McVities airs taste buds tour with Wax Communications

McVitie’s delicious biscuit bar range is celebrating being voted Snack Product of the Year 2012 with the launch of a new Double Chocolate variant and an engaging new advertising campaign.

Wax Communications and Wax Live have created the ‘Music to your Tastebuds’ campaign. The integrated shopper marketing and experiential campaign will see people ‘air-performing’ using giant Medley bars at an array of events throughout the summer.

Jess Ali of United Biscuits, says, “In just three years, since launch, Medley has grown its brand value to £12m RSV, and this summer we’ve asked Wax to drive that success further. By focussing on the association between Medley and music, we are appealing to a younger audience. It’s going to be a summer of fun and music with everyone having the chance to join in and share their experience through social media whilst enjoying Medley at its best.”

The Medley ‘Air-Play Tour’ consists of creative and elaborate sets replicating a concert rig, spotlights, film crew and stage. Consumers will have the chance to air-perform with various Medley instruments and their footage will be shared online afterwards via Facebook and You Tube. Sampling teams will be dressed as ‘roadies’ and will be using amp speakers as sampling bins to complete the theme. In addition to front of store sampling, Wax Live are running an 11 week experiential tour nationwide, taking in 30 city centre locations, shopping centres and music events including Party in the Park and Latitude.

Lucy Gillions, Wax’s experiential director, says, “Once people have a bite of a Medley bar, they just love them, so we have created an eye-catching and fun event to get them along. The campaign is a substantial investment in driving trial and awareness – and includes a number of firsts for McVitie’s, which has recognised the strategic value of shopper marketing and experiential in building brand awareness and loyalty. ‘Music to your Tastebuds’ will deliver an engaging and interactive experience for consumers that they will remember from first note to last!

Over 650,000 samples will be distributed nationwide, alongside coupons to drive sales of Medley multipacks and Single Bar formats. Further brand support includes huge through-the-line investment on TV, social media, augmented reality content and outdoor media.