AI World of Lollipops

Chupa Chups is the number one lollipop brand in the UAE, bringing visual magic into kids’ lives with eye-catching candies for 50 years. While adored by children and parents, they needed a campaign that would help to protect their top spot.

With advertising guidelines prohibiting direct advertising to children in the region, as well as flashy new competitors bursting onto the scene, Chupa Chups was in danger of losing its sparkle.

Harnessing the boundless creativity of children, we recognised their imaginations as an untapped wellspring waiting to be unlocked. Allowing children to be the masters of their own imagination was our inspiration, but category challenges meant we had to get creative.

With advertising to children restricted, we needed to pivot, targeting parents as the initial audience, with the expectation that they would serve as a conduit to their children. The emergence of AI text-to-image programmes served as the inspiration for our campaign: limitless imagination meets the most advanced tech solutions.

Our AI solution needed to be a brand-safe environment for kids. With a safe and child-friendly focus at the heart of this campaign, our chosen AI programme was meticulously configured to not generate any imagery associated with 539 restricted words, ensuring a safe platform for children to express their creativity.

Capitalising on these insights, we conceived a strategy that would not only engage children, but also capture the attention of their parents. Tapping into the limitless imagination of children, we knew our campaign would act as the perfect outlet for their creative endeavours, and we empowered them to be the architects of the campaign, fostering a sense of ownership and authenticity that was by them and for them.

We needed to reach families where they were spending their time, so we turned to the most popular social media platforms in the market. Creating a destination for creativity was the goal, and prizes were the cherry on top: Chupa Chups-themed birthday parties and a grand prize trip to Disneyland Paris for the winning child and their family offered the perfect prompt for parents and children to go big and bold with their designs.

Asking children to let their imaginations run wild was our prompt to do the same. After months of testing various text-to-image models and generative AI programmes, we chose one which generated images of incredible quality at a quick enough speed to maintain a child’s interest. Once created, AI World of Lollipops sat on a bespoke branded microsite.

From a digital perspective, we focused on social platforms (META, TikTok, Snapchat) to build reach and engagement, while tapping into gaming platforms to direct traffic to the microsite, targeting players with kids.

The campaign was further supported through digital OOH elevator screens in residential buildings. Overall, the campaign ran for five weeks between September to October 2023 and featured a range of diverse creatives: teaser creatives, awareness, and call-for-entry assets to keep our communication engaging and refreshed with our audiences.