La Famiglia Unveils New Brand Platform, Positioning Garlic Bread As An Irresistible Indulgence Via Connecting Plots
A quick search for ‘garlic bread’ on Reddit reveals the internet’s unwavering fascination with this delicious treat – crispy on the outside, soft and buttery on the inside, garlic bread is truly the eighth wonder of the modern world.
However, despite the widespread love for garlic bread, particularly their own, which took out top honours in the Sydney Morning Herald’s ‘Great Australian Supermarket Garlic Bread Taste Test’ in 2021, La Famiglia has not seen this translate into growth.
Research indicates that consumers don’t see garlic bread as a necessity and tend to only consider garlic bread as a pairing for Italian cuisine. This association is only exacerbated by La Famiglia’s Italian name and branding.
The new brand platform, ‘To Die For’ aims to establish a unique position in consumers’ minds beyond the typical Italian associations, elevating La Famiglia garlic bread from non-essential to irresistible by owning the extreme lengths people will go to for a taste of it.
“We know people love our garlic bread, there’s an almost cult-like obsession with it. The challenge we’re facing is lack of top-of-mind awareness and being seen as more than just a side to Italian food. Moving away from this is a critical step in growing our portfolio – showing that it’s a must have regardless of the occasion and cuisine.”
Goodman Fielder Head of Portfolio, Rose Milan.
To launch this new positioning, independent agency Connecting Plots has introduced a mascot willing to risk their life for a taste of Australia’s favourite garlic bread.
“Everyone loves La Famiglia garlic bread. Even those who probably shouldn’t, like our vampire. He’s a playful representation of just how irresistible the allure of our product is and a unique new angle for La Famiglia that is distinctly, un-Italian. We look forward to doing more with him in the future and building out the brand platform.”
Connecting Plots Creative Partner, Matt Geersen.
View the full campaign here →
Changi Airport Group Launches Campaign To Drive ANZ Visitation In First Work By Connecting Plots
For ANZ travelers, the tyranny of distance means that outside of the obligatory boarding pass instagram post at the airport, there’s little joy to be found until we reach our final destination. Unless of course, you happen to be traveling via one of the best airports in the world. With seemingly limitless experiences, the award-winning Singapore Changi Airport offers the chance to start the holiday early.
The new campaign celebrates the wealth of activities and experiences available across Changi’s four terminals and Jewel, its multi-dimensional entertainment and retail complex. From swimming pools to a mirror maze to robots serving the latest whisky, it is so much more than just an airport. It’s ‘a departure from ordinary.’
“We’ve been incredibly excited to bring this campaign to life. The work really captures the breadth of extraordinary experiences available that make Changi Airport more than your standard transit airport, but one that becomes part of the holiday experience itself.”
Changi Airport Group Vice President of Corporate & Marketing Communications, Kelvin Ng.
“Changi Airport really is a departure from ordinary. Being able to enjoy such a wide range of incredible experiences while breaking up your journey is an enticing proposition for travelers from Australia and New Zealand.”
Connecting Plots Creative Partner, Matt Geersen.
The new work is the first to come out of independent creative agency, Connecting Plots since it was officially appointed as ANZ creative agency of record in August 2023 following a competitive pitch.
View the full campaign here →
Mad Mex Give Away Burial Plot To Combat Permanent Food Comas Via Connecting Plots
Not for the faint of heart, the cult-classic is back by popular demand, returning for its 14th year for a limited 6 week period until 21 July. During that time, the iconic double-sized burrito will come with a free can of Liquid Death, promising to murder both your hunger and your thirst.
Anyone daring enough to take on the challenge will go in the running to win a grand prize to die for – their own personal plot of land in a cemetery. Entrants just need to purchase a Big Burrito combo, go to the website and write the inscription for their own tombstone in 25 words or less to go into the running to win their very own burial plot.
The campaign uses popular content creators @lach_mac and @jonbernardk to deliver eulogies for friends and family who tackled the combo, while the ever-popular satirical institution, The Betoota Advocate is publishing bespoke content to give the combo mass appeal.
“While Aussie property prices soar and cost of living grows more expensive than ever, the cost of dying just got that little bit easier. Partnering with killer brands like Mad Mex and Liquid Death gives us the creative freedom to push boundaries for greater ROI – we’ve had a lot of fun bringing this to life across creative, influencers and content partners.”
Connecting Plots Creative Partner, John Gault.
The campaign aims to drive foot traffic and sales during the limited period, while also starting the brand on its journey to bring the “Mad’ back into Mad Mex.
“The Big Burrito is a staple of our marketing calendar. We were excited to step things up this year and partner with the team at Liquid Death to really embrace the food coma that is more or less guaranteed when you down a 1kg burrito with a 500ml tallboy. Kudos to Connecting Plots for bringing the madness and developing a campaign that’s made us all a little uncomfortable – in a good way.”
Mad Mex General Manager of Marketing, Nick Cook.
The campaign is rolling out across social, digital, POS and owned channels, as well as across PR, influencers and content partnerships.
View the full campaign here →
a.glo launch 'Influencers Reimagined' to combat absence of science in influencer marketing.
Influencers aren’t a new concept. Take your boy Jesus for example.
For over 70 years businesses have leveraged people of influence in marcomms as a strategy to build their brand and grow their bottom-line.
The $250B Creator economy has been a ‘gold rush’ on a new type of influencer, one who operates autonomously and can deliver immediate short term results but who has very little understanding of how brands are built over time.
Put simply, the long-term impact of using influencers is unknown.
‘Influencers Reimagined’ reimagines the brave new world of influencer marketing with a twist of long term brand building to identify the real potential – making it invaluable in delivering bigger brand and business impact in both the short term and long term.
Connecting Plots Recruits TBWA\Eleven's Kent Pearson as Managing Partner
Widely regarded by industry peers as a visionary in social and influencer marketing, Pearson has held senior positions at leading agencies including TBWA\Eleven where he was Head of Social & Content and Managing Partner at GROUND where he supercharged client growth for Bumble and Pet Circle.
At a time when the influencer industry is booming and the use of vanity metrics to quantify success has become commonplace, Pearson’s remit is to weaponise social and influencer to deliver brand growth and sales for clients to make their businesses shine.
As a business, we have a strong track record in growing our clients’ businesses in digital and social channels – it’s how we started. As influencers grow, we’ve recognised the need to apply the same rigour you would to any advertising or marcomms and have the best specialist talent leading the charge. Kent has a reputation for his technical understanding and strategic know-how. He is supremely talented in connecting influencer and content creator activity to business impact. We are beyond excited to have him join the team and grow the a.glo offering further.
Connecting Plots Co-Founder & CEO, Tom Phillips
‘Glow Up, Glow Out’, a.glo’s new influencer offering has been designed by Pearson and applies marketing science and full-funnel thinking to influencers and content creators in campaign and always-on activity to achieve long-term brand effects and short-term goals.
The new influencer product has already been rolled out to a number of clients and is part of a string of capabilities now offered by a.glo including always-on performance creative and media, always-on social media management and channel specific creative. a.glo also holds partnership accreditation with Meta and Snap Inc. and is a foundation partner of the TikTok Creative Exchange (TTCX) which helps advertisers connect with experts to create native TikTok videos for ad campaigns.
I’m thrilled to be joining the team during this exciting time for the business. Tom and Dave have built a great reputation for social that delivers genuine business impact and I’m excited to bring my expertise to build upon that specialist social and content offering further.
a.glo Managing Partner, Kent Pearson
Connecting Plots Wins Three Cairns Crocodiles
Gold – Travel/Leisure Campaign
‘Find Your Happy Place’ – The Royal Agricultural Society of NSW
Silver – Radio & Audio
Let’s Clean Things Up’ – 30 SECONDS
Bronze – FMCG Campaign
‘The Experts in Air’ – Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Air-Conditioners Australia
Connecting Plots Welcomes Craig Page & WeirdWorks
Craig Page, esteemed integrated strategist and founder of strategic consultancy WeirdWorks, joins Connecting Plots as Strategy Partner to lead the company’s strategic services.
Page, who founded WeirdWorks after holding strategy leadership positions at Saatchi & Saatchi, CX Lavender, VMLY&R and R/GA, will join the Connecting Plots leadership team alongside Client Service Director, Emma McJury; Creative Operations Director, Sarah Miller; and Creative Partners, Matt Geersen and John Gault whose agency Two G’s was acquired by Connecting Plots last year.
Craig is highly-regarded and comes with a wealth of knowledge that will certainly help grow our clients’ businesses and evolve the Connecting Plots service offering. The work that Craig has been doing with his own consultancy, WeirdWorks, marry perfectly into our growth ambitions and we’re thrilled that he’ll be bringing this offering into Connecting Plots.
Connecting Plots Co-Founder & CEO, Tom Phillips
With an illustrious track record of growing brands and transforming organisations through the integration of brand, creative, channel and experience strategy, Page has worked with a diverse range of clients including Westpac, Australian Defence Force, NBN, NRMA, Pizza Hut, Colgate, Arnott’s, McDonald’s, Wine Australia, Telstra, Rip Curl and Google.
The pace since founding WeirdWorks last year has been insane, so this chance to join forces is a perfectly-timed, win-win-win opportunity – for Connecting Plots to offer clients’ holistic brand thinking across their entire ecosystems, for WeirdWorks to offer clients’ the ability to put their strategic consulting into practice, and for me to enjoy working with this awesome team of brilliantly-talented and fun-slash-weird-in-a-good-way people.
Connecting Plots Strategy Partner, Craig Page
The new appointment comes as incumbent Strategy Partner, Tim Collier departs after more than 6 years of dedicated service.
It’s bittersweet for us – Tim’s been with us since day dot, weathered many storms and shared in plenty of the successes we’ve had along the way. He’s left an indelible mark on Connecting Plots and is a major factor in its success to date.
Connecting Plots Co-Founder & CEO, Tom Phillips
6 years is a long time in this game. We want to thank Tim for his commitment, loyalty and brilliance over that time. I’ve learnt a lot from him, he’s become a good mate and he’s shared A LOT of stories… I look forward to having a beer with him in the future and not talking about DBAs and Howard Gossage. We all wish him every success in his next role.
Connecting Plots Co-Founder & CCO, Dave Jansen
MHIAA is shortlisted at the 2024 WARC Awards for Effectiveness
Air conditioning isn’t something people know or care about. It’s a purchase that might happen once, maybe twice in their lifetime (if ever) but when it does, it’s technical and hard to know the difference between brands, resulting in consumers more often than not letting installers decide what brand they buy.
This created a massive problem. The only way for Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Air-Conditioners Australia (MHIAA) to grow market share would be by getting buyers to actively choose them and not just wait for recommendations.
This meant we needed to break the rules of the category with a B2C2B approach.
MHIAA had won the CHOICE Best Brand Award for the 6th year in a row and Canstar Blue Most Satisfied Customers award for the 5th year in a row – proving them as the expert choice in A/C.
And that created the opportunity we needed. Not just to position MHIAA as ‘The Experts in Air’, but to do so by being distinctive and memorable in a category known for retired sports presenters and cash back deals.
We weaponised humour to deliberately stand apart from competitors and appeal to both consumers and installers, doing it in a way that reinforced the brands’ expert credentials – showing MHIAA takes mastery of air to the extreme.
Through brand mascots and entertainment, we broke the traditions of a boring category and tickled the funny bone of audiences, making our brand more memorable and reminding consumers that we were the smarter choice as the most trusted and satisfying brand in the market.
The campaign boosted sales, significantly grew market share, delivered a massive ROI and helped customers make the expert choice in A/C.
Royal Agricultural Society of NSW Remind Us You Can't Put A Price On Childhood Memories
Hoping to mirror the success of the 2023 campaign which saw 58% of all tickets sold before the event opened, the Royal Agricultural Society of NSW is again reminding consumers that the Sydney Royal Easter Show is a chance to ‘Find Your Happy Place’.
But with further cost of living pressures on Aussie households, a focus on showing value for money is a critical shift in the campaign’s messaging.
With the Show boasting exceptionally high awareness within the state of NSW (over 90%), the ‘Find Your Happy Place’ brand saliency message will continue to solidify its place in people’s minds, over the Easter period.
“Our ‘Find Your Happy Place’ brand message evokes memories and joy in young and old, evidenced by how it exceeded targets by more than 10% last year. It has become part of the vernacular in media reporting and with our Show audiences, so we remain confident and passionate about the long-term life of the branding. It resonates deeply with our customer base, as well as our Show team.”
Royal Agricultural Society of NSW Head of Marketing, Frances Jewell.
A multiple messaging approach to mid funnel comms will target multiple audiences across different motivators – showing there is something for everyone at the event, with sales driving, action-oriented messages being used to land ‘value’ in a more literal sense (i.e. savings).
“The brand platform ‘Find Your Happy Place’ has struck a chord with people. It reminds them of the power of joy in creating life-long memories, and we’re confident it will continue to build on the success of last year.”
Connecting Plots Creative Partner, John Gault.
The Sydney Royal Easter Show will run from Friday 22 March 2024 to Tuesday 2 April 2024.
View the full campaign here →
Australian Eggs Launch Latest Instalment of 'Bring The Bright' Via Connecting Plots
The new work continues to drive this positioning while elevating the use of eggs to consumption beyond just breakfast.
“The ‘Bring the Bright’ brand platform has been received incredibly well, people really connect with it. It’s encouraging to see people start to embrace eggs in a broader range of meals and occasions.”
Australian Eggs Managing Director, Rowan McMonnies.
The latest chapter tells the story of a playful family dinner occasion where the core ingredient goes missing.
“The ‘Bring the Bright’ platform is about the inherent joy that eggs can deliver. The platform has enormous potential. This is just the start of showcasing the breadth and versatility of the humble egg.”
Connecting Plots Creative Partner, John Gault.
The work has come to life in partnership with Infinity Squared, UM and Liquid Ideas, rolling out across digital channels including BVOD, DOOH, social and owned channels over the coming months.