Episode 133 - Honest Eggs Co. FitChix Ad Reviewed by the LEGO Group and Apple
How much do you care about the wellbeing of chicken? Enough to count their steps to trust they’re living happily outdoors before they lay your eggs?
Honest Eggs Co.’s “FitChix” ad chosen by Contagious this week shows us a high-tech approach to their hens’ health. It’s “clucking good fun” for sure, but is it too much of a gimmick? Or is the added chicken personality a bonus for an animal loving audience?
Watch the latest Advertisers Watching Ads to hear from Nikita Longdon (Senior Creative Project Manager at the LEGO Group), Diane Perlman (former CMO at Blis), and Avi Sudaley (Director of Performance Marketing at Apple & future Director of Marketing et E.On) and see if they fell for this ad.
Episode 133 - Honest Eggs Co. FitChix Ad Reviewed by the LEGO Group and Apple
Transcript is automatically generated, so not perfect, but you get the idea!
Tom Ollerton 0:00
Hello, and welcome to Advertisers Watching Ads. My name is Tom Ollerton. I'm the founder of Automated Creative and this is a weekly show where brands watch other brands' ads.
Tom Ollerton 0:23
Thanks to Contagious, our sponsors, who helped sourced the ad this week. Before we see the ad, let's meet this week's guests.
Nikita Longdon 0:29
Hi, I'm the Nikita Longdon. I'm a Senior Creative Project Manager, currently working at Lego.
Diane Perlman 0:35
Hello, I'm Diane Perlman, and I'm the former CMO at Blis and I just recently left.
Avi Sudaley 0:40
I'm Avi, I'm the Director of Performance Marketing at Apple, and I'm just about to start a role as Director of Marketing at EON.
Tom Ollerton 0:48
Fantastic. Thanks for joining us, guys. Let's see this week's ad.
Tom Ollerton 2:15
I would like you to vote for how good you think this is one, two, three... A three, a three, and a four.
Nikita Longdon 2:23
The first time I watched it, I thought, "What am I watching?" I didn't know where the advert was going. And I didn't know whether it was real or not. And I Googled it and it's very much real. They've actually made quite a few devices that they say doesn't harm the hens and their hens wear them a few hours a day to track their whereabouts. It's inventive. I'll give it that.
Diane Perlman 2:45
I didn't actually think it wasn't real. But I definitely thought it was you know, it's got that real downhome kind of production with the founder out in the field. But I did think it was very gimmicky, but also clucking good fun, I'll say.
Avi Sudaley 2:57
Yeah, there was a moment where I was wondering if it was satire or not.
Tom Ollerton 3:00
Does that mean it's good? It's like, it could be BS, but then, it appears to be real. Is this what marketing should be where it sort of pulls us in?
Avi Sudaley 3:07
I guess it depends on your audience. I mean, if you've got like hardcore vegans as your audience and people who really care about animal wellness, then it could be very successful. If you've got others then they might find the whole thing silly.
Nikita Longdon 3:20
I think it's quite funny that you said, "Is this BS?" because their whole business like messaging is around no BS. I just felt like they were just having a bit of a joke and a laugh. But I'm not sure how well that it actually lands, in terms of landing the point, that this is no BS, like they're supposed to be really leaning into like, this is real farming, real farmers. I'm not sure whether they land that as well, because it seemed like a bit, they really leant into the humor of it. I wasn't quite sure whether it was, it was meant to be taken seriously or not. So I'm not sure whether that part landed that well.
Diane Perlman 3:53
Further, I was reading on some of their Instagram posts. It's not the actual amount, they put it on the chickens for a couple of hours, and they average it out. So it's not like a full-step count. You know, they don't harness these things on to all the chickens all the time. They kind of let them you know, a few of them run around with it for a couple of hours, and then they print an average. So that's why I think it's a bit gimmicky, but they are having a lot of fun with it. I mean, I don't know if you saw the Instagram posts, but they, having like a cam on some of the different chickens and they've given them names and people are kind of rooting for them. And you know, it makes them quite lovable. And so, they've got a real, they've added a lot of personality to chicken, chicken personality to it, which makes it kind of fun and endearing. But I think the device itself is a bit, is a bit of a gimmick.
Avi Sudaley 4:36
It is something that people do, which is kind of like trying to create a sense of, these are cruelty free, you're not, you don't have to feel like these animals are being harmed in the process. So it's kind of just an extra layer of trying to show like, "Hey, like we're actually taking this seriously. This isn't like some fake cage-free eggs that, you know, we're just keeping them locked up and stuff." So it's gimmicky but it also gets the message through that if you do care about animal safety, then this one is, you know, a cute brand to go with.
Diane Perlman 5:06
It's a great ambition, though, to try and be, you know, be this elevated egg brand, you know that... And a lot of people do care about this issue of battery farming, you know, and all the, you know, mistreatment and, you know, small cages and, and that chickens are farmed and raised in. And and so, you know, I think that there will be a lot of people who care about that issue. You know, if it can break through, then, you know, then people will be like, "Yeah, I want those eggs with the chickens running around," you know, and then maybe it's too early to say whether it's worked or not, but I don't know many other egg brands that have really tried to do something totally different. If it's one and done, then maybe they've got a problem. But if this, you know, becomes the beginning of kind of campaigns that build and additional chicken innovation and you know, things to keep that eggs fresh top of mind, then could be, could be, they could be on to something.
Avi Sudaley 5:56
Eggs all look the same. So it's a commoditized market. So if you want to try to stand out and not just be looked at by price, then you got to do some of these gimmicky things to try to you know, like some of the fancier egg brands, they have beautiful egg cartons, they do a lot of things to try to make themselves stand out. So this is just another out of the box way to not be, you know, just going to race to the cheapest.
Nikita Longdon 6:23
Looking at the Honest Eggs comments, like their audience actually engages with, like with the brand. They're asking questions. I saw someone asked a really detailed question about the device and how it works. And does it harm the egg, the chickens? Some of these are saying that, they absolutely love that they care about the welfare of their chickens, you know, love that they're doing this and love the transparency. So, I mean, it does seem like, you know, an egg is an egg. But people really do care. And I think when people feel that, you know, they've got that, that transparency and can see where their food is coming from. I think they lean into it a lot more. And I think it's actually worked great as a social campaign. You know, like creating these chicken characters and personas where you can see like, Henrietta the chicken, you can see her route of the day, I'm sure they've made it up, but...
Diane Perlman 7:19
Yeah, it's really cute.
Nikita Longdon 7:20
You can see her roam, yeah... And, you know, it is quite nice and endearing. Just be like, "Oh, nice little day today." I think it will definitely make people lean into the brand and connect with the brand a lot more.
Diane Perlman 7:32
They are tapping into a lot of the kind of zeitgeist around people being really conscious about, you know, food origins, where their food is coming from how animals are being treated. And also, I think this trend about you know, which some companies like Million Dollar Shave Club and some others have done really well, you know, where they put their founder on camera, you know, in all of their glory or unglory. And, and they you know, and they let them talk as themselves to camera and they... And something funny happens around them or, you know, they create something so, so I think they really have tapped into a lot of trends that are, that are, that people care about. Or that people are tapping into themselves. From that perspective, they've done a good job of bringing a lot of threads together. And I think the key will be how do they sustain that? You know, is this, is this just a flash in the pan? If they can really consistently be all about this chicken welfare and be demonstrating that in new and inventive ways of going then, you know, I think people will, would develop a preference for that brand of eggs.
Avi Sudaley 8:33
You kind of have like a spectrum of like, the most extreme highest end of the market, which is, this side, and then the lowest end of the market, which is, just you know, people getting raw eggs and like if you go in Africa or something, they just have the eggs there and they're completely unbranded, completely unmarked. You go and collect them in your, in your case that you bring with you. So it's kind of like the two ends of the market. One with absolutely no brand, no name, no nothing and then the other where it's like high tech, and you know, as as high as you can possibly take this, basically.
Tom Ollerton 9:09
Would you sign off this campaign in its current form? One, two, three... There you have it. Nikita, Diane, Avi, thanks so much for your time.
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