The British are coming! Top UK chef aims to conquer US for new Knorr stock
Marco Pierre White is the general leading the kitchen brigade as Knorr sets out to capture America with its new better-than-ever chicken stock
Knorr Homestyle Stock - its US name - is jellied and sold in a four-pack of small tubs. In the UK it's called Knorr Stock Pot.
Celebrity chef White, has already made personal appearances, beginning in San Diego last month. Samples will be handed out in stores, there'll be coupons on the Knorr Web site and social media like Facebook and Twitter will be used. No figure for the campaign has been revealed.
Knorr is Unilever’s largest single global brand but Donna Barker, senior director of marketing for Knorr in America, told the Times. “We’re not as well known as we could be in the United States.” .
The launch of Knorr Homestyle was "the start of what we want to do with Knorr in the United States.”
The campaign will be the “biggest food launch” for Unilever in the US this year and “one of the biggest launches for Unilever” over all.
She said the new stock was “It’s doing very well” in countries where it is already being sold, and repeat business had been good.
Marco Pierre White has been a Knorr “brand ambassador” since 2006 . The TV commercial begins with him chopping vegetables.
“In my kitchen, the heart of a great dish is a great-tasting stock. New Knorr Homestyle Stock tastes like stock made from scratch,” he says.
“It’s concentrated,” Mr. White says, “and like a good stock has just the right ingredients, simmered to perfection.”
He then pauses and says, “The food critics are still pretty tough, though.”
He places the chicken dish he has been preparing in front of two boys and a girl, supposedly his kids but in reality, actors. The boy takes a bite, then nods his head.
The commercial was originally made in 2008 by the London office of JWT. A year later, Knorr left JWT for Lowe & Partners Worldwide.
The Times tell how the commercial survived the transition: Last year, Lowe Roche, the Lowe agency in Canada, adapted the commercial for the Canadian market- and this year, they've done the same for the United States.
The British commercial, shown below, has a slightly different ending from the American.
Instead of the announcer repeating the chef's line about Knorr Homestyle Stock replicating stock made from scratch, Marco. Pierre White is heard, saying Knorr Stock Pot is “the best thing to happen to cooking since me.”
White, who grew up in a council house in Leeds, has been dubbed the first celebrity chef, the enfant terrible of the UK restaurant scene and the Godfather of modern cooking. He was the youngest chef ever to be awarded three Michelin stars - and trained Gordon Ramsay.
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