Kitchen Odyssey
Kitchen Odyssey

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Write The Future
Write The Future

Arla – The Messenger

The challenge

Launch new product Arla Skyr and build a valuable new brand that could help grow the dairy category.

What we did

Icelanders are famously tough and resourceful. And they love Skyr, which is produced following traditional Icelandic methods. Could there be a connection between the character of the Icelandic people and the nature of their favourite yogurt?

We created a TVC that showcased Icelandic pluck. It features a young telephone exchange messenger who goes to extraordinary lengths to keep his remote community connected to each other, and to the wider world.

This was followed by three short documentary films, ‘Skyr Guides’, featuring modern day Icelanders. From the doorman at the oldest bar in Reykjavik to one of Iceland’s toughest female cyclists, the friendly locals help us become more familiar with Skyr, the dairy product on which they grew up.

The effects

In its first five months on shelves 1.5 million tonnes of Arla Skyr were sold in the UK, exceeding business targets and creating a brand worth nearly £5m.

Awareness of the brand stood at 45% and over 20% of launch sales could directly be attributed to advertising (Ebiquity).

Arla skyr was voted Product of the Year 2016 (Yoghurt Category).

Today Arla Skyr is worth over £10m and sells over 6,000 tonnes a year.

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