Indulgence With a Twist From Mesmerising McVitie’s

A new biscuit range from McVitie’s offers an opportunity to look at how a new product and its masterbrand relate to one another in an ad. The ad for the just-launched (and deeply delicious looking) Signature biscuit is a celebration of indulgence that presents the biscuit firmly as a premium choice. But the clever aspect of TBWA\London’s work here is how it both affirms and expands McVitie’s overall brand identity.

With almost 200 years on UK shelves, McVitie’s is almost synonymous with biscuits to the British shopper. This is a huge asset for the business when it looks to launch a new product, but the advantage carries a possible risk. When you’re the everyday choice of biscuit eaters, and you want to launch a premium product, you’re asking people to buy something they might not associate with the McVitie’s name.

That’s the problem this ad is solving.

The ad balances slightly tongue-in-cheek visuals with a sense of real luxury. An impeccably dressed man sits in a huge armchair, relaxing and eating a McVitie’s Signature biscuit by the light of a standing lamp. But he’s not in his living room, he’s in the middle of a lush green forest. The incongruous setting gives the ad a sensuous feel but also lets us know something unexpected is afoot. Next we zoom in on the biscuit itself – its thick layers of chocolate and caramel promising a luxurious experience. The man tries to find the right word for the experience – “mysterious, almost magical…” – until at the end he’s surprised by the real M behind the biscuit, McVitie’s.

An emphasis on sensory pleasure isn’t unusual for a biscuit or confectionery ad. What’s impressive here is how much more the commercial manages to communicate than just indulgence. The contrast between the cosiness of the armchair and the lush scenery of the forest creates a sense of the unusual, which the ad follows up with the reveal that this indulgent biscuit is by none other than household name McVitie’s.

Of course, the audience already know this – the brand is introduced right at the beginning. So it’s the surprise of the actor that communicates that this is an unusually premium product, and that such a luxury item comes from such a familiar brand. The ad is using McVitie’s as a guarantee of biscuit quality but also expanding expectations of the brand with this unusual framing and setting.

What do actual viewers make of it? The ad scores a 4.7-Star Rating, predicting very strong potential to drive share gains given the right investment. Bakery products are one of the highest scoring Test Your Ad categories, but even so this ad comes in well above the 3.5-Star category average. Even better, given this is a product launch, the short-term Spike Rating predicts Exceptional potential for the ad to drive initial sales boosts: the emphasis on sensory pleasure creates immediate desire. Brand Fluency is also above average for the sector, so the vast majority of viewers are correctly linking the Signature biscuit to McVitie’s.

By combining the traditional product emphasis with an unusual setting and witty framing, the ad successfully and smoothly moves the McVitie’s masterbrand into a premium space for the Signature line, and the Test Your Ad results prove the audience is delighted to take that journey too.