Nestlé: Tummy Fish
Nestlé aimed to tackle poor health in children caused by insufficient water intake and excessive sugary drinks. They sought an innovative way to encourage kids to drink more water, targeting both children and their parents to reinforce healthy daily habits.
Creative Idea
Kids cared for a digital tummy fish by drinking water, making hydration a fun game.
Nestlé's 'Tummy Fish' campaign gamified water consumption for kids by creating a digital pet that thrived on water and became sad with sugary drinks, making healthy hydration fun and rewarding to combat poor health.
The Tamagotchi That Lives in Your Belly
A Digital Window into the Stomach
To bring the Tummy Fish to life, Memac Ogilvy & Mather partnered with MediaMonks to develop a custom Augmented Reality (AR) experience. The "camera trick" required parents to hold a smartphone over their child's midriff, transforming the screen into a virtual window that revealed a 3D fish swimming inside the child's body. This visual hook was supported by a physical storybook produced by Motivate Publishing, which established the narrative of a fish accidentally swallowed who needed the child's help to survive.
Nudging Behavior Through Data
The app functioned as a sophisticated behavioral change tool based on Nudge Theory. The fish's animations were entirely data - driven; when parents logged water consumption, the character became energetic and playful. Conversely, logging sugary drinks triggered animations of the fish becoming sluggish and sad. This shifted the parental role from "nagging" to "facilitating," as children began requesting water to keep their digital pet healthy. Karine Antoniades of Nestlé noted that the initiative turned scientifically - proven behavioral principles into a fun social tool.
Scaling Across the Middle East
The campaign addressed a critical health crisis in the region, where 1 in 4 children suffered from dehydration - related issues. After a successful 2016 pilot in the UAE, the program expanded to Jordan in 2019. To mark the launch, Nestlé installed a massive, oversized version of the *Tummy Fish* book at The Children’s Museum Jordan. Through the *Ajyal Salima* nutrition program, the initiative eventually reached over 130,000 children across 130 schools, proving that a "universal truth" - that kids find water boring - could be solved through immersive storytelling.
Creative Strategy Deconstructed
Company
Nestlé leveraged its ability to create engaging, health-focused digital experiences for children and families.
Category
Health campaigns often relied on dry facts or parental nagging, failing to engage children directly in healthy habits.
Customer
Kids desired fun, interactive play and tangible rewards, while parents sought effective, easy ways to encourage healthy choices.
Culture
The cultural embrace of gamified apps and digital pets provided a familiar and appealing framework for child engagement.
Company
Nestlé leveraged its ability to create engaging, health-focused digital experiences for children and families.
Category
Health campaigns often relied on dry facts or parental nagging, failing to engage children directly in healthy habits.
Strategy:
Transform a health chore into an engaging, interactive game to foster positive habits.
Customer
Kids desired fun, interactive play and tangible rewards, while parents sought effective, easy ways to encourage healthy choices.
Culture
The cultural embrace of gamified apps and digital pets provided a familiar and appealing framework for child engagement.
Strategy:
Transform a health chore into an engaging, interactive game to foster positive habits.
Strategy Technique
Build an Utility, Not an Ad
The campaign created a functional app that served as a daily tool for kids to track water intake. It provided a direct, engaging solution to a health problem.
Explore Technique
Creative Technique
Gamification
The campaign turned water drinking into an interactive game where kids cared for a digital pet. This motivated healthy choices through rewards and immediate feedback.
Explore Technique
Craft Breakdown
This campaign's craft stands out by effectively integrating digital innovation with traditional storytelling to address a common parental concern, making healthy hydration fun and trackable for families.
The TummyFish app is the core of the campaign, brilliantly leveraging gamification and parental tracking to make drinking water an engaging and rewarding experience for children.
The narrative of the TummyFish traveling from the ocean to the child's tummy, explained through a storybook and the app, creates a relatable and imaginative world that motivates healthy behavior.
The charming and expressive animation of the TummyFish and its underwater environment in the app and book illustrations are crucial for captivating children and conveying the emotional impact of their actions.
The cohesive visual style, from the bright and welcoming home environments to the vibrant, child-friendly app interface, consistently supports the campaign's positive and nurturing message.
The campaign's strength comes from the seamless synergy between the physical storybook and the interactive digital app, creating a multi-sensory and engaging experience that reinforces healthy habits through play and parental involvement.
