Adorable Caulifloodles Nervously Anticipate Their Audience's Reaction in Sweet Animated Spots

As the leader in noodle dishes from around the world for more than 25 years, Noodles & Co. has gone from innovating taste and flavours to innovating the noodle itself by making pasta an option for guests with most any dietary preferences. Complementing its spiralised zucchini noodle, Zoodles, its cauliflower-infused rigatoni, Caulifloodles, the new Cauliflower Gnocchi is rich in flavour and diverse in healthful options for guests.

“What’s so significant about the launch of our new cauliflower gnocchi is that we were able to take an indulgent dish such as gnocchi and give it a Noodles twist that not only makes it incredibly flavourful, but healthier too with half the carbs of traditional pasta and a full serving of veggies,” said Stacey Pool, chief marketing officer at Noodles & Company. “In developing this campaign with Fortnight Collective, we wanted to find an approachable way to introduce our guests to Cauliflower Gnocchi without alienating our existing guests who enjoy the wide variety of our menu and we were able to do just that with the lovable gnocchis.”

Noodles and Company worked with their agency of record, Fortnight Collective, to create a campaign introducing Cauliflower Gnocchi as the pasta that allows guests to fall in love with pasta all over again while feeling okay eating more of it. The lead video is centred around a lovable, insecure gnocchi character, hopeful of impressing people once again through his new recipe and flavours. With a little encouragement from his friends, his confidence builds around fewer carbs, more veggies and an irresistible golden-brown blaze.

“With this creative campaign, we wanted to appeal to both pasta lovers and carb counters,” commented Andy Nathan, CEO, Fortnight Collective. “By creating friendly and adorable gnocchi characters, we were able to explain this impressive food innovation in a fun and light-hearted way that has us all falling in love with pasta all over again.”

The campaign also features the recording of a real family experiencing cauliflower gnocchi for the first time. These heart-warming spots prove cauliflower gnocchi has pulled off something incredible as we hear a young girl say she’s drooling over getting a full serving of veggies. The campaign also extends into social, with fun behind the scene bloopers including a hilarious moment when a stray mushroom hits a gnocchi character on the forehead.

Being sensitive to Covid-19 restrictions, Fortnight Collective selected a one-stop shop production partner, Golden. Meanwhile, the client teams, agency and the director functioned entirely remotely. By using animation and real recordings from families trying the product for the first time, we were able to keep a safe production process while humanising the creative storytelling.