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Behind the Work in association withThe Immortal Awards
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How Zulu Alpha Kilo Used a Robot to Debut a Goldfish Cracker for Adults

03/11/2022
Advertising Agency
Toronto, Canada
329
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The teams from Zulu Alpha Kilo, the Campbell Soup Company and Merchant director Jason Jeffrey discuss what it took to build a robot, the challenge of a 15-second spot, and why now was the time to launch Goldfish for an older demographic, writes LBB’s Josh Neufeldt

In Canada, there’s no snack quite like Goldfish. If you’re a child at summer camp, an after-school program, or simply eating lunch on a regular school day, and you pull out a pack of Goldfish? There is no doubt that you will immediately be swarmed by friends who want a cracker. However, as iconic as it may be, the common theme in all these instances is that the cheesy, smiling, fish-shaped cracker is (traditionally) best enjoyed by children. It’s for this reason that Goldfish brand owners Campbell Soup Company once again collaborated with Zulu Alpha Kilo, launching Goldfish ‘Mega Bites’ - a cracker designed for adults. 
 
But, while working on the campaign, an immediate ‘concern’ arose. While the name is quite literal (with these crackers being 50% larger than their traditional Goldfish counterparts), Zulu Alpha Kilo also understood that for some, ‘Mega Bite’ might easily be confused with ‘Megabyte’. Thankfully, they were able to enlist the help of a robot spokesperson (built by Laird FX) to launch ‘Mega Bites not Megabytes’ - telling the world about these new crackers (and hopefully avoiding confusion while doing so). 
 
Directed by Merchant director Jason Jeffrey, the campaign features three spots, in which the robot spokesperson addresses an audience of fellow bots, warning them that the new Goldfish 'Mega Bites' are delicious crackers for humans, not 'megabytes' for robots, before immediately demonstrating the adverse effects of a robot attempting to eat a ‘Mega Bite’. 
 
LBB’s Josh Neufeldt sat down with the teams from Zulu Alpha Kilo, the Campbell Soup Company and Jason, to learn more about how this campaign was brought to life. 




LBB> Debuting a new cracker in an already competitive category is no easy task. As such, what was the brief for this campaign? 

 
Zulu Alpha Kilo> With a name like ‘Mega Bites’, our initial instincts were to play off the size of the cracker. An early territory we had was positioning it as the ‘world’s biggest Goldfish’, as we liked the thought that any town in Canada was home to the world’s biggest Goldfish. But, we learned from preliminary research that telling consumers Goldfish now had a larger cracker wouldn’t be enough to overcome the perception that the product was too mild for parent tastes. We’re happier with where we landed. Thanks research!  
 
Campbell Soup> The brief’s focus was really to expand our household penetration with an adult audience, by communicating the product’s most enticing proof points of flavour and crunch. We’ve been partners with Zulu Alpha Kilo on Goldfish for over three years, and know they will always push us in the right ways towards delivering breakthrough and ultimately, impactful work. Our work together on ‘Feeding Imagination’ is one such example. 
 
 

LBB> What made now the right time to launch a Goldfish cracker for adults? 

 
Campbell Soup> Our category is more competitive than ever, and we’ve witnessed success with our US counterparts delivering on an age-up strategy. With our goal to continue growing household penetration, we knew we needed to revisit our target audience for consumption.  
 

 

LBB> Building on this, what was the research process like for preparing to enter the ‘adult cracker space’? What were the key takeaways?

 
Zulu Alpha Kilo> Through preliminary consumer research, we learned that flavour and crunch were most important to our audience, so that had to come through loud and clear. ‘Mega Bites not Megabytes’ performed well in focus groups, but the robot was a bit polarising. What we learned was that the robot needed to be likeable, and not appear like it might take your job tomorrow.  
 
Campbell Soup> We did qualitative research with current buyers, as well as lapsed and non-buyers. We heard they were very open to a Goldfish cracker tailored to their tastes, but simply telling them that this was a cracker for adults wouldn’t be enough to make it appealing, as it’s currently associated with a more mild taste suited for kids’ palettes. We heard that crunch and flavour were what they were seeking in a satisfying snack. The jalapeno-cheddar flavour stood out in particular, in this regard. 
 

 

LBB> The campaign slogan of ‘Mega Bites are not Megabytes’ is super clever. Was the robot spokesperson what led to this, or did the slogan come first? 

 
Zulu Alpha Kilo> The play on words came first. It seemed like a smart way to create name recognition for a new product, and leaning into technology and AI felt creatively rich. We explored it a few different ways, but a robot spokesperson felt the most breakthrough, and was a good device for communicating the product attributes we needed to reinforce.  
 
 

LBB> All three of the spots are super funny. What made multiple short spots the right approach for this campaign?

 
Zulu Alpha Kilo> We liked the idea of doing a series of short, punchy spots, each centred around a different gag. We wanted to flip the traditional spokesperson narrative: instead of encouraging consumption, our robot is warning other robots not to try ‘Mega Bites’, but then tries them himself. Once we had that structure, it was just about finding the funniest ways that ‘consumption moment’ could go wrong.  

 



LBB> Director Jason Jeffrey handled the spots. Why was he the right person to bring this campaign to life? 

 
Zulu Alpha Kilo> Jason is amazing. We've worked with Jason before (on a yet to be released project) and love his passion and collaborative style. It’s rare to work with a director who’s so invested in every aspect of the shoot. He really feels like an extension of the creative team. 
 
 

LBB> Jason, how did you get involved in this campaign?

 
Jason> I’d worked with Jacob Gawrysiak and George Ault (the creative directors) before, so when I saw the brief, I was excited by the prospect of working with them again. They’re such a great creative team - so smart! I knew right away that this had to be a benevolent robot. There could be zero malice behind its intentions. And it couldn’t be too high-tech, either. It had to be a likeable creature. 
 


LBB> How did the experience of creating multiple shorts for this campaign compare to directing a longer-form, single ad? 


Jason> I think with short-form work, you have to be very precise and deliberate when you direct. There’s so little wiggle room. On set, we had someone with a stopwatch timing each take, and we’d be shaving words and re-working the scripts to save milliseconds as we went.  

In the lead up to the shoot, we were really focused on trimming the scripts to make sure they could be cut into 15-second films. There was so much to get into each story, with the dialogue, gag, and end frame. The last thing I wanted was to go into the edit with footage I knew couldn’t be cut down. The thought of that kept me up at night.



LBB> The robot spokesperson is undoubtedly the highlight of this campaign. What went into bringing him to life?  

 
Zulu Alpha Kilo> We had amazing partners at Laird FX who literally worked around the clock to build a fully functioning robot in a matter of weeks. Each part needed to be 3D printed and mechanically assembled so the robot could do what the spots required. We loved the slight awkwardness of the robot’s movements which made it feel more approachable. Lights were added in post to make the robot look more alive. We added glasses because a robot in glasses was just the right amount of dumb.  

Jason> A lot went into bringing him to life! Laird FX in Toronto would have loved four weeks to build him, but because of the tight deadline, they only had two. And they were so amazing along the way! They pretty much had their shop open 24/7 in the last few days before the shoot to finish him. We started out with a detailed 3D drawing, and then his body was 3D printed. After that, all the animatronic components and joints were built into the body. 



LBB> What was the experience of shooting with this robot spokesperson like? And in general, how did the shoot go?


Jason> The shoot went great. It was one of those ‘I can’t believe this is actually my job’ type days. It took four people to operate the robot. One person on each arm (moving it with rods), one person on a remote control (operating the robot’s jaw), and then another on a computer (operating its eye and head movements). As the director, I’d think about what part of the performance needed adjusting, and then speak to the specific puppeteer. They were all talented individuals with great command of their craft, so really, it was like working with good actors. You give them a bit of direction and they run with it and make it better than how you said it. 



LBB> The shot of the robot’s mind being blown, and the shot of its jaw popping off are particularly standout. How did you achieve these moments?


Jason> From the start, we always wanted this robot to be practical. So, the jaw action was something the robot was designed to do from day one. The puppeteer on the remote control would hit a button and the jaw would fall off on the one side and hang there on the other. It was important that the jaw didn’t fall completely off - we wanted it to stay in frame, rather than falling to the floor and off camera. So, there was a little hook that would catch it on one side.

The mind-blown part was also practical, though we did enhance the explosion in post. We ran a hose up through the robot’s body cavity to have smoke come out, and then had a few sparklers on a C-stand right behind its head to get that sparking effect. And then the puppeteers just made it go crazy as it was shorting out.




LBB> The voice of the robot is super funny. Was it AI-generated, and was it added in during the post-production process?


Jason> We played around with using an AI-generated robot voice, but ultimately, we went with a person playing the robot. We felt it needed a ‘human touch’ - those little intonations you don’t get with AI. The AI voice was also making the robot sound a bit nefarious, which we definitely didn’t want. On set, we had an actor reading the robot’s lines so we could match up the mouth movements (though this actor wasn’t the person we ended up using in the end product). Instead, the voice actor was recorded at a session later on.
 

 

LBB> As a whole, what has engagement been like? How have people reacted to this campaign? 

 
Zulu Alpha Kilo> The reaction’s been really positive. The spots are breaking through, and sales are exceeding targets. We've been able to lay the groundwork for a lot of fun work to come.
 
Campbell Soup> We’ve seen positive media results and press pick up to date, and sales are tracking above expectations. We’re still in the early stages of the campaign being in the market, but are excited to see how it progresses and continues to gain momentum. 
 

 

LBB> Do you have a spot you’re particularly proud of? 

 
Zulu Alpha Kilo> Seeing the robot’s head explode still makes us laugh.  
 
Campbell Soup> My favourite may be ‘Mouse’; the personification of a computer mouse as a ‘character’ is quite unique and funny. 
 
Jason> I love ‘Jaw Drop’. I obsessed about it a lot because it felt like the one that needed the most care and attention for it to really land. Things like the jaw coming off mid ‘jaw-dropping flavour’ line, having the jaw not fully fall off so we could see it hanging there, and then subtitling the robot’s words after the jaw falls off… These are all things we carefully thought about and obsessed over, trying to make the film as funny as it could be. I’m really proud of how all the elements came together. 
 
 

LBB> Are you sure we can’t share a ‘Mega Bite’ with our robot friends? 

 
Campbell Soup> If you do know a robot who is interested in trying them – go for it! They just might short-circuit from how good the flavour is. 
 

 

LBB> Is there anything you’d like to add? 

 
Zulu Alpha Kilo> There's a second phase to the campaign where we lean more heavily into megabytes in a fun way. We've created an activation in the metaverse where consumers can collect digital crackers and turn them into real ones. So essentially: turn megabytes into ‘Mega Bites’ in the metaverse. Say that five times fast. 
 
Jason> The extremely wide shot that we cut to in the theatre - when the robot’s mind blows - was my baby. I pushed for it from day one, because I thought it would help make the campaign feel bigger. It was even the last shot we did on the day! We were on the verge of going into overtime, and we had everyone running around the theatre, moving mannequins to different seats as we shot a dozen or so different plate shots, because we only had around eight mannequins for the crowd. And then we composited all the different shots together, in post, to fill out the robot audience in the theatre.


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