the formula and showed how many days, months and even years the women in their lives spent to show them love and care by cooking their favorite dish.

At first, we simply showed them the figures without telling them what they represented and asked the men what they would have used that time for. None of them said cooking for the loved one.

In addition to the emotional reaction that the data triggered when we revealed what projected figures represented, the math behind marked a first step in changing the perception by opening the conversation.

Men involved in experiment changed the way they look at cooking, being more conscious about the effort and eager to show appreciation & participate in the process.

Flowers form "Thank you" app section were sold out. In one city even in less than an hour.

Versus last year Women's Day:

• +66% more flowers and sweets were sold

• Recorded a Gross Merchandise Value increase of 70%

Almost 1 MIL Reach on the Video Content, of which more than half was organic.

• Earned Media: 544K Organic Reach on TV (two appearances on most watched TV channels in Romania), Online Press articles and Social Media shares.

• On Tazz’s SoMe channels: Over 417K total reach.

Besides these results, the biggest win for Tazz was that, in a heavily-promotional period, it managed to maintain an approach true to its brand DNA and daring enough to spark a progressive conversation.

With a score of 54.5 out of 100, Romania ranks 25th in the EU in terms of the gender equality index. Its score is 12.9 lower than that of the European Union. Romania is advancing towards gender equality at a slower pace than other EU member states, most people considering that the ideal woman prototype is the housewife (63%).

Another aspect is the religious one - according to the last census made out by the Government of Romania, Orthodox believers represent 86.5% of the population, and most of the sermons emphasize a female-male hierarchy.

Taking these aspects into account, starting a talk on gender equality and sharing household responsibilities (including cooking) was an extremely sensitive topic for a brand to address - even in 2023.