The Kellogg Company is overhauling its Nutri-Grain brand, introducing a purpose-led brand positioning that it will execute through a long-term content strategy in the hope of reconnecting with the teen audience and reversing declining sales.
The idea is that it stops thinking like a product and selling that to people, but, instead, aims to engage on a purpose-driven level and sell “aspiration”.
For a long time Nutri-Grain has been associated with the Iron Man platform and positioned itself as “Iron Man Food” – its support there won’t change – but it will no longer be the brand’s core communications platform.
It has worked with JWT to roll out a content platform based around “unstoppable individuals”, with the aim of showing that there are no limits.
The “Unstoppable” campaign is to continue running for at least two years, with additional stories and long-form content to be developed and rolled out throughout that time, and even beyond.
The Unstoppable concept was arrived at from research carried out with ReachOut.com, that found today’s teens feel like they want to “do everything and achieve it all” but they feel hamstrung.
It found that while 80% of Australian teens are setting goals for themselves, only 20% actually achieve them. Only 45% felt optimistic about the future.
“It’s disturbing,” said Will Brockbank, director of breakfast foods at Kellogg. “Teens want to do as much as they can and be unstoppable, but they are held back by fatigue, relationships and technology. They want to achieve, but they don’t feel able to.”
Angela Morris, executive planning director at JWT, told AdNews: “Being a teen has always been hard work, but now with Gen Z teens there is also that social jet lag – they want to be on 24/7 and do it all, but they struggle. We kept the core values of Nutri-Grain – which are strength, determination and courage – but we needed to pull back on the degree to which we push the Iron Man message.”
Nutri-Grain wants to offer an inspirational platform by sharing stories of people who have overcome great challenges. It kicks off with Derek Rabelo, a blind Brazilian surfer who, despite his disadvantages, went on to surf the legendary Pipeline in Hawaii and is now taking on the new challenge of downhill skateboarding.
Brockbank admitted the brand had lost its way with teens, and that in connecting more with mums in recent years, had disengaged its teen audience. While mums are the purchasers, he said, Kellogg needs to drive the request for purchase from teens by appealing to them.
“It’s a leap in creative, but we’ve always existed to inspire teens. In the past it’s been through Iron Man, but the message wasn’t reaching teens in the way we needed it to. So now we want to take that inspiration to the next level,” he said.
“If we really want to inspire teens we need a model that will pull them in to the content and inspire them to share it with others – not the old school way through a TV set. We’ve recognised that Kellogg needs to be quicker and shift the mindset internally.”
Kellogg is going down the native content route, and the content it creates will sit on platforms where teens are already seeking out engaging content such as Pedestrian and Vice. It is also adopting YouTube and, as the platform grows, it will add further channels to distribute content.
The brand skews towards males, but there are stories based on inspirational women throughout the campaign.
Morris explained: “Teens were disengaged because the brand has been talking to mums, but we needed to drive request from teens. That’s where purpose becomes really valuable and we were looking for a platform that allows the brand to have that connection in their [teens’] world.”
The breakfast cereal category is challenging, said Brockbank, and Nutri-Grain is battling a sales slump and has been in single digit decline for the last two years. Brockbank said the new strategy will help reverse that and put Nutri-Grain into single figure growth this year.
It has also overhauled the packaging and the brand identity of the brand.
“The ready-to-eat cereal category is not in a good place right now and this is an opportunity to drive growth for us and the category,” he said.
JWT worked with specialist production company Finch from the start of the process and said that Kellogg was expecting a traditional TV campaign execution for the repositioning, but that it pitched a content-led strategy.
“The expectation was a repositioning, but they were surprised when we came back with a content-led idea. There’s TV and above-the-line in there, but it’s to push people back to the content, where time will be spent and deeper engagement had with the brand. Long-form content is a new thing to Kellogg's – it’s not just a shell for ad content,” said Morris.
Kellogg has also worked with VML on a social and digital strategy. A TV ad will break on 25 February.
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