Tropicana lights up a dark morning

A branded stunt performed at the top of the world is about to kick off a new campaign for Tropicana.

In January, PepsiCo Canada, which owns the Tropicana brand, took a giant, helium-filled, illuminated balloon to Inuvik, a community in the Northwest Territories that goes weeks without sunlight during winter. When lit, the balloon shed light throughout the town, creating an artificial sunrise.

At the balloon’s lighting in a public park, bottles of Tropicana orange juice were distributed to residents who had gathered to watch, capping a giveaway that had been running in the lead up to the event where 1,200 cartons of juice were made available to the community.

The event, which coincided with the town’s Sunrise Festival, was captured on film and made into English and French 60-second ads set to air Feb. 28 before the Winter Olympics’ closing ceremonies broadcast on CTV, TSN, Sportsnet, RDS and V.

Shorter documentary-style ads shot in Inuvik will begin airing the next day, with all ads driving to a new Facebook page that will show behind-the-scenes materials from Inuvik.

BBDO Toronto and its digital sibling Proximity Canada created the campaign.

Dale Hooper, vice-president marketing, PepsiCo Beverage Canada, said the goal was "go non-traditional," not focusing on just television, but finding a way to build something both flexible and scalable.

"We asked ourselves how we could create something that was grounded in Canada, but different," Hooper said. "BBDO came back and suggested going to a place that hasn’t had a traditional morning in 31 days."

Previously, the brand focused on attributes such as "purity" and natural taste. Those elements will be included going forward, but during its launch phase the campaign will focus on Tropicana’s place in the morning ritual. The Inuvik ad introduces the new tag line "brighter mornings."

"The first part of it is much more emotive, but as the campaign gets built out you’ll see us continuing to go back to what made us great: the best-tasting, 100% not from concentrate [message]. It’s the first time we’ve opened up to say we want to be part of your morning…but we’re not going to walk away from what made us what we are."

The 60-second ad will be in heavy rotation during morning television in the first two weeks of the campaign. Beyond the launch phase, the brand will partner with Breakfast Television, the morning show that airs on five Rogers television stations, to do on-air events.