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April 2008 - Strategy Magazine
Creative

Shreddies don't want to be square anymore

by Annette Bourdeau
page 13

It's all about perspective.

Shreddies, a Toronto-based Kraft Canada brand, is spicing up its square image by cheekily touting itself as diamond-shaped.

"Canadians like Shreddies, but they may have forgotten all about them," says Nancy Vonk, co-CCO at Ogilvy Toronto. "Our goal was to do whatever it takes to make people think about them again."

Shreddies ran a straight-faced test campaign in Alberta last year to see how people would react to "Diamond Shreddies." TV, OOH, online and in-store efforts all treated the diamond product as though it were completely new. The brand began rolling the campaign out across Canada last month, including a limited edition Diamond Shreddies box.

For the national launch, Ogilvy took the joke a step further, and commissioned improv comedian Kerry Griffin to host focus groups for the "new" product.

"We thought the comedy would come from people yelling at us," says Vonk, adding they were surprised that people didn't get the joke right away. "They were all embarrassed [when we told them it wasn't real], but they were all incredibly good sports." Vonk says they're hoping to run an excerpt from one of the faux focus group sessions as a TV spot.

Shreddies will be rolling out a quiz game at diamondshreddies.ca in the near future. The site also houses recipes for Diamond Shreddies, as well as a poll asking if people prefer their Shreddies square or

diamond-shaped. At press time, diamond was just beating square.

The diamond concept was the brainchild of Hunter Somerville, who was an intern at Ogilvy at the time. He has since been hired on full-time.

advertiser: Jennifer Hutchinson, category business director; Mangala D'Sa, brand manager; Jordon Fietje, brand manager, Kraft Canada

agency: Ogilvy & Mather

CCOs: Nancy Vonk, Janet Kestin

ACDs: Ivan Pols, Tim Piper, Liz Kis, Jane Murray

copywriters: Hunter Somerville,

Jen Durning

agency producer: Shenny Jaffer

print production: Chris Rozak

account director: Kristi Karens

prodco: OPC

director: Michael Downing

DOP: Andre Pienaar

editor: Alison Gordon, Relish

sound design: Vapor Music

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