Smarties Show Your Colours

Sometimes I’m right, but I can be wrong. The rest of the post is after this song.

Using a rendition of the 1968 classic “Everyday People” by Sly & the Family Stone, Nestle’s Smarties brought together local talents from across Canada in order to create a 2008 advertising campaign. Under the guidance of JWT Canada the colourful candy’s marketing campaign gained huge momentum. There were 3 or 4 particular phases in this particular advertisement that blasted it into success.

As you probably have watched from the video above, the first of this was a rebranding campaign. Smarties went from the company that always talked about “eating the red ones last” to reinventing themselves using all their colours. Launching with a TV spot that featured 12 local canadian talents, the campaign was off to a great start. I feel that the whole song itself, the idea of promoting colours, and the choice of song are what truly made this an effective ad. Diversity in the last few decades has become increasingly important. When JWT and Nestle saw this, they began to promote both smarties and diversity. Diversity in age, in gender, in race, skills, you name it.

Online, the video gained popularity on youtube and the 12 Canadian artists were thrown into a competition on Smarties.ca. Paired in teams of 2 and identified by their colours, pink, blue, green, and a flurry of others could be voted by the public to perform on national television. Moreso, the Smarties campaign followed through and asked each of the 12 Canadian talents what “Show your Colours” meant to them as part of the competition to add to the theme of diversity.

While not as widespread throughout all of Canada, parts of Toronto were plastered with Smarties street art stickers [photo below]. These stickers featured the Smarties website and were posted on only the most colourful of buildings. An efficient, effective method of spreading awareness to the new Smarties campaign.

Of course, because this campaign occurred in February, 2008, the website is no longer available and instead has been replaced by a new campaign entitled “Blue is Back.” However, the “Show your Colours” slogan still remains and showyourcolours.ca still works as a redirect to the Smarties website.

Rebranding can be quite interesting, eh?