Who: Campbell Company of Canada, with Zulu Alpha Kilo for strategy and creative (The French Shop for Quebec); Merchant for production (directed by Jason Jeffrey); post-production by Darling Colour & VFX, Berkeley Inc., and Metaverse Architects; media by Spark Foundry and PR by Proof Strategies.
What: “Mega Bites,” a humorous ad campaign for new larger Goldfish crackers featuring a robot who is fine with megabytes, but not Mega Bites.
When & Where: The campaign includes three online video ads, along with other social assets on Meta, Snapchat and TikTok. There’s also a 3D digital billboard. (More on that below.)
Why: Campbell is hoping to put Goldfish crackers in the homes of more adults with its new Mega Bites, which are 50% larger than regular Goldfish.
“Knowing we were entering a cluttered category in the adult cracker space, we needed to break through while being clear about our product benefits,” said Paloma Bentes, marketing director, snacks at Campbell Company of Canada. “The robot character was the perfect foil to introduce Mega Bites in a playful and memorable way, and we saw in focus groups that the humour resonated.”
How: In the three video spots, the robot is shown on a stage, warning a room full of robots about the crackers. He explains how a feature that would appeal to humans—such as jaw-dropping flavour—is a problem for robots, so they shouldn’t be confused with megabytes. In two of the ads he tries the crackers and malfunctions, while in a third he stops a computer mouse from eating Mega Bites.
The robot represents the playful spirit of Goldfish, but with humour intended for a more adult audience, said Brian Murray, executive creative director at Zulu Alpha Kilo, in the release. “To catch consumers’ attention, instead of showing a typical bite-and-smile moment, we decided to show a bite-and-head-exploding moment,” he said. “Also, anyone who sees the campaign will never forget the name of the product.”
The 3D billboard: We know forced perspective 3D billboards have become fairly common since that cat billboard in Japan went viral, but we still think they’re super cool. In this case, the Astral Media billboard in Yonge-Dundas Square retains the same conceit of the video ads, with the robot breaking out of the billboard to grab a Mega Bite and then malfunctioning after popping it in his mouth.
