United Biscuits is aiming to replicate the success of its McVitie’s Sweeet campaign when it kicks off a new “emotional” marketing push for Jacobs later this month.
UB wants the new campaign, called Crackin’, to transition Jacobs from functional to emotional communication - meaning the adverts will be based around how the products make consumers feel, rather than what they do.
The first two instalments of the multi-ad campaign, for Cream Crackers and Mini Cheddars, will debut at the end of this month. A third, for Cracker Crisps, will follow in April. Each ad depicts its protagonist in a moment of abandon, lip-syncing to a pop hit.
Savoury biscuits have grown in popularity as a snack, as consumers seek healthier alternatives to crisps, leading to products such as Cracker Crisps launched last May.
“We tried to peel back another couple of layers of the onion about what people think about savoury snacks,” said director of savoury brands Ted Linehan. “We found they provided real satisfaction for consumers.”
He added lip-syncing was a “metaphor” for that emotion, in the same way the animals in the hugely popular McVitie’s Sweeet push were intended to represent the way sweet biscuits make people feel.
The savoury biscuits category grew by 3% to £446.5m last year, while sweet biscuits declined [Nielsen 52 w/e 17 October 2015]. Category leader Jacobs was up by 3.4% year on year to £66m; Linehan said he was targeting mid-single digit growth this year.
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