Studies from the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention have revealed that 75% of teens regularly skip breakfast, with the brand dissecting the root causes.
“We talked a lot about the difficulty of teen mornings, the unwillingness to roll out of bed and get going,” Ollis said, noting that Totino’s execs wanted to “amp up the idea of ‘quick and easy.’”
‘Visually unhinged’
And as for the ridiculousness of it all, “it’s crucial to surprise people and show them something they’ve never seen before,” Ollis said. “We also love work that has a great and unique visual component.”
Young consumers, even those who are already devoted to pizza rolls, aren’t easy to impress with marketing messages. They also “have infinite access to their favorite types of entertainment, every waking moment of their lives,” Ollis said, adding to the clutter and competition.
With the upbeat tagline “Start Your Day the Totino’s Way,” the campaign went for “visually unhinged,” per Ollis, bringing in director Emma Debany of WW7, who worked with the brand on last year’s quirk-filled “Area 425” ad series.
The campaign also continues a unique comedic spin that’s grounded in past work at a time when the broader ad industry is returning to humor as a way to turn consumers’ heads.
The throwback vibe that fuels the “Start Your Day” spots came naturally, Ollis said, though retro trappings have become one of the most prevalent ad trends.
“One great thing about nostalgia is that there are millions of moments and truths and experiences to pull from,” Ollis said. If the team considered the old-school approach to be overused, “we would already be sick of it, and we wouldn’t have done the campaign this way.”