He may not be as fresh-faced as Jamie Oliver, but Aylmer’s angry chef Shawn Rocchi is hoping to persuade consumers to try something new – pasta sauce in a pouch – in the wacky ‘Try the Sauce!’ campaign.
The campaign, with creative and media by Toronto-based SDI Marketing, centres on a series of online videos featuring the angry chef, who urges people to ‘Try the sauce!’ in various weird situations. Other elements include a branded site, a contest that invites viewers to submit their own video for a chance to win $5000, an OOH transit media buy in Toronto and Montreal, an online ad buy and in-store promotions. The in-store push includes appearances by ‘Angry Chef Rocchi’ and an audio motion sensor that blares ‘Try the sauce’ at passing customers.
The goal of the campaign, which is being rolled out this week, was to raise awareness about the product category, which Aylmer found was not resonating with Canadians. In creating the character, they hoped to engage people with a fun, interactive concept and then expand it across more traditional media.
‘If you take a second to think about pasta sauce, it’s not exactly a lively category,’ jokes Oliver Gleeson, VP experiential marketing and corporate council, SDI Marketing. ‘So, how do you stand out from the crowd without yet another ad about fresh quality ingredients as your key message? So even before we got into the number of mediums, we wanted to have a concept that we felt had the potential to be shared amongst people if they came across it in a variety of different touchpoints.’
Targeting both families and young urban professionals, the Alymer campaign media push will run through the fall in its first phase, with a possible second phase to follow. The contest runs until March 2010, to give contestants enough time to make their videos, and to promote them in order to earn votes to win the cash prize.
