• by Larissa Faw , February 19, 2015

Fish sticks have been an American classic for more than 50 years. Few children go through adolescence without regularly eating them at the dinner table. 

Now, Gorton's of Gloucester is upgrading this traditional meal with its new Smart and Crunchy Fish Sticks, designed to appeal to today's families, with less fat and sourced fish. 

Agency Burns Group has devised a new campaign to promote the brand extension.

“This new campaign sets up our Smart & Crunchy Fish Stick as the hero of the dinner table,” says Gavin Kennedy, Gorton’s director of consumer marketing.

“Our consumers are looking for opportunities to add more fish to their meals, and with our new products we are meeting this growing need. Smart & Crunchy delivers a taste everyone in the family will love and a nutritional profile parents will feel good about,” he adds.

Developed by The Burns Group, the new ad campaign -- dubbed Fish Sticks 2.0 -- includes two TV ads running on national prime time and daytime broadcast networks and cable including "Ellen," "The View," "Jeopardy" and "Chopped."

Broadcast will also be supported by a series of digital banners appearing on health and mommy blogger sites. In-store marketing from Burns will be prominent in all major supermarkets. 

New packaging for the product was created by Cornerstone Strategic Branding to reflect the balance of “great taste” and “good-for-you” benefits that the client is promoting.  All creative is designed to appeal to health conscious families eager to add more seafood to their diets.

“This is the fish stick 2.0. Like a revolutionary tech product with expanded benefits, it represents a total rethink of what came before,” explained Jim Wilday, partner at Burns Group. “Our strategy in launching Smart & Crunchy was to let the product speak for itself. In 15 seconds, we’re able to communicate all the great 'features' of Smart and Crunchy -- wholesome, great tasting, half the fat and made of 100% wild-caught Alaska Pollock. These are the attributes that our consumers have told us are really important to them.”

Gorton’s will also be marketing its new Smart & Crunchy Fish Sticks through a nationwide sampling tour traveling across the U.S. and visiting stores, malls and festivals, managed by Rinck Advertising. 
The food brand's strategy for the product launch is geared to get consumers to sample the dish, since it believes once shoppers taste them they’ll want to buy them.

The Burns Group has worked with Gorton's for eight years. The food brand was one of the agency's first clients when the agency opened its doors.