Nutri-Grain drops ‘Iron Man Food’ line to reposition brand as ‘Unstoppable’ via JWT
Iconic cereal brand Nutri-Grain has launched a new content-led campaign, targeting teens. Created by JWT Sydney in conjunction with partners Finch, Mindshare, Liquid Ideas, and VML, the campaign repositions the brand from ‘Iron Man Food’ to launch a powerful, belief-based brand purpose which celebrates individuals who live unstoppable lives.
Centred around ‘unstoppable’ individuals, each inspiring story showcases the Nutri-Grain brand values of courage, strength and determination, and dramatises a new brand belief that ‘the only limits are those you place on yourself’.
The campaign spans long and short form content, supported by TVCs, digital, online, PR and social executions. Reflecting the insight that teens want to live full lives – but are increasingly held back by emotional, social or physical barriers that stop them following through – the campaign’s core content was created by JWT and independent production company Finch.
Says John Broome, marketing director at Kellogg: “This is an important piece of work for Kellogg. JWT have created a new strategic and creative platform, which delivers a major foray into branded content. Nutri- Grain is a power brand that needs to stay relevant to teens, so we wanted to inspire them by bringing to life powerful stories of individuals who have shown courage, strength and determination – even in the face of adversity.”
The first ‘unstoppable’ hero in the content series is Brazilian Derek Rabelo, who despite being blind, has learnt to surf. The story of how Derek refused to be held back – from dreaming as he listened to the waves, to the reality of surfing the legendary and extremely dangerous Pipeline break in Hawaii – is the subject of the campaign launch executions in both long and short-form content pieces. They also revealed Derek’s latest challenge as he takes up the intensely challenging sport of downhill skateboarding. More ‘unstoppable stories’ are in production and will be live over the coming weeks.
Says JWT executive planning director Angela Morris: “It’s a big responsibility to reposition an iconic brand and Nutri-Grain needed to reconnect with an audience that’s been pretty indifferent to cereal advertising. Moving to a belief based platform gives the brand reason and right to shift away from talking at them from the breakfast table and instead to have a more meaningful and relevant dialogue in the teen’s world.”
The first content piece launches today and is supported by a range of pre-rolls, on pack activity and a TVC which goes live on Sunday, February 25. Social activity will also be undertaken by VML to drive awareness and generate discussion among teens using the hashtag #liveunstoppable.
Says Simon Langley, ECD of JWT Sydney: “This is truly a big idea that gives the brand a new role in teens’ lives. Beyond making it relevant, it’s an idea that makes this a brand they will want to spend time with. In doing so, we have changed every element of the mix, from positioning, to pack, to new iconography around the Nutri- Grain bolt, and the whole communications model with the move into content publishing, all carefully honed to earn teen attention and engagement.”
To accompany the TV and digital launch, Nutri-Grain is also holding a major event at Manly from 12-15 February as part of its sponsorship of the Australian Open of Surfing (AOS). As the official breakfast cereal of the AOS, Nutri-Grain will be showing Derek’s documentary at a pop-up cinema on Manly beach. Derek is also meeting Aussie fans and taking to the water at Manly Beach today, in an expression session with other Nutri- Grain surfing ambassadors including Ellie-Jean Coffey, Holly Coffey, Jackson Coffey, Kyuss King and Alex Hayes.
Sponsorship and event elements were created and executed by Mindshare and Liquid Ideas. Mindshare has also activated a broadcast sponsorship on MCN.
The campaign launch coincides with the release last week of a national study by Nutri-Grain in conjunction with ReachOut.com, which showed that Aussie teens are great at setting goals – they just have a lot on their plate and need some support and inspiration to achieve them. According to the findings, one in five Aussie teens (19 percent) said there’s nobody in their lives who inspired them and only 45 percent said they’re optimistic about their future.
Creative and Strategy
ECD: Simon Langley
ACD/Writer: Will Edwards
ACD/Art Director: Chris Badger
Head of Broadcast: Amanda Slatyer
Executive Planning Director: Angela Morris
Senior Planner: Jim Schuch
Group Account Director: Fiona Wilson
Account Manager: Jessica Mitchell
Production Company: Finch
Media, Sponsorship and Digital: Mindshare
Digital Activation: VML
Public Relations: Liquid Ideas
Packaging design: Loop Brands
25 Comments
It’s a poor attempt at making Nutri Grain the Red Bull of cereal.
I give that strategy less than a year. Then the Kellogg account goes to Burnett’s.
Great stuff. Well done.
How does cereal have a new role in teen’s lives? And how do you engage with cereal apart from eating it?
Good stuff guys. My hat goes off to you. Beautiful story-telling.
Joe Hockey’s spin doctors could have have done a better job.
Cool story.
Engaging story, well told.
A quantum leap for Kellogg’s, good stuff.
Why do people take pride in stripping brands of equities and meaning.
Even worse replacing them with generic unownable lines
This stuff is irresponsible.
The creative agency should have pushed back.
Alternatively unstoppable is a broader, more emotive articulation that has more scope for creativity. Well done everyone this stuff is well considered and captivating.
Sales x price paid will tell.
What has this got to do with the food? Where’s the benefit and link? How does this convince mums to buy it? What’s a nighttime event got to do with a morning routine? Work like this sums up everything wrong with planning today. Wide of the mark, tragically self absorbed and academic insights.
Dropping a unique and renowned line that is intrinsically linked to decades’ worth of brand heritage, and replacing it with a generic marketing adjective with the justification being that ‘we can execute this a thousand different ways for years to come!’. Only to find that the bland shite that falls out of it is the same bland shite that everyone else is making based upon their keyword-based marketing pillars.
The future of Australian advertising, brought to you by marketers who would have done less damage if they’d opted for the teaching degree instead.
A breath of fresh air. Nicely done lads.
Bitter old, competing advertisers criticising the really revolutionary work of an agency. How expired. This is truly wonderful.
like it alot Langa’s. tops. although i look forward to not having a bowl of that sugary stuff tomorrow morning
“Life’s short and you don’t want to miss a minute. With so much on your plate, we have just what you need to keep you living life to the full”
Westpac – Unstoppable You.
What the hell is going on here? People other than myself expressing well thought-out critical views expressed in clear, well-argued articulate English! That’s me done then.
What about a girl who overcomes Ebola in Sierra Leone.
What about a boy with no arms in Syria who takes up arms (pun intended) to fight ISIS.
What about an ex-ice addict in Sydney who becomes an Executive Creative Director (Worldwide) of an international award winning agency in New York and finds a cure for cancer.
Why not unite India and Pakistan through the the magic of cereal…
Ignore the haters, we know who they are. Well done Kellogg’s for having the guts to try something new. Can’t wait for the next one.
Yeah it’s kind of cool, as a subject, especially the crazy skating bit. But really come on – as a piece of work in its own right, its superficial, boring and not very insightful. So, it’s just an ad, and as such it’s kind of patronising and self important. And particularly since it’s selling an unhealthy breakfast cereal (that is not available in Brazil), it just makes a pretty amazing guy seem… well, a bit cheap. Which is a shame since Derek Rabelo is so much more inspiring than the medium or the message he’s been dragged into. Ah, “Branded Content” – stories suborned and badly told? Apparently unstoppable, though.
Really nice work.
Well done Will and Badge.
What a great trip and story to bring home.
Dropping Iron Man and expensive mistake.
Utterly woeful. It’s a beautiful story and well crafted but as a strategy for convincing parents to buy a sugar laced cereal for teens? Total failure. To say there is an indifference towards cereal advertising is moronic. The indifference is towards the boxed cereal category. And this does nothing to change that. None of this is helped by the fact the product remains unchanged which is extraordinary in itself.
This will go down in planning text books as what not to do with an iconic brand.
‘Another Planner’ if you have such harsh views and are so open to slam a complete stranger why don’t you come out with your real name. This is not a platform for bashing each other, we should be supporting our industry not berating it.
I’ve worked on Kellogg’s in a couple of different markets, and I take my hat off to this work. Well done on getting it through the system and ending up with a great campaign.
Nice to see a giant like Kellogg’s going outside the box