We’re always a fan of innovative marketing campaigns here at Digital Footprints, and lately a certain cereal brand has captured our attention. According to its billboards, everyone from Serena Williams* to Dwayne Johnson* endorses this healthy breakfast alternative.
But eagle-eyed fans might notice that we didn’t say the cereal was endorsed by Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, which is of course his Sunday name. You might even have noticed a lot of asterisks dotted all over our intro and indeed the Surreal marketing.
That’s because it isn’t Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson endorsing Surreal cereal, but instead Dwayne Johnson, a bus driver from London. Serena Williams is not in fact the world-famous tennis player, but a London student. Michael Jordan isn’t the basketball player, but “just a normal bloke who lives in St Alban’s” according to their own billboard.
You see, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson would cost millions to have endorse your cereal brand, whereas Dwayne “The bus driver” Johnson happily accepted reportedly £200. Likewise, another Serena Williams billboard says that she thought the cereal was ace, but only “because we paid her”.
If there is a legal case to be brought forward there, we’re not aware of it. Surreal co-founder Kit Gammell as yet hasn’t heard from any celebrity lawyers, and in fact said “We’re buzzing to be the official cereal of a Dwayne Johnson and a Serena Williams. If anyone knows a Dave Beckham, please get in touch.”
So, what else can we learn from Surreal’s crazy twist on celebrity endorsements?
Being tongue in cheek is respectable
There’s something to this tongue-in-cheek humour that just has you nodding at a billboard. It’s better than a corporation marketing team’s idea of humour, which usually amounts to a well-stretched pun or trying to shoehorn sexiness into an item like a sanitary pad.
But the beauty of the tongue-in-cheek approach is if that even if Ronaldo were to decide he was going to sue for using a likeness or some other law buzzword, he’d be the guy who ruined the joke. The one that can’t take a joke. The one that ended up looking bad for stamping on a much smaller company.
And the taking of a joke is an important part of tongue-in-cheek. We should stress there is definitely a difference between that and being offensive. If Surreal used more than his name or depicted Ronaldo in a bad light, they’d lose the support of their cereal fans.
For example, Lindsay Lohan once sued the creators of GTA V for using her likeness and details of her life for a character in the game, and despite the creators saying it had nothing to do with Lindsay Lohan (and therefore keeping their fans) it could have turned out very different. The story in question depicted a girl rich but ditzy LA girl wracking up debts in her West Hollywood mansion. As long as you’re being respectable, your audience will be on your side.
Carefully chosen celebrity endorsements
The other aspect of this campaign can be noted when you really look at the names listed. Wrestler Dwayne Johnson, tennis player Serena Williams, basketball player Michael Jordan, footballer (Cristiano) Ronaldo, and fellow footballer David Beckham. This is a cereal that can be considered vegan, a large source of protein, a low amount of carbs and with zero sugar. Surreal is targeting health nuts and not being subtle about it.
Though to be fair, a look at their other campaigns shows that subtle isn’t their thing.
But Michael*, Serena* Ronaldo* and Dwayne* are all “average blokes”. Though none of them look unhealthy, they would when standing next to Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, for example. So, how does Surreal make up for having a lack of thumbs up from someone who’s priority is health? With influencers of course!
A look at their business website shows a mix of fitness influencers and real-world professional sports players, just with names that you probably wouldn’t recognise on a billboard. Like Gareth Stoppani, the Jamaican rugby player.
A cheaper approach is more authentic
But these are professionals, well experienced in their craft, and as much praise as this marketing campaign is getting, it’s far from their first – or even their best.
Their LinkedIn post previous to this shows the team behind the cereal in a photoshoot. Family style, like it took place in a Kodak at the back of an Asda. And that’s the point of the joke. On the most corporate social media platform, the Surreal team pokes fun of businesses as families by captioning the shoot with “Our colleagues are like our family, only better. We can’t stand either, but at least with colleagues we get paid to put up with them.”
Further down the team says they “didn’t fancy forking out a gazillion quid”. And they wouldn’t have done. A family photographer in a basic studio will have charged a lot less than a commercial photographer, and so would have the Christmas campaign that used typical sob story images of people crying with slogans like “He wanted a PlayStation. He got Surreal. No one wants to get zero sugar cereal for Christmas. It’s more of a January thing.”
Funny and cheap. What’s not to love? And with audiences moving more towards the home grown, less polished, “cheap” look, because it offers a more authentic approach, spending more would just feel like throwing notes into the fire.
Don’t be afraid of bad reviews
You might have noticed that one of those celebrity endorsements was neither a celebrity nor an endorsement. Yes, Serena Williams* admitted that the cereal wasn’t to her liking.
Maybe you could say that this isn’t Serena Williams and therefore no one actually cares if she likes the cereal or not, whereas the tennis star nodding might be enough for some people to drop £24 on four boxes. But we think there’s something refreshing about saying that someone on the marketing campaign wasn’t a fan.
It feeds into the “authentic” approach. Not only did Surreal admit that Serena wasn’t a fan of their cereal, which must have given them a giggle, but their proof was in their Instagram video, where they had Serena Williams*, Michael Jordan*, Dwayne Johnson* and Ronaldo* taste test their cereal. And hey, as the video itself implies, three out of four isn’t bad.
After three glowing reviews however, the team missed the chance for a sad trombone, “wah waah” sound effect as a pregnant pause descended after Serena Williams admitted it wasn’t her cup of tea. Missed opportunity.
*Not really.
