The Brief
Get parents of young families who want to strike the right balance between making responsible choices and providing moments of joy to buy Robinsons by communicating the core product benefit – refreshment.
The Insight
Robinsons had positioned itself as less boring than water and less sugary than fizzy drinks. This manifested in a fixation on fruit. But people don’t drink squash to get their five a day. People drink squash because when you’re really thirsty, there’s nothing more refreshing.
Water lacks that sharp fruity edge while fizzy drinks are sweet and cloying. Refreshment was therefore our genuine competitive edge in the battle against water and fizzy drinks for ‘share of throat’.
The drinks category traditionally treats thirst as the enemy. We flipped this on its head by making thirst a virtue. When you believe that a joyful life is a thirsty life Robinsons has a clear role within it.
The Execution
This required a reorientation away from fruit and towards refreshment across all touch points. So, when we saw early pack redesign concepts, I immediately flagged that large fruits dripping with juice, deep saturated colours and thick rounded type were not cueing refreshment.
I pointed to academic research showing that refreshment is negatively correlated with sweetness and thickness and proposed a solution. Working with the Saatchi Conceptual Design department, I showed that by mirroring the product preparation process—adding water—we could course correct.
The use of colour gradients and the introduction of water droplets to the design system stemmed from this thinking. The pack design agency hugely appreciated this steer and we ended up working closely with them throughout the process, ensuring that the final pack design was fluent with our brand idea and campaign assets.
The Results
The OOH assets were an enormous step forward for Robinsons in terms of behaving like a confident modern brand.
We were told at both the qual and quant testing phases that a gargling choir would be a polarising idea and that’s exactly how it played out. Those who didn’t like it said that gargling was disgusting and immature. Those who did like it said it was a hilarious burst of joy and colour at a time when we could all use a break from the stagflation gloom.
Love it or hate it, the ad was impossible to ignore. Campaign Magazine clearly fell into the latter camp and brought Turkey Of The Week out of retirement especially to pan the film. This is a badge of honour I wear with pride.
