Milo Around the World

One advertising campaign that I have always found very impressive is that of Milo – a Nestle brand milk beverage with chocolate and malt named after the Greek athlete Milo of Crotona, famous for his strength and power. The most important part of their campaign is the way they make their product seem like an inherent part of the lifestyle of their different markets.

Milo is manufactured and consumed in New Zealand, Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, China, Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Japan, Jamaica, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, Chile, Colombia, Peru, Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, Papua New Guinea, South Africa, sri Lanka, Syria, Taiwan and the UK. This essay will cover the similarities and differences in the promotion in Australia, New Zealand and Malaysia to highlight the way the marketing campaign works in different regions. In all three of these countries, citizens feel that Milo is intrinsic to them and that they are being true citizens by consuming it. The question is how exactly Milo accomplishes this in their advertising.

In New Zealand, Milo is seen as an essential part of childhood – it is a staple for every school camp, every sport event, every family camping holiday and it is a popular breakfast drink as well as a bed time snack. New Zealanders grow up with Milo in all shapes and forms – as well as the standard hot or cold Milo with milk, there are also Milo milkshakes, Milo on toast, Milo on ice cream and Milo straight from the tin on a spoon. In New Zealand, Nestle has strongly associated Milo with local, regional and international level cricket teams and local rugby and netball teams through sponsorship and promotion. These sports are very ‘Kiwi’ and are played by a large proportion of New Zealand’s young people. This fits with the overall image that they maintain which puts them as a vital part of an active, outdoors lifestyle. Their advertisements follow this by showing ‘Kiwi kids’ out and about, and refueling on Milo. Aside from the very obvious element of cricket – a popular sport in New Zealand – it also bears a little silver fern, a New Zealand icon, in the bottom left corner. Television advertisements follow the same vein with active young people living the stereotypical New Zealand lifestyle, narrated by a very strong New Zealand accent. For New Zealanders, Milo is an icon of New Zealandness.

This is where Nestle gets tricky. Australians grow up believing the exact same thing about Milo in their country. A current competition campaign asks ‘When do you Milo?’ This assumption of nationwide consumption gives Milo the status of a national icon. Australia has the advantage of actually being the original home of Milo, but they believe that Milo is a product particular to Australia. Milo is affiliated with cricket and netball at a local and regional level through sponsorship, and it supports an active lifestyle in young people. They subtly tie Milo to Australian pride in their commercials by using a lot of green and gold (Australia’s national colours) and using Australian narrators. They provide a video on their website of Vox Pops asking ‘When do Aussies drink Milo?’ and the interviewees wear green and gold, drape the Australian flag around themselves, have Australian flag transfers on their faces, speak in strong accents and are outside, being active and enjoying the sweet Australian sunshine. And all these fiercely proud and stereotypical Australians love Milo.

To contrast with Australia and New Zealand’s use of Milo, I looked at Malaysia, the country with the highest Milo consumption in the world. They, too, focus on the idea of an active lifestyle, but the sports they promote are popular Malaysian sports – football, fencing and hidup bola. There is also heavy emphasis on traditionally desirable characteristics in Asians and how sport and Milo can help develop these in children. There is a definite feeling of national pride in Milo consumption, and the website even claims that ‘it was MILO® that coined the nation’s battle cry "Malaysia Boleh!" and kindled the national spirit of achieving the impossible.’ A television commercial for Milo in Malaysia features young people engaging in sports like diving, bowling, badminton and gymnastics – all sports for which Malaysia is known - and more importantly, there is a large group of children unfurling a huge Malaysian flag. Milo did not even reach Malaysia until 1950, but they have adopted it as a drink of national pride in the same way as New Zealand and Australia.

The websites for the three countries are very similar – they all bear the signature green colour and the Milo logo, and show children being active. The similarities make it a recognisable brand, no matter where you are in the world, but it is the differences that make it such a success in the countries in which it is available. By actively supporting sports that are important to the different nations, they are integrating themselves at a grassroots level, and this integration filters upwards into higher levels of sports, and outwards into other aspects of life. They constantly reference icons and ideas of nationality in their advertisements which makes them seem like an integral part of national pride. They implement small but key details, for example, on the Australian website a recipe calls for ‘reduced fat milk’, but the New Zealand equivalent requires ‘trim milk’. This attention to detail and representations of national pride gives Milo its status as the drink of choice for New Zealand, Australia and Malaysia, as well as several other countries around the world.

Nestlé’s Milo campaign is incredibly successful because it integrates itself at a basic level of society and works with communities in its target market. By making itself synonymous with sports and active leisure it becomes a natural choice for people who want to be a part of that lifestyle and is the first thing people reach for – for themselves or their children. It also becomes an icon of home, and something that is, to the consumer, inherently ‘Kiwi’, ‘Aussie’ or ‘Malay’.