String along / Black Diamond shared with Contagious that Cheestrings is the number one snack cheese brand in Canada in terms of consumption, tonnage and dollars. But the category is also not short on competitors, with the brand’s biggest competitor Bel Group (known for Babybel) and own-brand supermarket labels vying for a slice of the snack cheese aisle. One of the most distinctive assets of string cheese products is the fun and playful nature of how it is consumed, with people often pulling strips off the main block to eat it bit by bit. Speaking to Contagious about the campaign, agency Broken Heart Love Affair said: ‘It is rooted in a very interesting insight that we no longer give ourselves permission to play and that we take life too seriously. Black Diamond Cheestrings is all about fun, and our message is to invite play – every peel of a Cheestring brings out the kid in everyone.’
By knowing and understanding that consumers likely choose these snack items for this enjoyment factor, it makes sense to reach these consumers through a campaign that reflects the playfulness of the product but also appeals to the fun-loving child inside the average string cheese consumer.
One of the key themes identified by Contagious at the Cannes International Festival of Creativity this year was a return to more mischievous comms post-Covid by brands. You can book our one-hour session that breaks down and unpacks this trend with examples and the three other main themes in our Cannes Deconstructed briefing here.
Media hijacking / Recently Contagious interviewed Samsung New Zealand about its Media Gold Lion at Cannes for the iTest, a web-app that enabled Apple iPhone users trial the Android interface and features through the comfort of their existing handset. Mike Felix, creative director at agency DDB Tribal Aotearoa, Auckland, shared with Contagious that the reason why the campaign was such a success is because ‘it gave people something rewarding to share’.
So too here, Black Diamond’s campaign has proven to be a cost-effective and media savvy activation – achieving 213 million earned media impressions from just one OOH billboard and a series of social posts. By designing the stunt to be fun, mysterious and participative, it provided media outlets like morning TV, chat shows, light news and radio broadcasts something with which to engage.
