Adaily's Year of Brilliance #12: Take the Audience Backstage
This week, we're looking at campaigns that build trust and intrigue by Taking the Audience Backstage. Revealing how a product is made, the people involved, or the passion behind it, creates a powerful connection, whether the "backstage" is real or invented. The key is sharing a compelling origin story that makes the product feel more special. See more in Adaily here.
Psst! If you want to take your audience backstage the easy way, Adaily 2.0 can give you a kickstart. It will handle the research and strategic directions for you. Well, it can even pick a Deck of Brilliance tool for execution too. Don’t miss it!
1. Black Kitchen Initiative • Heinz
Wieden+Kennedy New York • 2024 • Other food • United States • North America
Campaign Summary:
Heinz's "Black Kitchen Initiative" took audiences backstage by featuring the stories of Black food innovators through "The Black Kitchen Series" podcast. This approach aimed to celebrate and preserve Black culinary history, directly introducing the makers and their passion.
The campaign successfully increased podcast listenership, drove business impact for featured innovators, garnered 28.3M trailer views, and received high listener ratings, showcasing authentic stories from the community.
2. Drops Of Joy • Lay's
Leo Burnett Mumbai • 2024 • Chips • India • Asia
Campaign Summary:
Lay's "Project Drops of Joy" took audiences backstage into its manufacturing process, revealing an innovative system to reclaim and reuse water directly from potatoes. This initiative demonstrated Lay's commitment to sustainable production by making its operations more self-sufficient.
The project resulted in 120M liters of water reclaimed annually (in 2 plants), reduced carbon emissions, and significant cost savings, showcasing a smarter way to make chips.
3. ECOLATE • LIFULL
2021 • Chocolate • Japan • Asia
Campaign Summary:
LIFULL's ECOLATE campaign took audiences backstage by revealing its innovative use of cacao waste as a core ingredient, creating a sustainable chocolate. This approach showcased a unique production method aimed at supporting impoverished cacao farmers and promoting environmental sustainability.
The initiative successfully utilized waste from 141 cacao trees annually, provided revenue back to farms, and gained significant media coverage for its purposeful "making of" story.
4. Quest for Craft • The Balvenie Single Malt Scotch Whisky
Quaker City Mercantile Philadelphia • 2023 • Alcoholic drinks - liquor • United States • North America
Campaign Summary:
The Balvenie's "Quest for Craft" digital series took audiences backstage by exploring the human values and processes behind craftsmanship and creativity with host Questlove and various makers. This approach aimed to connect with "Aspiring Makers" by showcasing the brand's dedication to skill and quality.
The series was highly successful, generating 90M earned media impressions, 130M paid views (4.2M+ for full episodes), and significant lifts in brand awareness, favorability, and perception as a skillfully crafted luxury whisky.
5. Pure Waste • SSAB
Forsman & Bodenfors Gothenburg • 2023 • Manufacturing • Sweden • Europe
Campaign Summary:
SSAB's "Pure Waste" campaign took audiences backstage into its revolutionary fossil-free steel production by highlighting a key outcome: water as its only emission. By branding this residual water "Pure Waste," SSAB tangibly demonstrated its innovative process and commitment to decarbonization.
This initiative aimed to raise awareness about the steel industry's carbon footprint and inspire industry-wide adoption of sustainable practices.
Quick Takeaways: Take the Audience Backstage
Spotlight the Makers & Their Passion: Introduce the artisans, innovators, or communities behind your product, like Heinz's "Black Kitchen Initiative" or The Balvenie's "Quest for Craft." Let their stories and dedication add depth. Think: Who are the unsung heroes or passionate individuals in your product's journey whose stories could resonate?
Reveal Your "Secret Sauce" (Process/Ingredients): Showcasing unique manufacturing processes (Lay's water reclamation, SSAB's fossil-free steel) or innovative ingredient sourcing (LIFULL's ECOLATE from cacao waste) builds intrigue and highlights differentiation. Think: What unique aspect of your production process or ingredient sourcing could you reveal to make your product more special?
Connect "Backstage" to a Bigger Purpose: If your processes or sourcing contribute to sustainability, social good, or innovation (like all our examples), make that a central part of your backstage story. Think: How does how you make your product connect to a larger value or purpose that your audience cares about?
Make the "Backstage" Tangible or Symbolic: SSAB branded its clean emission as "Pure Waste" water, making an abstract process concrete. Think: Is there a tangible output, byproduct, or symbol from your "backstage" process that you could use to tell the story?
About Adaily Inspiration
Adaily Inspiration is your weekly dose of creative fuel. Each Tuesday, we explore a powerful creative thinking tool from the Deck of Brilliance (a collection of 52 methods by Juggi Ramakrishnan and Todd McCracken). We break down the tool, show you how to apply it to your marketing, and analyze five award-winning campaigns from the Adaily database that demonstrate its effectiveness. Our goal is to help you generate breakthrough ideas and create campaigns that truly resonate.
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Disclaimer: All campaign descriptions in this post are AI-generated, based on real-life descriptions provided by the authors.
Adaily does NOT produce inaccurate info ("hallucinations"). Your inputs are NOT used to train AI models.