Lucky Charms Rebrand - Creative Campaign

It’s Cool to be Quirky Campaign Plan

Creative Plan

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Creative Strategy Selling Premise

Lucky Charms’ unique selling proposition comes from its colorful marshmallow bits, otherwise known as “marbits.” Breakfast with marshmallows might be delicious, but there is no denying that it is also kind of weird. That being said, the marbits are also what makes Lucky Charms so fun, colorful and unique. Therefore, we will utilize marbits and other Lucky Charms motifs to promote that “It’s Cool to be Quirky!”.

Campaign Theme

Just like our target consumer who feels more comfortable in the mainstream, Lucky Charms has comfortably accepted normalcy. But we all have our hidden quirks, and it’s time to embrace that fun weirdness: be it in personality, family time or cereal. We are calling on our consumers to not be afraid to be quirky, just like Lucky Charms is not afraid to be weird with its marshmallow pieces.

Therefore, our big idea is, “It’s Cool to be Quirky.” We are particularly conveying this through the emphasis on human connection, and being quirky with others.

Unifying Elements

This campaign is centered around the idea of “It’s Cool to be Quirky” with family and friends. We will be using unifying elements such as colors, slogans, humor, themes and imagery. The quirkiness we want to embody is a fun-weird quality that is depicted through vibrant colors and humorous strangeness. These colors, chosen from past Lucky Charms advertisements and website, can be seen in the color palette pictured. We picked the sans-serif font, Avenir, for a professional but fun vibe. At times we switch to Luckiest Guy font for a playful bubbly tone.

Lucky Charms certainly benefits from its high brand recognition and reputation. While the classic Lucky Charms slogan, “They’re Magically Delicious,” will remain in packaging, this campaign will primarily use the “It’s Cool to be Quirky” tagline in most creative and promotional materials. In order to still connect Lucky Charms to its known brand image, we will incorporate Lucky Charms motifs in our creative plan. Some of these motifs include Lucky the Leprechaun, the four-leaf clover, marbits and color schemes such as the red and yellow usually seen respectively as background and text on the box itself.

Spending time with family and friends is loads of fun, especially when everyone can feel free to truly be themselves. We will be depicting this through the ad and the MarshMEllow app and website. The ads use awkward family photos while the commercial brings a humorous element of marbit strangeness that brings the family closer together. The MarshMEllow app continues to connect

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individuals to their loves ones by literally placing family and friends together in a weird Lucky Charms setting. Other creative elements of the campaign such as the Snapchat filter and emojis help set up the fun and slightly weird vibe we are aiming to create. The theme of “It’s Cool to be Quirky” continues throughout our campaign, such as in the Public Relations and Promotions section. We will utilize the hashtag “#Cool2BQuirky” to build a social presence and encourage consumers to celebrate their quirky qualities. On top of that, we will be fostering a partnership with Lucky Charms and Autism speaks, in order to bring about Autism awareness and promoting the acceptance of personal qualities that make individuals unique, be it in the scope of Autism or not.

Message Appeals

Everyone is busy, and individuals don’t spend enough meaningful time with kids or friends.

Celebrating quirkiness can bring people together by having fun. Lucky Charms does this by depicting families and friends in relatable ways while running on the line of a little awkward and funny.

Unique Brand Properties

The unique property of Lucky Charms is the marshmallow bits. Having marshmallows for breakfast is quirky in and of itself, and we will be using this idea to guide the creative. By taking the quirky marbits and relating it to the quirks people and families inevitably have, individuals can connect with the cereal through humor. In short, we take the fun and weird brand properties of Lucky and make them inseparable from the properties of an average individual’s life.

Brand Personality

This creative alters the current brand personality by making it more applicable to older age groups. This creative plan makes Lucky Charms fun for not only kids and teens, but adults as well.

We are taking a step back from the child-centered, cartoonish and adventurous approach of Lucky Charms’ past advertisement, and are instead applying the cereal itself along with Lucky Charms’ motifs to family life.

Creative Elements TV Commercial

The TV commercials will depict families while incorporating an element of marbit strangeness. One of our commercials tells the story of a family who goes to the dog pound to get a dog.

The kids’ favorite dog is actually a rainbow marbit. By the end, the dog wraps the whole family together in its leash and literally brings the happy family together. The commercial wraps up with our tagline: It’s cool to be quirky! Embrace it. We sure do. Although our campaign does not primarily discuss Lucky Charms being nutritious nor gluten-free, these are elements of the regular campaign that will be briefly mentioned in our commercial.

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TV Script

Dog Pound Owner: Alright, well go ahead and see which one you like!

Kids run through the pound excitedly looking for their favorite dog Dad: Are you sure about this?

Mom: This will be great for our family! A new pet to bring us together!

Kids: Mom! Dad! Parents come to see the dog, which turns out to be a Rainbow Marbit which barks and pants and has a collar and leash.

Mom: What a beautiful dog!

Dad: ugh‌.

The Rainbow Marbit snuggles up to the dad and they share a sentimental moment.

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The dog wraps the smiling family together with its leash.

Voice Over: Lucky Charms! Having marshmallows in your cereal is pretty weird, but it’s cool to be quirky! Embrace it. We sure do. Lucky Charms is gluten-free and a part of a nutritious breakfast.

Pandora Radio Ad

This radio spot will be used to get a Pandora listener’s attention. It highlights a family trying to take a photo together. Each family member brings their own weird quality, and the entire time the mother is trying to control the weirdness for the sake of the photo. Yet by the end, the listener realizes that the mom also brings quirkiness by getting her family members to wear matching plaid outfits. The image that pops up for the ad continues the color scheme of our creative plan as well incorporates the awkward family photo imagery seen in our print and billboard ads.

Radio Script

Mom: Okay in three seconds, I need everyone down here for the photo!

Daniel: But Mom, pick a card, any card!

Mom: Daniel, we can do magic after this photo is done-- and Joey, please, I said no Clucky in this one Joey: Alright fine...

NATSOT: chicken cluck and nails running on wood floor Dad: Honey, check this out!

NATSOT: Listeners hear helicopter toy buzzing Mom: Get that out of here! Guys, come on, literally I want one that’s semi-normal Dad: Normal! pfft.

NATSOT: Toy helicopter buzzes as Daniel and Joey can be heard in the back Daniel: Come on Joey, every magician needs an assistant!

Joey: but I don’t think I want to be sawed in half...

Mom: Ugh, please try and do this for me! Everyone come on!

NATSOT: Chicken nails on floor and clucking Dad: Alright we are all here!

Mom: Perfect! Well this needs one more touch… everyone put on these matching plaid outfits!

Everyone except Mom: WHAT? Voiceover: Lucky Charms! Marshmallows in your cereal is a little weird, but it’s cool to be quirky!

Embrace it! We sure do.

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Emojis

The emojis incorporate marbits and Lucky the Leprechaun with different expressions. They were designed for the “My Lucky Charms Life� campaign, which will encourage individuals to create a short story incorporating Lucky the Leprechaun and marbits. Further details of this campaign are described in the Public Relations Plan.

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Snapchat

Our Snapchat filter transforms a regular selfie into a chubby-cheeked Lucky the Leprechaun one. The Lucky the Leprechaun mascot design is the current one in order to tie our campaign along with current Lucky Charms visuals. Once the person opens their mouth, a green glow takes over the screen while four leaf clovers appear over their eyes and marbits rain down the screen.

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MarshMEllow

The perfectly weird way to get people excited about marbits and Lucky Charms is the MarshMEllow website and app. MarshMEllow allows you to place your face and your friends’ and family members’ faces onto dancing marbits. There are a variety of Lucky Charms scenarios from marbits surfing in milk, exploring Lucky’s Enchanted Forest and more. Refer to the image below for an example of a scene. Consumers can choose from a selection of songs to place over the clip, and the product is a hilariously weird music video that is sharable on social media.

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Floating Ad

In order to raise awareness and encourage consumers to participate in MarshMEllow, a floating ad will be utilized. When entering a website, the floating ad will appear in the banner spot location. The milk will pour out and the Shooting Star Marbit will surf out on a spoon. The Rainbow Marbit will trail behind while sliding out on the milk, depicting one of the scenes that can be selected on the MarshMEllow clip. The faces on the marbits are blank with a notice of “Your Face Here� to convey the idea that MarshMEllow is customizable. Once consumers click on the ad, they will be sent to the MarshMEllow website where they will be creating their video.

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Print and Billboard Ads

The print and billboard ads are designed to catch attention. Both of these use awkward family photos filled with Lucky Charms motifs. They depict awkward families who embody quirkiness through Lucky Charms. While the print ad has more copy connecting the marshmallow bits to the “It’s Cool to be Quirky!” aspect, the billboard keeps it simple.

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