Dive Brief:
- Campbell Soup's latest marketing campaign, its first major brand campaign in five years, bears the tagline "Made for Real, Real Life," and features real family interactions over Campbell's branded products in a variety of forms, including canned soup, "Star Wars" soups, soup in K-Cups, Soup on the Go cups, and Campbell's skillet sauces. Non-branded Campbell products such as Bolthouse Farms were not featured in the 15 and 30-second spots.
- This campaign is an example of Campbell's increased focus on digital media and advertising.
- "Our goal was to sort of take what Campbell's has always been about and convey it in a fresher way," Ms. Rani said of the 146-year old brand. "We want people to understand what we're about but also give us a fresh look at the same time."
Dive Insight:
Campbell has been cutting costs to improve margins. It reduced its marketing budget to $319.7 million for total U.S. advertising in 2014, a decrease from $361.3 million in 2013. However, with the money Campbell is allocating to marketing, the company is focusing more on digital media, with 40% of its marketing spend going to digital, as compared to 22% last year. Much of that will be spent on videos like this campaign as the company moves toward a more targeted audience.
In addition to realistic depictions of family eating and food-purchasing occasions, Campbell has tried to appeal to consumers through acquiring brands like Bolthouse Farms, Plum Organics, and Garden Fresh as well as setting a goal to remove artificial colors and flavors from many of its products by the end of 2018.
Still, Campbell continues to struggle, having reported its total sales fell 2% in fiscal 2015 despite these efforts.