Mr. Peanut – An American Icon and The Rise of Baby Nut
Kraft Heinz
Issue 55 | July 2020
Agency
VaynerMedia
Creative Team
Chief Creative Officer: Rob Lenois EVP: Nick Miaritis Chief Production Officer: Aaron Kovan Group Creative Director: Mike Pierantozzi Creative Directors: Vince Lim, Dan Giachetti, John Clement Art Directors: Jill Archibold, Sam Woolley Copywriters: Becca Weisz, Zach Schweikert
Production Team
PRODUCTION COMPANY: Radical Media Director: Dave Meyers President: Frank Scherma Executive Producer: Jim Bouvet Line Producer: Steve Fredricksz EDITORIAL: Cut+Run Senior Editor: Jon Grover Assistant Editor: James Donahue Senior Post Producer: Eytan Gutman VFX (DEATH): Mathematic, Paris Executive Producer: Guillaume Marien Executive Creative Producer: Rebecca Rice VFX Producer: Gouna Logan Producer: Alan Portillo Moro VFX Supervisor: Emeric Samier VFX Shoot Supervisor: François-Xavier Pourre VFX Pre-Production Supervisor: Guillaume Nadaud CG Supervisor: Manu Quinto Lead Animator: Bruno Etchepare Flame Artist: Clément Germain Flame Artist: Fred Brandon VFX (REBIRTH): Method, New York Managing Director: Stuart Robinson Executive Producer: Jesse Kurnit VFX Supervisor: Myung Lee CG Supervisor: Alex Cheparev FX Supervisor: Tomas Slancik VFX Producer: Jennifer Scelia Production Coordinator: Kyle Fader Creative Director: Warren Paleos Flame Artist: Randie Swanberg Lighting: Irene Kim Lighting: Claire Chang Lighting: Cody Chen Animation: Goran Ognjanovic Animation: Jacob Fradkin Animation: Sam Crees Modeling: Orges Kokoshari Modeling: Han-Chin Lee Tracking: Brian Dinoto Tracking: David Derwin Rigging: Chris DeVito FX: Ehsan Parizi FX: Ryan Hussain Comp Lead: Herculano Fernandes Comp: Gaulot Comp: Sang Joon Kim SOUND: Warner Brothers Sound Designer: Dave McMoyler MIX: Sonic Union Sound Engineers: Mike Marinelli, Brian Goodheart COLOR: Company3 Senior Colorist: Stefan Sonnenfeld Color Producer: Gabriel Wakeman
Other Credits
CLIENT: Kraft Heinz President, Beverages, Snacks and Desserts: Adam Butler Head of Brand Build Marketing, Beverages, Snacks and Desserts: Vikramjeet Singh Marketing Director, Snacks and Desserts: Rafik Lawendy Brand Manager, Planters: Samantha Hess Senior Social Media Manager: Maya McDonald Experiential Marketing Manager: Molle Klein Director of Corporate Affairs: Lynne Galia Agency Producers: Lauren Dinsdale, Katherine Penland Director, Rights and Talent: Jaymie Lipman Business Affairs Manager: Jessica Cohn Vice President, Integrated Strategy: Georgie Ramamurthy Director, Integrated Strategy: Hayley Grant Senior Associate, Integrated Strategy: Ramya Rajpurohit VP, Group Account Director: Ryan Martin Account Director: David Argov Senior Account Executive: Morgan Mills Project Manager: Giang Luc SVP, Head of Media Investment: Jon Morgenstern VP, Media: David Zhang Director, Media: Christina Blankenship Manager, Media: Will Taylor Senior Analyst, Media: Vera Masterson Analyst, Media: Stephanie Tejada
Date
January – February 2020
Background
For more than a century, PLANTERS has brought people together over nuts. MR. PEANUT was vital to that mission. For Super Bowl LIV, the challenge was to create a breakthrough program to get the world talking about Mr. Peanut, and drive brand love with existing and new fans. No idea was off the table – to win this key snacking moment, the challenge was to enter the cultural zeitgeist leading up to the Super Bowl in ways that had never been done before.
Idea
Thousands of pieces of content were deployed to let the consumer market dictate what works, and where brands should go. This gave them a firm understanding of the role of Mr. Peanut in culture in 2019, especially how much people loved him. This key learning, among others, contributed to their Super Bowl program. After synthesizing their learnings, they dug into pop culture and other ways iconic characters have evolved in the traditional hero’s journey. Many times, these cultural figures had to die or disappear to remind fans of their dormant admiration. Given the love for Mr. Peanut, they believed they could tap into the cultural impact of a beloved character passing away that would subsequently cause an outpouring of emotion, conversation, and togetherness from fans across the world.
The campaign kicked off in early January, when Mr. Peanut went on the ultimate Super Bowl road trip with his celebrity friends Wesley Snipes and Matt Walsh. On January 21st, their spot was leaked. It showed Mr. Peanut sacrificing himself to save his friends after a fiery NUTmobile crash. They confirmed that Mr. Peanut was dead shortly after the leak. In the weeks leading up to the Super Bowl, this thread was continued by creating a world where Mr. Peanut was gone. With an outpouring of love, fans rediscovered the importance of Planters iconic, 104-year-old mascot. On the day of the Super Bowl,the funeral of Mr. Peanut was broadcast, which was attended by several well known brands. With a magical teardrop from KOOL-AID MAN, Mr. Peanut was reborn as BABY NUT who quickly captured the hearts of fans everywhere.
Results
With 11.4 billion earned media impressions, three Saturday Night Live skits about Mr. Peanut and Baby Nut, two New Yorker cartoons, and 16 mentions on morning and late-night TV, their goal was accomplished of breaking into pop culture and getting people talking. Some other impressive results: Highest lift in awareness of all brands in the Super Bowl time period: Source - YouGov #1 Trending Topic on Twitter: After he died and when he was reborn 70K+ New followers on Twitter 189K+ New followers on TikTok #25 US Trending Video on YouTube.
96% Positive/Neutral Sentiment across social platforms 934K Brand Mentions across social platforms 11.4 Billion Impressions