At last, the secret is out! The winner of the Close Up “The Big Vote” marketing campaign to choose the new flavour to join the Close Up range is “Lychee.”
“Close Up” held an election celebration at Al Shalal Theme park and Ice Rink in Jeddah on 21 September 2006 with the cooperation of the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce (JCCI) that received high presence from the youth public and great media attendance.
“It’s a significant moment in marketing vote campaign,” said Ahmad Osilan, Close Up brand manager for the GCC. “Close Up posed the question, the public answered in large numbers and the new flavour is now in the range. The idea of responding to our consumers’ demands has just stepped up a gear. They really called the tune on this one!”
The “Big Vote” campaign was supported by huge promotion campaign, in stores, on TV and radio that triggered the interest of more than 60,000 votes across the GCC to make the choice of which toothpaste should become a permanent feature of the Close Up range and more than one million tube was sold.
The celebration had the atmosphere of a huge party with welcoming the people by serving chocolates and fruits. The fun continued with final elections. The competing flavours, portrayed by costumed actors, each revealing vote speech for election announcing its benefits and encouraging votes from the thousands of guests. The celebration was accompanied by a thrilling sound and light show with ice skaters exhorting the public to join in and vote which they did enthusiastically.
After the votes were counted, Lychee was announced the winner, then Close Up with the supervision of the JCCI conducted a prize draw amongst the voters for the winning variant, the prizes included; a return flight ticket to Malaysia, to experience the real Lychee fruit, mobile phones and 10 iPods and gifts were distributed to all.
“The idea of a public vote was distinguished,” confirmed Mr. Omar bin Salem Al-Hibshi, commercial services specialist at the JCCI “Close Up came up with a stunning and comparable idea and the public got engaged from kick off, to voting in supermarkets, SMS messages and through the internet to this superb ending.”
Al-Hibshi added that for the first time ever the public had a real input on a decision of which product they wanted to see in the market.
“We wanted to inject an element of fun into a necessary but essentially boring experience,” said Osailan. “Brushing your teeth has NEVER been this much fun!”
Osailan thanked the participants who played an effective role in expanding Close Up toothpaste collection and thanked the public for their response to the campaign saying that without them it simply would not have happened. “It was really heartening to see their enthusiasm inspired us all.”
The new Lychee flavour is now part of the Close Up family and will be permanently on shelves from now onwards.
