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Basket cases: New World and .99 set new retail mascots loose

Youtube VideoAs part of its big brand launch, New World staff, with the help of .99, recently breathed some life into vegetables (literally, to the tune of ‘Slice of Heaven’). And they’ve followed that up by breathing some life into the humble shopping basket, with its cutesy animated mascots, the Cleverbaskets, assuming their position as the new faces of the supermarket’s retail marketing.
Created by Flux Animation Studio and aimed at all ages, the Cleverbaskets are a green reconnaissance team that scour New World supermarkets late at night for the best deals, abseiling, exploring and investigating the vicinity in an effort to highlight everything from weekly specials to Christmas offers.

They’ve also made a “first” on television. The Cleverbaskets appeared at the end of Wipeout and NCIS and interacted with the TV3 logo before skipping off the screen.Youtube Video

DraftFCB Media media manager Terri Youngman says TV3 and TVNZ have confirmed this is the first time a commercial advertiser has advertised over a programme and interacted with a network logo.

“We wanted to break out of the ad space and to create more intrigue about them,” she says. “We matched the individual Cleverbaskets character to the show. For example, we had a Cleverbasket abseil down Wipeout end frames while a Cleverbaskette used her magnifying glass to scout out deals at the end of NCIS.”

The campaign is running across all networks but the crawlers are exclusive to TV3 and running during the November launch period.

Youngman says because of the agreements TV3 has with the studios of the various shows it screens, it was a big challenge figuring out how to make the idea work.

“TV3 was trying to be flexible. We worked very closely with TV3 programming.”

However, Youngman says one movie they wanted the Cleverbaskets to appear in “got canned” because of a studio agreement TV3 has.

Countdown Colemans and Pak n Save Stickman take note. This plastic A-Team takes no prisoners.

  • New World has also released the making of its music video and a few other video guides on how to use fruit and vegetables in non-culinary ways (with a voiceover that sounds suspiciously like the Stickman).

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