The first segment in the campaign, ‘Dear Alice…’ - which will run on broadcast television, online video, paid social media, organic social media, and shopper marketing - is designed to promote the Chobani brand overall, while subsequent spots featuring the same animation will focus on specific products such as ready-to-drink coffee, oatmilk, creamers, and the new probiotic-fueled line.
Featuring the strapline, ‘Because how we eat today feeds tomorrow,” the Dear Alice slot features a young woman (Alice) hosting an outdoor feast (with strategically placed Chobani products) on farmland that borders a futuristic utopian cityscape with flying wind turbines and robots that pick oranges, and then cuts to the interior of her house where we see a letter from her grandmother passing on the baton (family farm?) and reminding her that ‘A business is only as good as its people, so treat them well.’
‘We’re more than a Greek yogurt company’
The message Chobani wants viewers to come away with is that “If you eat high-quality food and you buy from companies that take care of their people and treat animals well and worry about sustainability and the future, you can help create this future world,” Meredith Madden, SVP Marketing Strategy & Insights told FoodNavigator-USA.
Chobani’s in-house creative team came up with the concept, strategy, and straplines, but worked with external partners on the animation, music, and illustrations, said Madden.
“In the past Chobani has been very focused on branding or on products, but in this campaign, we’re getting the balance of both. We want people to know that we’re more than a Greek yogurt company, as Hamdi has always had this vision of better food for more people, so we’ve entered four new categories in the last 12-13 months, but we wanted to make sure that everything we showcase keeps intact our values as a company.”
#SwitchTheChobaniFlip hashtag challenge
This kind of traditional, national branding campaign is still valuable, even in today's very fragmented media environment, said Madden.
However, Chobani has also worked on a series of lower-budget more targeted video spots "with a higher ROI" that have been highly successful over the past couple of years, from tie ups with USA Wrestling to ultra-short ‘How to’ recipe videos on Tasty and other platforms showing viewers how to make overnight oats or smoothies featuring Chobani products.
Like many brands, Chobani is also enlisting fans to create content or come up with their own flavors, most recently partnering with TikTok on the #SwitchTheChobaniFlip hashtag challenge (set to Missy Elliot’s ‘Work It’), to offer 25 winners who create a video using the hashtag a case of a limited edition Flip flavor.
It is also offering cash prizes for finalists that come up their ‘dream’ creamer flavors, with the top three fan-inspired flavors shortlisted by Chobani to be put up to a fan vote this summer, with the winner hitting shelves in 2022, said Madden. "We're really thinking about fun ways to jump into the social market."
6-second videos
In general, she said, CPG brands recognize that they need to become more agile at coming up with video content that can be tested and refined before it is pushed out to a wider audience, with very short spots becoming increasingly important.
"Any time we're creating video for TV it's going to be 30 seconds or 15 seconds, but we're also cognizant of the 6-second spots that are more shopper marketing focused."
She added: "The biggest change [in Chobani's approach to getting its message out to younger people in particular] is partnering with influencers on TikTok and Instagram, so we're open to finding partners that care for our brand and getting our voice out there through them as well."
