Campaign Trail is our evaluation of a few of the very best latest creative efforts from the marketing world. View past columns within the archives here.
At most QSR chains, drinking a beverage entails filling up a cup with a fountain soda or the odd iced tea and lemonade. Almost at all times, this decision means choosing from a menu provided by considered one of two soft-drink behemoths. Yet whilst consumers increasingly hunt down more organic, better-for-you options on their plates, they have not had the identical selections for his or her glasses.
Tractor Beverage Company has worked to vary that since its founding in 2014. The first and only certified organic, non-GMO full-line beverage solution for foodservice, Tractor provides its line of refreshers, lemonades and craft sodas to just about 6,000 locations — including Chipotle, PLNT Burger and Kevin Hart’s Hart House — across the U.S.
But making inroads in foodservice has not been easy, especially with most chains locked into long-term contracts with either Coca-Cola or PepsiCo. To achieve this, Tractor decided to take its message on to consumers with its first ad campaign.
“No corporations have really challenged the monoliths of Big Red and Big Blue in foodservice, and never many corporations have endeavored to create a consumer brand from a foodservice footprint,” said Tractor’s Chief Brand Officer Justin Herber. “We needed to … really create a consumer story and a breakthrough if we will create a resonant brand.”
For its pursuit, Tractor enlisted Progress Studios, a latest agency created with progressive challenger brands in mind, to craft a campaign that launched July 10 with a national presence across connected TV, digital streaming, cinema and out-of-home.
Central to the hassle is “Escape the Ordinary,” a hand-drawn hero spot that follows an anthropomorphic cup of ice that dreams of fertile fields and fresh ingredients but is restricted to 4 neon-colored soft drinks — Burpz Mega, Zoink’d, Joy Joy Lite and Exxxtra Swole — belonging to Glugopoly, a fictional company with taglines “The only alternative” and “Don’t think, just drink!” The 90-second ad follows the cup of ice because it makes its way through a dystopian assembly line but is capable of escape its fountain fate by throwing a mint in a Burpz cola and riding the bottle through the smoggy skies to the farmland utopia of its fantasies.
For Tractor, “Escape the Ordinary” is the culmination of a method crafted around connecting with its goal consumers — the individuals who get a water cup at a restaurant or reach for kombucha at a retail location — but with the sort of “lightning strike moment” that it requires as a small company without the large ad budget of its competitors.
As Herber put it: “How are we actually going to create work that articulates our worth proposition and what we’re up against as a small brand attempting to break through in an industry that is dominated by monolithic forces? How will we get people to know that and the way will we get people to care about that?”
A hero’s — and consumer’s — journey
An evaluation of Tractor’s goal consumers focused on individuals with a pre-industrial food ideology who avoid over-processed foods and hunt down organic options. These folks are also dubious about institutional considering and do not like being spun by big corporations in the shape of greenwashing. To connect with these consumers, Tractor and Progress Studios opted for a narrative-driven ad that follows a conventional three-act hero’s journey and appears to Apple’s iconic “1984” ad, Chipotle’s “Back to the Start” work and Ikea’s Spike Jonze-directed “Lamp” business for inspiration.
“Let’s tell the story of a cup that ought to truly embody the patron journey and the alternatives that they are being forced to make,” Herber said. “The initial transient was a cup who’s on the lookout for something good.”
To execute the transient, the brand and agency teamed with director Andy Baker and production studio Hornet who presented a pointy, subversive approach to create a spot that’s humorous and farcical. Together, the businesses launched into the sort of world-building reserved for fantasy and sci-fi TV shows, going so far as to craft taglines and positioning for Glugopoly’s fictional brands.
“It was a tremendously collaborative effort. At every turn, every animator, every copywriter, everyone that touched it leaned in to make it essentially the most resonant story possible,” Herber said. “We weren’t attempting to make a business, we’re attempting to construct a narrative.”
An organic approach
The final result is a gorgeously hand-drawn animated short that might resonate with each a Gen X audience raised on MTV staples like “Beavis and Butthead” and Radiohead’s “Paranoid Android” video and a Gen Z audience weaned on “Adult Swim” and “Rick and Morty.” Plus, the deeply detailed world each provides Easter eggs that encourage rewatching and permit for the brand to comment on culture without the same old hallmarks of organic-minded marketing.
“There’s a lot great work occurring within the sustainability space and organic space, but I believe some people get bored with the message and feeling like every decision they’ve is a life or death decision,” Herber explained. “We desired to make something that was really fun and joyous that might even be shared, and that folks can really relate to, fairly than delivering a message solely across the proposition of organic and the great that it does for the environment.”
Adding to the mood and messaging is the ad’s soundtrack, a canopy of Duran Duran’s ’90s hit “Ordinary World” — licensed for business use for the primary time — by singer-songwriter Valerie June. While the song wasn’t the team’s first alternative, lyrics like “Papers within the roadside / Tell of suffering and greed” that give approach to “As I attempt to make my way / To the strange world / I’ll learn to survive” prove fitting for the spot, as does June’s approach, which sees the song — just like the ad — evolve from dystopian to joyful, explained Paul Schmidt, managing director at Progress Studios.
“There are folks that could make commercials really quickly — this was not considered one of those projects,” Schmidt said. “It’s a really artistic brand and it was a really artistic approach, and in addition a really organic approach,” from the hand-drawn animation and the folksy soundtrack to the campaign’s media plan.
“It’s counterintuitive that you just lead with a 90-second ad in today’s media landscape versus a six or a 15, but we’re seeing completion rates which are crazy off the charts… something like 60% on the 90s,” Schmidt said. “[Consumers] understand the complex message here. It’s not only this easy cartoon.”
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