Here’s a truly creative food product promo, and a timely, fun one, at that. Kellogg’s has ‘reported’ a rare ‘Crunchorite’ landing in a Toronto park. And its stunt is elevating community awareness of the universe and our place in it…
The promo celebrated the launch of a new version Kellogg’s iconic Raisin Bran cereal. Brand which, the maker famously claims, has ‘two scoops of raisins’ in every box. New Raisin Bran Crunch features granola-like clusters instead of the traditional individual flakes…
‘Time bomb’
According to the official news release, the 2-metre / 6.5 ft. diameter ‘crunchorite’, appeared to have landed smack on a picnic table. And it sat there for three days generating speculation (and other comments). Then, “the object cracked open, spilling out boxes of Kellogg’s Two Scoops Raisin Bran Crunch cereal.”
“Leveraging the key product features and the mystery of outer space, the Crunchorite design com-bined the rockiness of a meteorite with the deliciousness of an oat cluster,” the marketing types ex-plained. “The physical cluster was created using space-age foam to create a sizeable 5.3 x 3.8 x 3.8 ft. object weighing a whopping 160 lb. [72.7 kg]. Filled with 100 boxes of Kellogg’s Two Scoops Raisin Bran Crunch cereal, the cracking open of the Crunchorite was a delight for Torontonians!”
One assumes folks on the scene grabbed up the cereal and high-tailed it home to try the stuff. I’ll bet the Kellogg’s folks were hoping to generate reviews of their new creation, spurred by the circum-stances of the scenario.
‘The mystery of outer space’
The ‘mystery of outer space’ angle was geared to coincide with the annual appearance of the famous Perseids meteor shower on or around August 10. Every year at that time, Earth passes through a band of cometary debris, and a relatively large number of meteors enter the atmosphere in a fiery shower. We don’t see the northern Lights mote than a few times in a lifetime in southern Canada. But ‘The Night of the Perseids’ is a perennial favourite with sky gazers here.
The event is usually hyped online and in the mainstream media, alike. And that was clearly the name of Kellogg’s game: bumper-drafting on the Perseids’ publicity.
An obvious product
I have to give it to Kellogg’s for their product development acumen. Though I have to wonder why it took them so long. arch competitor Post has been making huge capital on its (heretofore) unique Honey Bunches of Oats cereal. Swap out the oats in favour of bran flakes and add raisins. You’ve got the perfect heat-to-head competitor in that small but high-profile market niche.
I wonder if this will spur other cereal brands to follow suit? I can see the possibility of a ‘Bunches War’ in our breakfast future…
My take
One of the aspects of this promotion I especially appreciate is buried in the subtext. By ‘leveraging the mystery of outer space’, and the parallel publicity surrounding the Perseids meteor shower, Kellogg’s breaks the intellectual glass ceiling that has capped most consumer advertising for a hundred years.
The campaign is designed to engage not only the average consumer, but folks who think outside of the box. And not just the cereal box. Folks who contemplate the greater truths and eternal verities. About our place in the universe.
Yes, even astronomers and quantum physicists eat breakfast…
~ Maggie J.