The Case Study: How Nestlé dealt with a social media campaign against it

The story

On March 17 2010, environmental group Greenpeace launched a social media attack on Nestlé’s Kit Kat brand.

In a YouTube video parodying the “Have a break; Have a Kit Kat” slogan, it highlighted the use of unsustainable forest clearing in production of palm oil. This is used in the Swiss food group’s products including Kit Kat.

Greenpeace had found that Nestlé was sourcing palm oil from Sinar Mas, an Indonesian supplier that it claimed was acting unsustainably. Nestlé said it used only 0.7 per cent of global palm oil.

In the video, a bored office worker bites off a finger of Kit Kat that turns out to be the bloody digit of an orang-utan, one of many species threatened by unsustainable forest clearing for palm oil.

The challenge

Nestlé’s initial response was to force the video’s withdrawal from YouTube, citing copyright. This led to a viral outbreak of criticism on social media – Facebook users, for example, were irritated by its threats to remove posts on its fan page containing Kit Kat logos that had been altered to read “Killer”.

The antipathy soon gained expression in mainstream media around the world.

After the video was withdrawn from YouTube, Greenpeace posted it on Vimeo, another social media site, where it had 78,500 views within hours; it reappeared on YouTube on March 21 and had been viewed 180,000 times overall.

The challenge for José Lopez, a senior operations manager, and his team was twofold. They had to limit the immediate damage. And in the longer term, Nestlé needed to address the palm oil sourcing issue and turn the reputational risk into an opportunity.

The strategy

Instead of trying to control social media conversations, Mr Lopez’s team had within two months adapted its approach.

First, to deal with the short-term damage, Nestlé suspended sourcing from Sinar Mas, and the company held meetings with Greenpeace in which it provided details of its palm oil supply chains.

With a focus on the longer term, Nestlé sought a credible external partner to certify the sustainability of its palm oil suppliers.

The company chose the Forest Trust, a non-profit organisation that helped the company when it came to liaising with Greenpeace as well as helping Nestlé to audit its suppliers.

In May 2010, Nestlé also joined the Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil, a partnership of companies and other parties aimed at eliminating unsustainable production.

A year later Nestlé had also changed its marketing and communications strategy by hiring Pete Blackshaw for the new post of global head of digital and social media. Mr Blackshaw, a newcomer to Nestlé, was recruited to help provide a fresh perspective.

The results

By early this year, Mr Blackshaw had set up a “digital acceleration team” as part of Nestlé’s efforts to monitor social media sentiment 24 hours a day. When the team sees problems, the communications unit co-ordinates the company’s engagement with the relevant parties, such as suppliers, campaigners, governments and consumers. In addition, Nestlé executives from across the globe visit the digital acceleration team centre at the headquarters in Switzerland, to learn about managing social media communications and digital marketing.

“On social media,” Mr Blackshaw says, “perhaps the best measure of success is the resounding sound of silence.”

On the issue of sourcing, Nestlé now has a goal of using only palm oil certified as sustainable by 2015.

The lessons

Showing leadership on sustainability is becoming a business imperative. A sustainability risk is potentially big when the whole world can find out about it overnight.

Nestlé discovered that engaging with its critics and addressing some of their concerns was more effective than trying to shut down discussion on social media.
-Financial Times, Dec 3. 2012