pladis-owned snacks brand McVitie’s is running an interactive experience to back its ‘Sweeter Together’ Masterbrand advertising and marketing campaign. In keeping with the TV ad, featuring a crane driver, the Sweeter Together Challenge requires two consumers to work together to operate a model crane to grab a giant McVitie’s ‘prize’ Nibble, to instantly win prizes that are ‘sweeter when enjoyed together’.

pladis has appointed promotional marketing agency whynot! think people to deliver the interactive challenge, which will be appearing at Westfield Stratford City between until April 23rd April. It then moves to the Manchester Arndale Centre between April 25th and May 1st before finishing at the Cardiff St. David’s mall from May 4th to 7th. It will also be appearing at key London railway stations, including Waterloo, Paddington, Victoria and Euston.

The activity, which will also see the distribution of 800,000 samples of the  Nibbles product, is part of the re-launch of the McVitie’s brand, which is being backed with a £12m multi-media Masterbrand campaign, exploring the importance of real human connections and showing how the simple act of sharing a biscuit has the power to bring people together. It launched in mid March with the 60-second animated TV ad, titled ‘Crane’, showing a tower crane operator going about his work dozens of metres above the ground. Below him, he sees his colleagues enjoying the camaraderie of a tea break, complete with McVitie’s biscuits. He waves but is not seen.

As the day wears on, the operator becomes gloomy, craving some company – even if it’s only from passing birds. When he is convinced that everyone’s forgotten about him he gets a surprise: the latest steel beam he lifts has been loaded with a cup of tea and some McVitie’s biscuits. He looks down and sees his colleagues waving and smiling at him and his mood instantly lifts. The ad ends with a simple message: “Sometimes the little things are actually the really big things”.

A second TV ad will air later this year. Social and in-store activity also features as part of the integrated campaign.

Sarah Heynen, Marketing Vice President, pladis UK & Ireland, says: “whynot! think people have done an incredible job of bringing both the fun sharing attributes of Nibbles, and our Sweeter Together campaign, to life.  The challenge element physically executes our new brand purpose – enabling everyday moments of real human connections. We are confident that this brand experience will tap into our consumers’ love for our brands as well as supporting our efforts to drive penetration and repeat purchase of our Nibbles range.”

David Ryan, Creative Director, whynot! think people, adds: “Our Nibble twist on the iconic crane game is the perfect fit for a legendary brand such as McVitie’s. The Sweeter Together Challenge brings to life the new brand purpose, not only visually but by bringing people together to enjoy moments of sharing, the sweet spot for Nibbles.”

The Sweeter Together Challenges will be filmed and edited, with content featuring on outward facing TV screens at the events, as well as being used as part of a social media campaign to amplify the activation, extending campaign reach and driving footfall to future events.

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pladis-owned snacks brand McVitie’s has launched a brand-new Masterbrand campaign, ‘Sweeter Together’. The campaign explores the importance of real human connections and shows how the simple act of sharing a biscuit has the power to bring people together.

The £9.7m campaign launches with a TV ad campaign bringing to life the significant role the humble biscuit plays in everyday lives. A second ad will air later this year. Social and in-store activity will also feature as part of this integrated campaign.

As part of the launch, a major in-store promotion will be running across all McVitie’s Biscuits. Consumers will have the opportunity to win prizes including dream family holidays, weekend breaks and family days out. To enter, shoppers must buy any packet of McVitie’s biscuits and text ‘SWEETERTOGETHER’ to 66644 to find out if they have won.

The 60-second animated TV ad, titled ‘Crane’, shows a tower crane operator going about his work dozens of metres above the ground. Below him, he can see his colleagues enjoying the camaraderie of a tea break, complete with McVitie’s biscuits. He waves but is not seen.

As the day wears on, the operator becomes gloomy, craving some company – even if it’s only from passing birds. When he is convinced that everyone’s forgotten about him he gets a surprise: the latest steel beam he lifts has been loaded with a cup of tea and some McVitie’s biscuits. He looks down and sees his colleagues waving and smiling at him and his mood instantly lifts.

The ad ends with a simple message: “Sometimes the little things are actually the really big things”.

Sarah Heynen, Vice President of Marketing at pladis UK & Ireland, the global snacking company behind McVitie’s, said: “We know that despite being more connected than ever before digitally, we’re drifting further away from those real human connections that can mean the most. That’s why we’re so excited about our new ‘Sweeter Together’ campaign; because it has a very real message about the importance of togetherness. And we truly believe McVitie’s enables these moments every day.”

A second TV ad, ‘Brows’, will air later this year as part of the Sweeter Together campaign, telling the tale of a woman feeling nervous during her first day in a new job. Her sense of isolation disappears, however, when a new colleague breaks the ice with a joke and a packet of McVitie’s Jaffa Cakes is shared around.

The campaign has also been extended to convenience retailers, offering them a chance to win £1000. Retailers must first request a ‘Win Big Together’ POS kit from betterbiscuits@pladisglobal.com. They must then build a high-impact display that makes buying easy for shoppers and send images of the display back with a chance to win. In wholesale depots, the campaign will be executed through high impact displays and point of sale driven by the Field Sales team at pladis.

Pladis was established in January 2016 after Turkish conglomerate Yıldız Holding merged food companies United Biscuits, Ulker, Godiva Chocolatier and DeMet’s Candy Company into one global business. pladis is now one of the world’s leading snacking companies with brands including McVitie’s, Ulker and Godiva Chocolatier. pladis delights consumers with products across the snacking category including sweet and savoury biscuits, wafer, cake, chocolate, gum and candy. pladis has a 26,000-strong global workforce in 34 factories in 13 countries, with annual revenues of £2.2 billion.

The company has already delivered a series of successful product innovations in the biscuit and chocolate categories since the group was created, which include Godiva for retail, McVitie’s Nibbles and McVitie’s Chocolate Digestive Thins – products which have fast become firm favourites in pladis’ anchor markets.

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McVitie’s has been running a four-week experiential tour focusing on major cities and events, sampling its sharing snack, McVitie’s Digestives Nibbles. The activity supported the snack brand’s TV advertising campaign.

The experiential tour, created by agency Sense, saw consumers being given free 120g sample packets of three varieties of the biscuit snack, plus a surprise encounter with the cute baby seal puppet from the brand’s TV campaign.

Where possible, the tour aligned with events that offered perfect ‘sharing moments’, such as Grand National Ladies Day, the Wedding Fair, and Liverpool Food and Drink Festival.

“Using our seal puppet to surprise and delight the public, we distributed over half a million samples during the activation,” says Sweet Biscuits Marketing Director, Kerry Owens. “Connecting directly with people in the real world is a great way to build on the success of our TV campaign by letting consumers try McVitie’s Nibbles for themselves and share them with friends and family.”

“This tactical and effective brand experience is designed to drive trail and awareness of McVitie’s Digestives Nibbles,” adds Sense Senior Account Manager Diana Petre-Mag. “We’re targeting key locations across the UK, including London, Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham, Leeds and Sheffield.”

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United Biscuits is re-launching and extending its range of Sticky Pudding Cakes and is supporting the move with an on-pack promotion offering consumers the chance to win a range of prizes including trips to New York or Jamaica.

The promotion, which launched late December, was created by integrated marketing agency whynot!

The versatility of Sticky Pudding cakes provided the insight for the call to action, which encourages the public to vote whether the products are best eaten as a cake or a pudding.

The promotion is now running across two long-established consumer favourites – McVitie’s Jamaica Ginger and Lyle’s Golden Syrup Sticky Pudding Cakes – along with two new additions to the range, Golden Sticky Lemon Pudding Cake and McVitie’s Sticky Marmalade Pudding Cake.

Customers can pick up a promotional pack in store, go to the website and vote cake or pudding for their chance to win a trip to New York City or Jamaica as well as hundreds of other prizes.

The ‘Vote Cake or Pudding’ campaign will be supported with POS, digital and trade press.

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