Brand releases

Oddities are back and odder than ever!

Date: 11-04-2013

United Biscuits (UBUK), a leading manufacturer of biscuits and cakes, has announced the launch of a fully integrated marketing campaign to support its popular savoury biscuits range, Jacob’s Oddities. Launching in May, the campaign will include the return of Jacob’s Oddities popular TV advert, a new radio campaign, in store activation, as well as digital and social media activity.

Recently voted Savoury Snack Product of the Year 2013 by consumers, Jacob’s Oddities has rapidly grown to become a £9.8m RSV brand after just one year of being on sale and is set to only get bigger with the launch of this new heavyweight campaign to drive awareness and trial amongst family shoppers.

Media oddities launch nationwide
Running for 5 weeks from 6th May, the TV campaign will see the return of Jacob’s Oddities popular creative which follows the journey of a bag of Jacob’s Oddities as it travels from a park bench to outer space, encountering everything from aliens to spacemen. The creative will also include a new end frame highlighting the addition of three new variants to the range following their launch earlier this year, including Salt & Vinegar, Sour Cream & Chive and Ready Salted, as well as highlighting in store positioning in the savoury biscuits aisle.

Kicking off on 3rd June, Jacob’s Oddities new radio campaign features three 30 second radio adverts which each focus on different flavours, using characters to tell short stories with sound effects representing individual shapes from the packet.

The brand will also be engaging with consumers via digital and social media platforms including its Jacob’s Oddities Facebook page, www.facebook.com/jacobsoddities and its refreshed microsite, www.jacobsoddities.co.uk. Sampling and in store advertising will also be implemented in stores across the grocery and convenience channels.

Gerry Roads, Marketing Director of Savoury Biscuits at UBUK commented: “Oddities has been received exceptionally well by consumers as shown by the recent Savoury Snack Product of the Year 2013 Award and the fact the brand has already achieved such a high brand value within a year of sale. As a result, Jacob’s Oddities has driven fresh, younger consumers into the category and has helped the savoury biscuits category achieve a healthy category growth of 13%.

“Already a popular brand amongst consumers, this marketing campaign will help to take Jacob’s Oddities to another level of brand awareness prompting new customers into the savoury biscuits aisle and increasing sales for retailers as a result.”

Following extensive consumer research into flavour preferences, UBUK launched three new variants to the Jacob’s Oddities range earlier this year; Salt & Vinegar, Sour Cream & Chive and Ready Salted, all of which received exceptionally high scores amongst consumers, as well as a high purchase intention both pre and post-trial. All of the new variants are available to buy in multipack (5 x 25g bags) and 125g sharing bag formats with RISPS of £1.59 and £1.29 respectively.