Agencies often seek to get involved with products during their development stage to better shape their marketability. Toronto agency The Hive got just that chance when Mackenzie Davison, director of chocolate and candy for Kraft Canada, invited the agency to help shape the new Maynard’s Granny Smith candies.
Davison said Kraft and The Hive have long been strategically aligned and had consistently delivered great work. “So certainly there was a conscious effort to bring them in early, and we are absolutely thrilled with the outcome.”
Davison said The Hive led the development of the product’s name, packaging, overall look and feel, and brand communication.
“We look to our agency to bring to life compelling ideas,” Davison said. “And in this case, I found there was great benefit to do that early. We had worked with The Hive before on Maynards, so there was a certain level of trust and collaboration. We were very comfortable and excited about the creativity they could bring.”
While the product’s formulation was already finalized by the time the agency came in, Davison said The Hive’s early involvement helped created a “compelling and engaging” overall product to break through in the highly fragmented candy category.
“We’ve been working with Cadbury, which is now Kraft Canada, for almost four years, and we were lucky enough to be invited into the brand development phase, which is pretty unusual,” said Simon Creet, vice-president and chief creative officer at The Hive.
“We came to the decision that it was a pretty fantastic sour apple flavour, and it was best to embrace it,” said Creet. “The next stage was developing a complete brand identity, which is based on this grandmother character – Granny Smith – and just how sour is she.”
Granny Smith with make her national media debut at the end of April with digital, out-of-home and transit ads.
