- Planning (objectives & strategy development)
On 5th Feb 2024, the Director received a voicenote from Sidemen manager and founder of Arcade Media Jordan Schwarzenberger saying 'the Sidemen are launching a cereal on March 6th and we want to make an ad'.
This was to launch BEST – a brand new cereal for the market in collaboration with Sidemen and MornFlake that would disrupt the “stale” market dominated by a handful of key players like Kellogg’s. Non-HFSS (High in Fat, Sugar, and Salt), BEST’s primary target audience was 10 to 14 year olds with a new, secondary audience of parents/grocery decision makers outside of Sidemen’s loyal following.
24 hours later, the Director responded to Jordan, with a voicenote outlining the entire creative and suggested talent for a 30 second film to be built completely on the audience’s terms. Such is the trust between Arcade Media and the production company, it was greenlit, via WhatsApp on the spot. Nothing was changed from that point to delivery. Something virtually unheard of in traditional creative industries.
The Director wanted to create an ad that harked back to that nostalgic, golden era of cereal ads - the ones where a kid would be eating a bowl of cereal at the dining table - to entice that older audience whilst blending it with a fun, shareable creative to appeal to that younger, social first audience. With this film launching the brand, BEST also wanted to get across exactly what BEST means. That led to the idea of getting someone who was the 'Best' in their field to do something that was seemingly impossible.
For the Director, there was only one candidate to lead this ad. A cultural disruptor. Someone who had never done anything like this before. In early 2024, Luke Littler had just shocked the world by becoming the youngest darts player to reach the PDC World Darts Championship final at just 16 years old. He was already reaching mega-stardom amongst fans his own age as well as an older mainstream audience who couldn’t get enough of him either. The Director wanted to harness that transcendent power; this ad needed to appeal to adults who do the shopping as much as the kids after all.
The ad would see Luke sitting in his living room eating a bowl of BEST cereal whilst watching YouTube on his phone. Everything seems normal until he picks up a dart (never further than an arm’s length away) and throws a bullseye at the dartboard without looking. Then another. And another. Cut to Luke looking down the lens of the camera and raising his eyebrows with the simple tagline ‘It’s not magic, it’s BEST’
A week later, Luke agreed to be part of it. But only if the shoot could take place in his hometown of Warrington. In just four days’ time.
- Execution (including implementation and creative application)
Traditional logic would dictate that producing an entire ad from scratch on the other side of the country in three days is impossible. But being a creator-founded business with an intrinsic knowledge of Gen Z and vast experience of the fast turnaround times the internet demands, the production company’s crack, problem-solving production team said ‘let’s do it’ and swung into action.
With no time to scout or recce locations - another point where others might have given up and explored alternate talent with a less anxiety-inducing timeline - the team received a photo of Luke on Christmas morning opening presents in his living room. With the living room’s cultural significance, the team asked if they could shoot in Luke's IRL house. Luke's parents agreed and the location was secured.
After two days packed full of crewing, legal and all that fun stuff, the team were standing in Luke's front room in Warrington with four hours to shoot. Despite having no previous acting experience, Luke was a natural. He nailed the raised eyebrow meme in one take. Golddust. Having edited the rough cut on the train back to London, the film was locked within 48 hours. Five days after the team left Warrington, the film was complete. It was uploaded on to Sidemen, Best and Luke’s socials the very next day.
- Results (outcomes and effectiveness)
The ad went viral overnight. Across all social media platforms, it received over 1 million views in the first hour, and 4 million in the first 48 hours.
On Instagram, it received 4.6mil views, 188k likes and 635 comments. On X, 700k views and 2.2k likes and on TikTok, 1mil views, 75.3k likes and 343 comments totalling - 6.3mil views, 265.5k likes and 978 comments.
It birthed the Luke Littler eyebrow raise meme moment the Director envisaged. This single Football Joe meme alone has garnered over 5.2 million views independently, remaining culturally relevant months after launch.
The ad generated a raft of mainstream press coverage including Daily Mail, The Sun, The Star and even Darts News; as well as the marketing press. Even Amanda Holden and Ashley Roberts couldn't resist a bowl live on Heart Radio.
Upon BEST’s launch in Tesco, over 100k boxes were sold in just 14 days, leading to a decision to permanently stock the cereal.
Three months later, BEST entered Iceland Foods, followed shortly after by Morrisons. From a standing start in a market controlled by Kellogg’s, it’s fair to say that is against the odds.
Client, Jordan Schwarzenberger said “This kind of rapid rollout cannot be understated. These (views) are crazy numbers, which most brands would pay a lot of money for, which The Sidemen can do organically.”
Speaking to Grocery Gazette, Jordan says the ad’s success was due to a “perfect cross over of bringing someone who is an online sensation but also being talked about by an older audience”.
All of this, within 3 weeks of greenlight, exactly as the Director first imagined it, with a high-end, cinematic finish whilst simultaneously ticking of all BEST’s objectives and going viral, A 180, for sure.
