Oreo wants to 'save dads' on Indonesia’s Father’s Day

Mondelez’s Oreo and the team at Publicis Groupe Indonesia have launched a campaign that looks to connect and celebrate fathers on Indonesia’s Father’s Day this year. This comes as fathers across the region are struggling to make time for these moments, said Oreo, and the brand is partnering with families to help dads rekindle their playful spirit.

The campaign sees Oreo infuse a dose of fun in the daily lives of families by spotlighting dads in their latest campaign, “Save Dads”. In current times, amidst the blurring of lines between personal and professional life, carving out valuable family connection moments has come to assume even more importance. Fathers across the region are struggling to make time for these moments, and Oreo is partnering with families to help dads rekindle their playful spirit.

“In the last two years, we have observed the playful, present Dads are becoming an endangered species. While ‘Work From Home’ has driven flexibility, it has also made everyone literally live at work,” Nikhil Rao, senior marketing director for Mondelez Southeast Asia said. He added that dads are becoming “unrecognizable” and “boring” folks who have “stopped playing”.

He said that Oreo always has tried to identify local insights or tensions to drive relevance and affinity. When the brand looked at SEA and observed the past year, it realised that families were increasingly weighed down during the work from home situation and where parents especially dads were being pulled in all directions.

“People are looking for ways to balance those responsibilities and make a little time for fun or enjoyment in life. This seems to be especially true for young parents who seek quality time with their kids. Taking forward this insight we decided to keep the spotlight on dads to drive home the importance of playful connections,” he said.

“With our "Save Dads” campaign, we are trying to encourage families to be more mindful of the blurring of work and life and set boundaries to be playful,” Rao said.

Ravi Shanker, ECD Publicis Groupe Indonesia said, “The campaign is focused on asking dads everywhere to take some time off and ‘return to play’. Understanding how Oreo can catalyse a family moment has always been part of the brand DNA and over the next few months, the Save Dads platform will bring alive this lost playful side of Dad through media partnerships and activations.

The campaign will launch across Southeast Asia early next year and is supported by on-ground and digital activations. The six markets to carry the campaign are Singapore, Vietnam, Thailand, The Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia. While some markets are going live this year, others will start in January.

Across Southeast Asia, Oreo is known for driving local relevance across SEA markets by winning in festivals such as Raya in Malaysia and Indonesia, TeT in Vietnam and Sonkgran in Thailand. Moving forward the brand will continue to build on that.

Separately, Oreo unveiled two TV spots to celebrate Ramadan and Songkran in Malaysia and Thailand respectively this year. Done in collaboration with Publicis Groupe Indonesia, the campaigns sought to build stronger local relevance in those two markets and were supported by digital activation, influencer marketing, and retail promotions. The Ramadan spot features a grandmother planning to bake a Malaysian dessert "Kek Batik", while her granddaughter suggested baking using Oreo cookies. Although the grandmother was initially reluctant, the pair ended up baking a Oreo cake. 

Meanwhile, the spot for Songkran follows a Thai family and sees them bringing the iconic Songkran water fight indoors after the mother suggested to the child to launch a sneak attack on his father. The father retaliates by dunking a Oreo cookie into a cup of milk in front of the child, which resulted in him dropping the water gun in exchange for the Oreo cookie.  

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