Ad Of The Month

Potato chip brand Smiths is a major snack name in Australia but it’s been a while since it’s made serious investment in its brand equity. This new campaign changes that with a new positioning for the brand – “You Can’t Resist The Call Of Smiths”, playing up the chips’ moreish crunchiness and the way a bowl of them brings people together.

Smiths could have taken the predictable route and shown people lured by the brand at a normal social gathering. But they’ve been a bit more imaginative, opting for a surreal scenario in which eating a chip turns out to be the unlikely method of escaping an equally unlikely grizzly bear.

People reacted well, though not exceptionally, to the ad – it got a good 3.7-Star score for long-term growth. On short-term Spike, though, its score was Exceptional (1.48), meaning that while it’s a solid emotional performer, it has the potential to be galvanising and create short-term desire for Smiths. It also has a very strong Brand Fluency score – so the ad’s being linked specifically to Smiths, not the wider chip category.

If this ad is designed as a brand equity investment, aren’t those results (better Spike than Star) topsy-turvy? Not necessarily. Remember that this is the beginning of a campaign and a new positioning and tagline for Smiths, and making a short-term splash in that situation would be a very strong outcome for future ads to build on. Also, the surreal and wild tone of the ad gives the brand permission to go in any direction it wants following this – with the security of knowing that it’s got a central idea which is motivating and which Smiths can own.