How Canderel's Sugar Cube Man broke free of obvious ad strategy

Canderel Crunch is a new sweetener variant that (unsurprisingly) looks and tastes like sugar. But with so many sweetener options already out there, how do you get your campaign to stand out from the rest? With a strong social media aspect, as well as experiential - local production company, Hammerhead TV filmed a 'real-life' Sugar Cube cause havoc in Joburg as he struggled to come to terms with his new lot in life after being kicked out of the sugar bowl.

Not just a TV ad, the campaign pushed the boundaries with poor replaceable Sugar Cube threatening to sue Canderel for identity theft, and even taking to social media to find new means of employment. The Sugar Cube clearly stopped at nothing to try to stay relevant.

If you missed the campaign, view the first part embedded below:

Desirée Gullan, Creative Director and co-founder of G&G Digital, shares just how they got this right...

1. Let's start with what went into the clearly complex idea of a 'sugar cube on the loose'?

Gullan: Many late nights and many reverts. It started with simply focusing on how to drive home the message that Canderel Crunch looks and tastes exactly like sugar. Once we had settled on the idea of personifying a destitute Sugar Cube who had a personal vendetta against the new sweetener, the ideas just started snowballing. We knew if we were going to do this, it would subvert the usual role of the brand in a product launch. Canderel would need to take on the role of a brand doing crisis communications as they dealt with the threats of the rogue cube. We thought this would be a unique spin on traditional PR and break through the clutter. There were so many scenarios that we could potentially put the Sugar Cube Man in. The struggle was narrowing it down to activities for a week-long campaign.

2. Tell us about some of the riskier things the 'Sugar Cube' did, such as threatening to sue Canderel for identity theft and trying to get into cups of coffee at local coffee shops...

Gullan: As Canderel stated in one of their first media statements on the issue - the legitimacy of the Sugar Cube's claims were highly questionable since you can't be sued by a noun. We're glad the attorney he approached was as bemused as we were and didn't entertain his antics. As for accosting shoppers and coffee shop patrons, it was certainly chaotic. Working with professional sketch comedy actors Brendan Jack and Garth Breytenbach meant that we only needed to lay out broad parameters for each scenario - and they just ran with it. None of us knew exactly how it would pan out but we hoped to capture some priceless reactions from the public in the process.

3. Talk us through the 'crisis communications' aspect of the campaign.

Gullan: By choosing this approach, it opened the door for some very unexpected PR on behalf of Canderel. We wanted Canderel to assume the role of the concerned brand implicated in the Cube's rampage around Joburg as he lashed out at their new product variant which essentially replaced him in the sugar bowl. Media were sent a series of three email and SMS blasts including a media statement, warnings and links to the latest footage of the Sugar Cube man and his social media activity. The statements were also cross-posted on Canderel's social media profiles and throughout all engagement with the Sugar Cube and consumers.

4. Obviously a very detailed campaign, let's go into the guerilla aspects, such as online job searching...

Gullan: Since Canderel Crunch looks and tastes like sugar, it meant the Sugar Cube was essentially out of work. So he naturally needed to take to the online networks to seek out a new career path. Creating a LinkedIn CV and pushing out guerrilla job posts on Gumtree and Careers24 added to the Sugar Cube's story and offered another layer of depth to his personal story - and his rise and fall in the culinary pecking order. We wanted to make sure people following the campaign remained engaged by constantly providing new layers of content that added to the narrative and encouraged engagement.

5. That they did, with the video series produced by funnyman Brendan Jack. Sticking with the 'celeb angle', how did you convince media personalities to take to Twitter to officially 'break up' with the Sugar Cube and declare Canderel their sweet stuff of choice?

Gullan: On the back of the entertaining social content and videos, the surprising thing was that the media personalities didn't need much convincing at all. We just made sure the right people were targeted in tweets to ensure they were aware of the campaign.

The 'break-up' tweets themselves were actually completely unsolicited. For us, it just proved that the content was relatable and the messaging was on point. It also helped that 'no-sugar challenges' were a hot topic at the time, making the #SugarFeelingtheCrunch campaign highly relevant for media personalities trying to cut sugar from their diets.

6. What's response to #SugarFeelingtheCrunch been like - both in person and on social media?

Gullan: The response has been overwhelmingly positive. The reach on social media was much wider than we could have expected. Media targeted by the campaign were also highly entertained and disarmed by the content and the unique approach to a product launch. We've heard from many journalists that they eagerly followed the video blasts and greatly enjoyed the social media banter. For us a great success was just being able to make people laugh and seeing people sharing the media statements and videos - a great testament to the way the content resonated with the target audience.

Since spend on the videos stopped, we've seen close to another 20,000 views across the videos (total views across platforms is now just under 80,000). Seeing organic reach like that again just reiterates the quality of the content.

7. Is this the end of the bland 'new product launch' press release and the dawn of a new era of engaging activations?

Gullan: We certainly hope so. Everyone's inboxes are increasingly cluttered with the same type of thing, just pushing products. To stand out, you've got to think beyond the parameters of traditional PR. People love to be entertained and if we can find innovative ways to do that - to include them in a narrative rather than simply shovelling traditional releases and doing the same old events - then we're definitely taking a step in the right direction.

Social and digital media present so many untapped opportunities for unique brand experiences, it's about time we started seeing more experimentation from the local PR industry.

In my view that's a winning strategy, with the results clearly speaking for themselves. What's to say this doesn't mark a revolution in boring product launch thinking?

Don't forget to view all three campaign videos and follow Sugar Cube Man on Twitter, and share your thoughts below!