Ask someone in their twenties what a trade union is and you’ll often get a hesitant answer: something to do with work, something about a collective labor agreement. For CNV, that’s a problem, because the union needs young members to remain future-proof and grow. The brief: conceive and develop an always-on campaign that reaches young professionals aged 25 to 35 through online advertising. We came up with Workaholic 0.0: a real, produced drink that makes you aware of your rights for a better work-life balance. A concept built on insights and trends from the (culture of the) younger target audience. From strategy to editing, we created all the content ourselves, using actors, AI, and UGC creators. Result: a 36% thruplay rate on Meta, where similar campaigns hover around 9%.
Our approach
The idea
CNV wants more young members. But how do you ask someone to pay for something they don't understand? CNV's topics are actually highly relevant to this group; young workers just don't know why they should join a union or what’s in it for them. There is a lot to communicate, but it has to be done in a way that keeps the target audience watching.
CNV has been working with us on this challenge for years. Our starting point: reach the target audience with a theme they recognize, at the right moment in the customer journey, and in a way that stands out significantly.
The strategy
In a session with CNV and our creatives, we dove into what’s on the minds of young professionals. We reached a conclusion together: work-life balance is hyper-relevant. Work is always in your pocket, ambition and social pressure make working overtime the norm, and many young people see work pressure as their own personal problem. They often don't realize they have rights and influence over employment terms. And bringing it up with your employer feels like a major hurdle.
At the same time, 'workaholic' is a normalized term among young people: being busy, working overtime, and always being reachable is the biggest work struggle for many of them. That’s where the idea came from: combine two worlds that normally have nothing to do with each other. The 0.0 trend is popular among the target audience, just like work pressure. So we asked ourselves: what if there were a 0.0 alternative to workaholism?
That’s how we created Workaholic 0.0, made by CNV. For those who take work seriously, and free time too. Ingredients include the right to disconnect, working fewer hours, flexibility, and more security. On the label: stress level 0.0, burnout risk negligible, suitable for work hours only. The concept works because it stands out, is new, and feels like a real product. And it allows us to share CNV’s core message in a lighthearted way.
UGC: the bottle in the hands of creators
We actually had the bottle produced. This allowed us to use it in our own content, but also to distribute it to UGC creators, who made their own videos with it: such as unboxings and red-flag alerts. User-generated content (videos by real creators in their own style) is currently very effective in the market because it feels like a recommendation rather than an advertisement. These specific videos earned CNV many new followers on TikTok.
The process
We did everything ourselves: from marketing flow and customer journey to concept, preparation, filming, editing, and delivery.
- Customer journey as a foundation: three phases (reach, engagement, and conversion), each with its own message and formats.
- Building blocks per video: a strong hook in the first few seconds, dynamic camerawork with wide-angle, close-ups, and product tracking, and a bold, nonchalant tone of voice that resonates with 25- to 35-year-olds.
- Designing a fresh campaign style and the product: bottle, label, ingredients, and 'nutritional values' as a vehicle for the rights that CNV stands for.
- On-location shoots with actors: a hero video in which a colleague hands out Workaholic 0.0 to the yes-man, the overworker, and the always-on employee, plus shorter variations.
- Testing hooks: multiple opening shots per video, so we can see per platform which start retains the most viewers.
- UGC creators: sending the actual bottle to creators, who used it to make their own content.
- AI visuals and videos: additional visuals for the conversion phase, to quickly vary and test.
- Editing and delivery: all content in the formats required by the platforms, ready for the always-on layer.
What's next
The sequel is already in the works. Workaholic 0.0 is coming in cans, and those cans are being produced and distributed on a large scale. In addition, we are giving the concept an extra spin. We are collaborating with an artist and writing our own songs about Workaholic 0.0.
Our takeaway for you
- Think outside-in. Do it with someone outside your organization and step into the shoes of your target audience.
- Combine worlds. Something new often emerges where two things that don't usually belong together meet.
- Test formats and keep learning. Actors, AI, and UGC perform differently on every platform. By varying your approach, you see what works.
Resultaten door onze experts
