SPAM Suit Ad Delivers

Adding to that, the last time Spam advertised in Australia was in the 2000s and back then it was all around the ‘Spamburger’ hamburger campaign.

Nearly two decades later, the brief for Clemenger Brisbane was to demonstrate the ‘Sizzle Pork And Mmm’ of the Spam brand by showing new ways to cook it, bringing out its taste appeal.

In this feature, we dig into the creation of the ad with the lead agency creative and brand marketer – with news just in, there’s been a product uplift of 8% so far off the back of the quirky spot.

The ‘Sizzle Pork And Mmm’ campaign came out of the US initially, during the 2017 Super Bowl, with Hormel–owned Spam airing ads focused around the product sizzling in a frying pan.

Clems Brisbane said the agency had to work with the executions it felt would appeal to Australians, which meant selling the sizzle in a local context, which naturally meant centring it around the barbeque.

“We came up with the idea by realising that Australians take barbequing seriously, sometimes a little too seriously,” Staal said.

“So, we created a character who embraced both his obsession with the barbeque and his obsession with Spam products. Originally, we thought he could have a suit made out of Spam pieces and roll himself on the barbeque to make pin stripes. But, then we thought it would be funnier if he just wore the suit, without referencing it, and carried on like that was completely normal.

“The local ads were designed to complement the additional serving suggestions from the US assets and give the campaign its best outcome, rather than purely running US work on its own,” he said.

While Spam has broad appeal and a variety of target audiences, key demographics are families, people who like camping and adventure, and those who enjoy Asian cooking.

The digital–only ad kicked off in March with the objective for 2018 being to get people who have a can in the cupboard to cook it and buy another can, which is why the campaign used shopping data to target existing Spam lovers online.

“It’s about giving people more ideas than how it has been traditionally eaten in Australia, that is, served cold and spread on bread,” Staal said.

“We wanted to show the taste appeal of the sizzle, in an entertaining way, to get people cooking and buying it more frequently.”
Staal said the Spam suit itself was probably the biggest hurdle in making the ad as it was shot in Brisbane in summer.

“We challenged a prop maker and food stylist to make a suit that wouldn’t fall apart on a 30–something day,” he explained.

“So, we sizzled and photographed the Spam pieces and printed this image onto the correct thickness of foam. Then, with a little OCD art direction, the Spam pieces were layered like roofing tiles, of course making sure the pin stripes of the grill marks lined up.

“The other challenge was not to laugh while we were recording and wreck the takes.”