KD’s new campaign is driven by a new channel mix combining print, digital and OOH.

The creative concept revolves around the idea that people’s craving for the brand’s macaroni and cheese can be so intense that they often rip open the box rather than using the push tab. Instead of showing the flawless production of the KD blue case, the ads take an unusual approach by featuring a broken version of the box, intentionally emphasizing the tab’s imperfection.

The tongue-in-cheek campaign has launched with 30 digital ads at Toronto and GTA transit stops, as well as a full-page ad in Torstar‘s Saturday edition, featured alongside top news stories in the “A” section. Carat is handling media while Rethink is in charge of creative.

Brian Neumann, head of brand communications at Kraft Heinz Canada, tells MiC that the channel mix for this campaign has shifted slightly from previous efforts. While digital and social media were previously the focus, the brand opted this time to invest more in OOH to reach a wider audience in high-exposure areas. According to Neumann, KD estimates that OOH could help generate more than 13.7 million impressions for this campaign, “far surpassing impressions from traditional print alone.”

“We launched this campaign on social, but as we saw the creative come to life, we believed that it would be a showstopping OOH, which is another important channel as we target Gen Z on the go,” Neumann says. “Our goal is to show up along the consumer journey, so we often consider multi-channel approaches vs. just social.”

Building on previous campaigns that targeted “Zillennials” on Reddit and TikTok (a cohort that ranges from younger Gen Zers to older millennials), the team aims to connect with a similar demo: young professionals and urban commuters aged 18 to 34. Neumann notes that this age group has grown up with KD, and the brand aims to maintain a connection with them as they move into a new life phases and explore other food alternatives.

He adds that the creative was inspired by a behaviour they saw on social media with fans sharing photos of their ripped KD boxes. By highlighting the blue box in a that way, he says the team is able to reflect how people actually experience KD at home and position the brand in a more authentic way.

“With previous campaigns, we have often used perfectly produced shots of our products with strong appetite appeal. While that isn’t going away and you will still see that in future work, we wanted to double down on relatability for this campaign,” Neumann says. “We want consumers to feel seen through this campaign and leave thinking, ‘this brands gets me.'”