food

Daiya's Cheezy Mac Uses Talking Boxes In Stores, As Well As Videos

Daiya Foods is letting its dairy-, gluten- and soy-free Cheezy Mac line speak for itself. Literally.

The campaign, “The Comfort Food That Loves You Back,” features actual, sweet-talking boxes of Cheezy Mac in attention-getting in-store promotions and as social media contest prizes, as well as in digital ads.  

With a budget exceeding $1 million, the new, U.S.-based campaign is the largest to date for Vancouver-based Daiya, the leader in dairy-free comfort foods, reports the company. It’s also its broadest push: It goes beyond Daiya’s usual dairy-averse target audience to reach out to all comfort-food seekers.  

The campaign, from TDA Boulder, includes social, mobile and print, as well as in-store.

The spokesbox makes declarations such as “You look amazing today,” “You’re an incredible person,” and “We were made for each other,” in a deep, masculine voice. The takeaway: These  “groundbreaking” products allow comfort-food lovers to indulge without guilt, at last.

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The talking box is featured in a pre-roll video to run on Hulu, as well as in video (below) and banner ads to run on Hulu, Pinterest, Instagram and Facebook. All ads are being targeted to those in need of comfort food — such as fans of recently defeated sports teams, or new empty-nesters watching their kids go off to college.

Meanwhile, motion-sensitive, speaker-equipped shelf-talkers (in this case living up to their name) featuring Cheezy Mac boxes that flatter passing shoppers are being placed in about 70 select U.S. supermarkets, and Facebook followers who post about why their own problems warrant comfort food will earn chances to win one of about 500 talking boxes that spout seven different amorous phrases through button-activated speakers. (Also, more than 600 Kroger and Whole Foods stores will get traditional -- mute -- floor-talkers.)

Support advertising includes banner ads on Kitchn and other food and health and wellness sites targeting Daiya’s traditional dairy-averse audience; mobile advertising geo-targeted to those near a Daiya retailer; and full-page print ads in magazines including People and Every Day with Rachael Ray.

Might any concept seeming to suggest a male entity (even a food box) hitting on women risk alienating the very women it seeks to win over?

"The tagline answers the #mettoo consideration because it is reciprocal," says Jonathan Schoenberg, executive creative director of TDA Boulder. "We're all aware that #metoo is about unreciprocated and unwelcome advances, and this campaign is centered around the idea that people already love comfort food and that there's finally a food that loves you as much as you love it. Hence the word 'back' in our tagline ‘The Comfort Food That Loves You Back.'"

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