As vice chairman of promoting and technique for SeaPak, Megan Grinstead has sat by her share of conferences about frozen seafood and learn how to promote it. However she’ll always remember the one the place artistic company EP+Co pitched just a few new marketing campaign concepts.
The temper within the boardroom was a bit stiff. “This was our first time working with EP+Co,” Grinstead mentioned. “[We] wished to verify they have been on the correct path.”
The primary thought (pirates searching large shrimp) went over alright. No one appears to recollect what the second thought was. After which the presentation display flashed thought No. 3. It was a household of anthropomorphic otters—the Otterfords—sporting human garments and extolling the virtues of frozen shrimp.
Grinstead’s staff was bought on the spot. “They put the Otterfords up on the display and we instantly fell in love,” she mentioned.
It may not have been obvious on the time, however SeaPak wasn’t simply greenlighting three critters who would grow to be the face of the model—it was making some historical past, too. With a handful of exceptions like Flo from Progressive Insurance coverage (created in 2008) and Martin the Geico gecko (1999), nearly all of model mascots are graybeards. Admen drew up Chester Cheetah for Cheetos, Tony the Tiger for Kellogg’s, and the Bibendum (the Michelin Man) in 1986, 1952, and 1898 respectively.
It’s not that mascots as an idea not work however, in keeping with model guide David J. Deal, fuzzy creatures aren’t as simple a promote as they was once.
“Trendy audiences, particularly youthful demographics, are extra skeptical of manufacturers and worth authenticity,” Deal mentioned. “A mascot should resonate genuinely, or it dangers being dismissed as a advertising and marketing gimmick. Except a model has a compelling story and the means to help it, launching a brand new mascot generally is a difficult endeavor.”
And so the Otterfords’ arrival isn’t simply the story of a brand new advertising and marketing effort, however a uncommon alternative to carry the curtain on how a model mascot will get created.
From CGI to puppets
As a veteran artistic director who’d labored on the Pillsbury Dough Boy, the Jolly Inexperienced Large, and BuzzBee the Honey Nut Cheerios bee, EP+Co CCO John Cornette was already accustomed to the curious maintain that mascots can exert on the general public. His first process was developing with a creature that might make sense for an organization that sells frozen fish.
“We have been speaking about what animals eat shrimp, so we began researching sea otters,” he mentioned. Glad that sea otters eat lots of shrimp, Cornette turned his consideration to otters’ likability. No downside there. “We seemed it up—it’s insane how a lot folks love otters,” he mentioned.
A part of what bought SeaPak on the Otterfords was, as Grinstead admitted, that seafood “will not be essentially the most approachable protein,” particularly with kids. (When GrubHub polled youngsters on the ten meals they most like, hen tenders topped the listing and seafood was nowhere in sight.) And so a household of cute, furry animals—together with a child otter that simply loves shrimp—appeared like a great wager.
The difficult half was learn how to make them.
“Initially, we have been simply [going to] make them on our computer systems with AI instruments and photoshopping them collectively,” Cornette mentioned. However high-quality CGI is dear, and SeaPak—whereas it’s the No. 1 seafood model within the frozen part—didn’t precisely have a Kraft Heinz-sized funds.
That’s when one of many company’s producers spoke up. “Have you ever guys considered puppets?” she mentioned. “We would have the ability to get Jim Henson’s staff to do that.”
Jim Henson’s business previous
Even at this time, 35 years after his premature loss of life, Henson’s title continues to be spoken in reverential tones. The legendary puppeteer created the characters for Sesame Avenue (the PBS kids’s present is now in its 56th season) and The Muppets (which Disney acquired in 2004 for $75 million.)
However lengthy earlier than characters like Kermit the Frog and Elmo discovered fame, Henson’s puppets shilled in early Sixties TV spots for manufacturers like Wilkins espresso and On-Cor frozen entrees. And so business work was already within the Henson toolkit.
Whereas EP+Co senior content material producer admitted that “we did converse to 10 different fabricators” concerning the Otterford job, Henson’s folks have been the plain alternative.
Nonetheless residence to the Sesame Avenue characters, The Jim Henson Firm occupies a loft on an industrial strip of Lengthy Island Metropolis in New York. On a latest afternoon, artistic supervisor Jason Weber picked his manner across the high-ceilinged workshop full of bolts of furry material, drawers of froth ears and eyeballs, and benches the place, amongst different issues, one artisan was making cookies for Cookie Monster.
Even for a studio as skilled as Henson’s, nonetheless, the Otterford fee had its challenges.
In keeping with Weber, EP+Co “got here with a really clear algorithm for us. They wished these [otters] to look not photorealistic—as a result of they wished the character—however they wished them to look as actual as doable.”
It was a fantastic line to stroll. The Otterfords needed to be naturalistic sufficient to cross as otters, however they wanted simply sufficient of the fantastical to carry them into the human realm.
For the inaugural advert, “the thought was that [the Otterfords] occurred to be the household subsequent door, and the human household have been simply inviting them over for dinner,” mentioned EP+Co content material creator RG Lacandola, who directed the spot. “The people discuss to them as in the event that they’ve been associates for years.”
Turning otters into people
The naturalistic piece was comparatively simple, beginning with bodily particulars distinctive to otters, like their coarse, beard-like whiskers. “We did lots of Google picture looking,” Weber mentioned. “We seemed on the proportions between head and physique. We tried to seize the paw form and flipper form.” The otters’ all-too-realistic tooth got here from a taxidermy provide firm.
The touches mandatory to maneuver the otters from reality to fancy—to make them credible as creatures you’ll be able to discuss to—was a bit more durable.
Conceptually, the three otters began out as line drawings on paper that portrayed the household with the whimsical look harking back to Disney animation. For puppet maker Victoria Ellis, the target was “getting the essence of what you see within the drawing” translated into needle and thread, foam and fur.
To humanize the creatures, Weber’s staff dressed them in road garments, together with a baseball cap for junior. For the daddy otter, Ellis created bushy, outsized eyebrows that the puppeteer may elevate and decrease with a set off mechanism to create a spread of facial expressions.
Finally, nonetheless, the Otterfords got here to life as mascots by the abilities of the puppeteers, a few of whom moonlighted from their Sesame Avenue gigs. Whereas the actors adopted a script for the spot, “a lot of it was ad-libbed,” Cornette mentioned. The puppeteers made the otters so convincing that the crew was in a position to droop their very own disbelief and banter with them off digicam. A few of that materials made it into the ultimate minimize, similar to the daddy otter’s quip on the dinner desk that he’d invested in “Beachcoin.”
The Otterfords are early of their run, however SeaPak is feeling assured. Viewers testing revealed a 91% constructive reception for the brand new mascots. Following their business debut, the otter household has additionally been creating content material for SeaPak’s Instagram web page, the place they seem on the seaside and carry out in some quick, shrimp-related vignettes. Extra 30-second spots appear prone to seem down the street.
Looking back, Grinstead’s happy that SeaPak handed over the pirate thought in favor of mascots. The Otterfords, she mentioned, “humanize our model with memorable faces, radiate constructive vitality, and are clever and playful. That’s simply what we wished for model characters.”
