Inside Ocean Spray’s creative strategy that's keeping it ‘wildly uncommon’

The overwhelming success of Nathan Apodaca’s chill video that showed him drinking cranberry juice while skateboarding to Fleetwood Mac led Ocean Spray to shift its entire creative strategy.

“Sometimes culture is created for your brand,” explains its chief commercial officer, Monisha Dabek. “You have to stay relevant, stay connected and continue to create that conversation. It was a turning point for the brand, in terms of how we think about the social and content strategy.”

Dabek affirms that Ocean Spray tries not to create culture. It wants to tap into conversations that are authentic to the brand versus attempting to drum up something that might not be a good fit. It’s a balance, she adds.

During the long talks about strategy, the team landed on the phrase ‘wildly uncommon’ when describing the brand position. One way that it embodies this is with memorable holiday activations.

Building on the successes of last year’s ‘Power Your Holiday’ film, or the ‘jiggle’ ad as it’s affectionately referred to, the cranberry connoisseurs are back with what it’s dubbing as the sister spot. And the unconventional holiday ad is just as whacky and deadpan as before.

“We’re so well-known with consumers for the advertising we did back in the day,” says Dabek, highlighting the ‘Guys in a Bog’ campaign. “As a team, as a creative team, we started talking about how we keep the brand relevant in culture.”

Figuring out how to stay connected with younger audiences and what the brand stands for were questions asked at many sessions over the past year and a half. The realization was that Ocean Spray could turn the mundane into fun, which now informs its entire creative strategy. That might be a boring holiday party, like this year’s offerings, or a tense Thanksgiving dinner with family you might not have seen in a while.

For Ocean Spray, it’s about bringing movement and energy to those moments. Emphasis on the movement. Last year, it brought the jiggle, this holiday season, it's bringing the swirl with ads that should probably come with some kind of motion sickness warning.

Dabek admits it’s hard to do a sequel, especially after one that was so well received on the awards circuit.

“It’s always hard to make things as good as the first thing,” she adds. “But it’s authentic. Why do people put cranberry juice in their drinks during the holiday season? It’s that brightness, that pop of color that makes it special, different. It’s an elevated experience. That’s what we hope to bring through the creative strategy.”

Eagle-eyed viewers will notice that the past two holiday ads haven’t shown any new products at all, instead relying on the tried and tested core offerings. “We think [the festive period] is about consumer favorites, and the are built up over time,” says Dabek. “We don’t want it to be a nostalgic thing necessarily. We want it to be: 'how do we keep our current products fresh and exciting to consumers, new and old?'”

The marketer emphasizes that they’ve had many generations come into the brand over the past 90 years, where it really has been about two products. The spring and summer months are when people might start to see some new lines.

“When you think about the holidays, people want that kind of the comfort of familiarity, the comfort of tradition, but we don’t want it to be boring tradition,” she continues. “We want it to be fun, different and exciting. More unexpected.”

It's not easy in today’s landscape, though, Dabek admits. What consumers might have been looking forward to in a TV ad a decade ago is wildly different now, they look forward to their own content on social media now. The rise of influencers and user-generated content means that consumers play a crucial role in content creation for brands, something that Ocean Spray doesn’t shy away from or ignore the importance of.

Standing out from the crowd at Christmas is tough, but Dabek says that it’s their choice of the moments that are shown that sets them apart from competitors.

“When you look at other ads that are memorable, it’s about reminding you of the past, in some way, shape, or form. Or of family and connection,” she concludes. “For us, it’s about reminding you of boring moments. Let’s talk about that. Let’s talk about that tense moment and how we make it fun. Our creative execution is just so different. It will be unexpected for consumers.”