If there’s one can’t-miss sign that Knorr’s new digitally-led “Love at first taste” campaign is very much targeting a millennial audience, it’s the appearance of a dude with a prominent neck tattoo.
Knorr’s London-based senior director of global marketing Ukonwa Ojo laughs when asked if the brand has featured someone with such distinctive body markings in previous marketing efforts.
“Probably not,” she says. “It’s reflecting all the people who absolutely love this brand; we all do things quite differently and it really gets to the heart of the campaign – which is that your flavour preferences are very unique, and that the more we understand that the more we can celebrate that.”
Launching simultaneously in approximately 20 global markets including Canada, Love at first taste is a continuation of the “Flavour of Home” campaign launched by the soup and seasonings brand last year. Both campaigns are designed to underscore what Ojo calls “the power of flavour” central to Knorr’s brand promise.
The campaign’s centrepiece is a short film developed by creative agency MullenLowe and directed by Tatia Pilieva, who also directed the “First Kiss” spot for fashion brand WREN. That spot, which featured 20 strangers kissing for the first time, has garnered more than 113 million views on YouTube and won a Gold Lion in the film category at Cannes in 2014.
Described by Knorr as a “social experiment,” the new film brings together strangers who share similar flavour preferences as identified by the new “Knorr Flavour Profiler” for a blind date. Adding to the video’s fun factor is the fact that each person has to feed the other.
Developed in association with IBM, the new online tool asks users a series of questions about their food preferences and assigns them one of 12 different personal flavour profiles – ranging from “Salty Adventurer” to “Roasted Romantic” and “Meaty Warrior” – and provides personalized recipes built around Knorr products.
“We thought it would be great to bring to life how powerful flavour is and how it can help [people] make a meaningful connection,” says Ojo. “There was quite a bit of chemistry, and we know of at least one of those couples that is still dating.”
Knorr also interviewed 12,000 people in 12 countries about what flavour means to them, with 70% of Canadians indicating that flavour is a fundamental part of their daily life – so much so that 74% say they would be willing to give up social media entirely and 64% the right to vote in order to retain their sense of taste.
“We geek out when it comes to flavour,” says Ojo, noting that Knorr employs more than 300 chefs responsible for developing different products and recipes. “We already knew it was important, but it was great to see how important it is to others.”
Knorr is one of 13 brands with 1 billion Euros in global sales in the Unilever portfolio, with Ojo saying it is currently “in a really good place.” According to Kantar Worldpanel’s most recent annual ranking of the world’s most chosen consumer brands, it is the eighth most-chosen brand in the world, with 1.6 billion purchases a year.
“We have millions and millions of people who absolutely love the brand and choose it multiple times a year,” said Ojo. “We’re doing this to continue to be relevant to the folks who love us today, and appeal to foodies who may not know about our shared passion and give them an opportunity to connect with us.”
The company describes the campaign as part of broader drive to develop a more contemporary approach to communications, all aimed at a new generation of food lovers who use social media to share and discover recipes, for whom chefs are celebrities and food bloggers can attract millions of followers.
“We think it’s a really exciting time to be a food brand,” says Ojo. “There’s so much going on in food right now, and this just gives us an opportunity to have a voice in that culture to help people understand their personal and unique relationship with flavour and food.”
