After completing an overhaul of its master brand earlier this year, food conglomerate Kellogg’s is launching a new return-to-roots campaign, focused on the simplicity of some of its most classic breakfast cereals.
Running under the tagline “Goodness of a Simple Grain,” the marketing effort aims to bring back to the forefront core products like Corn Flakes, Rice Krispies and Raisin Bran—pitching consumers, in farm-to-table fashion, on the small number of ingredients in its heritage breakfast fare (Corn Flakes, for example, has only four).
“From the seed to the spoon,” coos a motherly voiceover in one of the television spots.
Kellogg’s pursued the strategy based on research showing shoppers are looking for “simplicity in terms of the number of ingredients and simplicity in terms of how foods are made,” said Doug VanDeVelde, the company’s svp of morning foods, marketing and innovation. “We have a number of brands like this that we’ve been making for a hundred years…But consumers weren’t really aware of that, and we need to, in a very simple way, remind them.”
The campaign, with creative from Leo Burnett and Lapiz, and digital from VML, kicked off on Hispanic television last week, and is set to hit general market TV on Sept. 17. Along with digital and print, it includes a sponsorship at the Country Music Awards and a full-episode integration with Food Network’s The Next Iron Chef.
In recent years, Kellogg’s has been making the master brand a more central part of its advertising, said VanDeVelde. Kellogg’s, which also had a large presence during the Olympics, spent $155 million across media in Q1 2012, versus $143 million in Q1 2011, per Kantar.