• by Karlene Lukovitz  @KLmarketdaily, October 8, 2018

Having pulled more than 22 million views to date on YouTube alone with a surreal “impaled by a dolphin” anthem ad launched in May, POM Wonderful is following with a new campaign starring large, furry “Worry Monsters.”

Like the dolphin ad campaign, the new one is inspired by the brand’s research finding that people often begin consuming POM Wonderful pomegranate products after a health scare causes them to adopt a healthier lifestyle.

But the dolphin-themed ads were long-form videos meant to explain entertainingly the health science behind pomegranates and POM Wonderful, as is done in some of the brand’s print advertorials, while the Worry Monster creative was “specifically created to be a multi-year, multimillion-dollar campaign that will live across a wide array of media and continue to talk about the health benefits” of POM, says Darren Moran, chief creative officer of Wonderful Agency, The Wonderful Company’s in-house agency.

The agency led the creation of both campaigns.

More than $11 million is committed over six months to “The Worry Monster” campaign, which spans television, digital, social media, print, in-store promotions and a digital Times Square billboard, Moran tells Marketing Daily.

The creative shows middle-aged women and men engaging in heathy activities, as they completely ignore the gloom-and-doom predictions and exhortations of colorful “Worry Monsters” standing near them — creatures that represent their frightening inner worries come to life.

In one 15-second ad (above), a Worry Monster complains, while watching a woman do yoga, that she had been looking forward to the woman’s 50^th birthday — but instead of worrying, the woman is doing yoga and drinking POM. “I thought we’d have more girls’ nights reading on the Internet about diseases we could have,” laments the monster. “Don’t even get me started on her sex life. It’s perfect!”

In another ad, the purple monster imitates a yoga teacher to try to convince the woman to “Breathe in your anxieties… Listen to your Worry Monster… Let go of your resolutions… Stop drinking healthy POM Wonderful…”

A male version (below), has a blue monster saying that he was “thrilled when [his male human] had his health scare, but now he runs and drinks POM Wonderful, and nothing I say makes him worry."

Two more, including one showing a man sleeping soundly for the first time in ages, are also coming.

All use the tagline: “Worry Less. Get Crazy Healthy.”

The TV ads will air on evening, late-night and daytime cable shows, including “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”, “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” “Better Call Saul” and “The Dr. Oz Show.”

Considerable effort went into adapting the creative theme to other media, according to Moran. “We let the Worry Monsters use every medium to their best advantage,” he says.

In the digital billboard incarnation, a Worry Monster grabs the attention of passers-by, pointing out a bunch of things they could be worrying about while wandering around Times Square (“All the bathrooms within a mile are out of order”), before informing them that POM Wonderful could help them rid themselves of such irrational fears.

The social media campaign is launching with a series of shareable “worrivational” posters, showing Worry Monsters offering up twisted versions of motivational clichés (“Happiness comes and goes. Anxiety is forever.”)

There’s also a 60-second YouTube pre-roll video in which a Worry Monster “breaks the fourth wall” to reach out to the viewer and point out a variety of things he or she should be worrying about. A POM bottle next to the “skip ad” button encourages people to skip the worry by skipping the commercial -- and  drinking POM instead.

A dedicated campaign area on POM’s website features the videos, a “mindfulness meditation from your Worry Monster,” and a tool that, when clicked, generates “Today’s Worry” (“Hep C is just a handshake away”) — after informing the user that it’s searched your browser history, texted your boss the last photo you saved, and updated all statuses with Social Security numbers.

To create the Worry Monster campaign, Wonderful Agency worked with Hollywood character design firm Aaron Sims Creative and monster fabricator Stefaniuk FX Studio. Additional visual effects were created by Academy Award-winning studio MPC.