United Biscuits invests £10m in ‘Snack Happy’ marketing push for Jacob's
United Biscuits has poured £10m into a new campaign to raise brand awareness of Jacob's savoury offering.
“We’re spending more than we have in the past 10 years combined,” director of savoury at United Biscuits Ted Linehan told The Drum at the brand’s launch event on London during Advertising Week Europe. He said he is expecting the campaign to grow the Jacob's brand by as much as 20 per cent.
Helping him to achieve that is a new TV push. United Biscuits has worked with Publicis on a series of ads featuring a character called ‘Jacob the Baker’.
Four in total will be released throughout 2014 – the first during Coronation Street on 2 April – and all use the same ‘Snack Happy’ tagline, aimed at conveying the health benefits of Jacob's baked products.
Supporting the TV campaign is a new website, developed by Publicis digital agency Poke, which is dedicated to the Jacob's brand.
Discussing digital activity, Linehan told The Drum that he is planning a number of homepage takeovers including the Daily Mail, AOL and Yahoo. These will take place in different stages as the campaign evolves during the next eight months. There are also a “raft” of digital banners and pre-roll ads on YouTube which see Jacob the Baker encourage viewers not to hit the skip button.
On social media, the brand is planning an eight week ‘Snack Happy Selfie’ competition where fans and followers have been encouraged to take photos of how they eat or cook with Jacob's savoury products. The hashtag for the competition has been used on the initial TV ad to encourage participation and at the end of each week one person will be selected for a £1000 cash prize.
On the PR side, working with 3 Monkeys, United Biscuits has kicked off a ‘Snack Happy Roadshow’ where it is visiting 10 of the most stressed out places in the UK to offer them a taste of Jacob's. Also on the tour will be John Roughneen, a genuine baker at United Biscuits, who will be talking to people about the history of Jacobs and why he has worked for the brand for the past 30 years.