Shreddies: from one to many
Momentum, in fact, was a powerful driver in an Ogilvy/Toronto campaign that started with an intern in the creative department and ended up as a viral video with 800,000 views ("a lot for Canada," said Lazarus.)
Shreddies was a 67-year-old cereal that needed a brand refresher. "You've all heard it before and, in fact, you all can probably write the brief," Lazarus told the ad:tech audience. "We needed to do something interesting. And we had to do it in a fresh, unique way."
Enter a summer intern who was handed the assignment of taking a look at the box copy. And who, in fact, failed in that assignment by taking the assignment a step further by rotating the even-sided breakfast on its end - converting a square into a diamond.
"It became an immediate hit," Lazarus continued. The agency's creative team immediately recognized an idea bigger than box copy and ran with it. Diamond Shreddies were launched in much the same way that the agency would introduce a new product.
The agency posted a viral video of a supposed focus-group session (in fact, the moderator was a sponsor) while billboards echoed the idea of "Diamond Shreddies." The brand's president posted his own video addressing the controversy between the traditional square-shaped product and the upstart diamonds.
"Can you have more fun?" Lazarus asked. "It captured the imagination of the whole country. There were newspaper reviews of Diamond Shreddies. 81 Facebook groups popped up. The company got hundreds of letters, some of them asking how it managed to come up with such great new ideas. Someone actually wrote to complain that his box of Diamond Shreddies only contained 50 percent of the new design."
Supported by a word-of-mouth frenzy, sales for the brand jumped 20 percent in a matter of weeks. "A 67-year-old brand seemed an unlikely candidate for a viral campaign," Lazarus continued. "But this seemed to strike a chord. Or maybe a funny bone."
Digital tools brought to bear by a traditional agency resulted in a major marketing innovation for a brand that had held little consumer interest for decades. And, what about that unhappy customer who griped that he only got half his fair share of Diamond Shreddies? From the Ogilvy new-product development team, yet another launch: The Combo Pack.
Momentum, in fact, was a powerful driver in an Ogilvy/Toronto campaign that started with an intern in the creative department and ended up as a viral video with 800,000 views ("a lot for Canada," said Lazarus.)
Shreddies was a 67-year-old cereal that needed a brand refresher. "You've all heard it before and, in fact, you all can probably write the brief," Lazarus told the ad:tech audience. "We needed to do something interesting. And we had to do it in a fresh, unique way."
Enter a summer intern who was handed the assignment of taking a look at the box copy. And who, in fact, failed in that assignment by taking the assignment a step further by rotating the even-sided breakfast on its end - converting a square into a diamond.
"It became an immediate hit," Lazarus continued. The agency's creative team immediately recognized an idea bigger than box copy and ran with it. Diamond Shreddies were launched in much the same way that the agency would introduce a new product.
The agency posted a viral video of a supposed focus-group session (in fact, the moderator was a sponsor) while billboards echoed the idea of "Diamond Shreddies." The brand's president posted his own video addressing the controversy between the traditional square-shaped product and the upstart diamonds.
"Can you have more fun?" Lazarus asked. "It captured the imagination of the whole country. There were newspaper reviews of Diamond Shreddies. 81 Facebook groups popped up. The company got hundreds of letters, some of them asking how it managed to come up with such great new ideas. Someone actually wrote to complain that his box of Diamond Shreddies only contained 50 percent of the new design."
Supported by a word-of-mouth frenzy, sales for the brand jumped 20 percent in a matter of weeks. "A 67-year-old brand seemed an unlikely candidate for a viral campaign," Lazarus continued. "But this seemed to strike a chord. Or maybe a funny bone."
Digital tools brought to bear by a traditional agency resulted in a major marketing innovation for a brand that had held little consumer interest for decades. And, what about that unhappy customer who griped that he only got half his fair share of Diamond Shreddies? From the Ogilvy new-product development team, yet another launch: The Combo Pack.
No comments:
Post a Comment