Commentary

A Campaign That Uses Its Noodle, Literally

Nothing beats indulging in various ethnic cuisines while on vacation but what to do when a craving arises and you’re stateside?
 
A branding campaign for Noodles & Company curbs worldly cravings with outdoor, newspaper, radio and online elements supporting the company’s “Your World Kitchen” initiative.
 
TDA_Boulder created the campaign, which debuted first in Denver, Kansas City, Austin, San Diego and Sacramento, with a national campaign to follow.
 
Outdoor is the largest aspect of the campaign, with some ads city-specific. A billboard in Austin, for example, shows three clocks to depict the time zones for Japan, Italy and Austin. One slight problem: the clocks all read the same time because Noodles & Company can offer Austin residents Japanese noodles and Italian pasta in their own time zone.
 
A Denver wallscape has five arrows pointing down to a parking lot with the headline: “Recipes imported from more countries than these cars.”
 
Pandora music lovers that request any type of world music were shown an ad that states: “Based on your selection, we think you would like: Japanese Pan Noodles.”
 
My favorite part of the campaign took place in Kansas City, where home subscribers to The Kansas City Star received their papers in a polybag written in a foreign language. The first week was Italian, the second week was Japanese and the third week was written in Thai. On the flip side was an ad for Noodles & Company that read: “Travel the world without leaving your table.” In total, 400,000 polybags were distributed over a four-week period, with the final week including a buy one get one free coupon. 
 
“With a menu of the best dishes from around the world, Noodles & Co has made it easy for people to travel the world of food,” said Jonathan Schoenberg, executive creative director at TDA_Boulder. “Our work needed to do the same thing. Whether it was surprising them with foreign newspapers or exposing them to exotic music, we wanted to transport consumers to another place and mindset.”
 
The biggest challenge of the campaign was “communicating the true variety of Noodles' offerings to such a large audience,” continued Schoenberg. “Noodles has dishes from around the world, but not everyone is aware that they have salads, soups and sandwiches on top of the variety of noodle dishes.”
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