Advertising: Campbell Bets on the Wisdom of a Child

Campbell Bets on the Wisdom of a Child

RECENTLY, the Campbell Soup Company has tried to figure out what, if any, role the cherubic, chubby-cheeked brand characters known as the Campbell Kids ought to play in marketing its flagship condensed soups in the red-and-white cans.

Updates to give the decades-old characters slimmer silhouettes and more contemporary looks were met with dismay among nostalgic older consumers and shrugs from younger consumers.

In a multimedia campaign that begins this week, Campbell Soup has decided to shelve the venerable brand mascots in favor of a modern-day boy, age around 8, who advises parents on what to feed their hungry offspring.

In a nod to the Campbell Kids, the new character is named the Wisest Kid in the Whole World; in another element of continuity, the campaign keeps the longtime brand theme, “M’m! M’m! Good!”

Executives at Campbell Soup and BBDO New York, the agency creating the campaign, dismiss suggestions that the name is evocative of the Most Interesting Man in the World, the popular brand character for Dos Equis beer. Rather, they say, the young guru is meant to personify the appetite that boys and girls have for Campbell’s condensed soups, like chicken noodle and tomato, as well as remind parents that a bowl of hot soup makes an appealing alternate meal to youthful favorites like fast food and pizza.

“Who knows more about what kids like than kids?” Ed Carolan, president for United States retail at Campbell Soup in Camden, N.J., asked.

“Moms and dads still struggle with what we call the real-time dilemma at mealtime: they want to be happy about what their kids eat, but the kids have to like it,” Mr. Carolan said. “Soup is an option they’ll feel good about serving to the kids, and the kids are happy.”

Morgan Seamark, executive vice president and senior director at BBDO New York â€" part of the BBDO North America division of BBDO Worldwide, owned by the Omnicom Group â€" said: “Parents have more options than ever to feed their kids. Maybe soup fell down the list of potential things to serve. We want to remind moms and dads that kids love Campbell’s soups. If you want to know what kids really like, don’t guess or make an assumption; ask a kid, and not just any kid, ask the Wisest Kid in the Whole World.”

The character is appearing in commercials along with print and online ads and will be featured on an app and at events. He will also have a presence in social media like blogs, Facebook, Tumblr and Twitter.

In addition to peddling what Campbell Soup calls its eating soups â€" heritage products like chicken noodle and newcomers like three soups with Super Mario Brothers shapes (“Achieve many levels of deliciousness,” the Wisest Kid says) â€" the character appears in ads with recipes for cooking soups like cream of mushroom; in one ad, for potpies made with cream of chicken soup, he asks, “What is the sound of one mouth watering?”

Plans call for the ads to be the largest single campaign within a category of Campbell Soup business lines known as U.S. soup and simple meals. The company spent $200.9 million last year on ads for soup in major media, according to the Kantar Media unit of WPP, compared with $229.9 million in 2011; those figures include spending on other soups in addition to condensed, among them ready-to-serve.

In the 2014 fiscal year, which began on July 29, Campbell Soup intends to increase its total marketing spending to $440 million to $450 million, compared with about $400 million in the 2013 fiscal year.

Although Campbell Soup has embarked on a diversification strategy, making acquisitions like Plum Organics and bringing out new products like V8 Complete Nutrition Bars, soup still is its biggest business line, accounting for about 36 percent of total sales. After struggling to turn around declines in demand for its mainstay condensed soups, the company has begun to see signs of progress; in the 2013 fiscal year, which ended on July 28, sales of the red-and-white soups rose 2 percent compared with the 2012 fiscal year.

“It’s a growing business,” Mr. Carolan said, and the new campaign has a “springboard to build on that momentum.”

The Wisest Kid campaign replaces ads, carrying the theme “It’s amazing what soup can do,” that were created by BBDO New York and Y&R New York, part of the Y&R unit of the Young & Rubicam Group, owned by WPP. Y&R New York is now focused on creating ads for new products like Campbell’s Go soups in pouches, which are aimed at millennial consumers in their 20s and 30s.

Other agencies working on the Wisest Kid campaign, in addition to BBDO New York, include Proximity Worldwide, the digital arm of BBDO Worldwide; MEC, part of the GroupM unit of WPP, for media services; and Weber Shandwick, part of the Interpublic Group of Companies, for public relations.

The new brand mascot may be wise, but he is certainly not a wiseguy or wiseacre. Unlike the smart-aleck children who appear in packaged-food ads from mainstream marketers like the Kraft Foods Group, the low-key humor in the Wisest Kid ads reflects the more traditional corporate personality of Campbell Soup.

“We want to make sure the kid is not annoying,” Mr. Seamark said, adding that the campaign was intended to be lighthearted. Mr. Carolan concurred, saying: “Mealtime is fun. Food is fun.”

In another way, however, the campaign takes an up-to-date approach, by portraying fathers as well as mothers as family meal-makers. That “is designed to reflect the modern face of America,” Mr. Seamark said.