Humanaut Introduces Merryfield App with Feel-Good Jingle No One Actually Wants to Hear

Humanaut is helping launch the new clean-shopping app Merryfield - an app that rewards consumers who buy 'clean' products - with a new digital video campaign. This marks the first ad campaign for Merryfield, which debuted last month in the App Store.

In the 90-second tongue-in-cheek ad, Merryfield pokes a bit of fun at itself, skewering the typical cheesy do-gooder marketing in the better-for-you food and household goods sectors, ultimately opting for a simple, down-to-earth explanation of how the app actually works.

"Now more than ever, many people want to invest in their own health and wellness but they don't have time to do the research and they also have budget constraints”, said David Mayer, Merryfield founder and CEO. ”Merryfield does the homework for shoppers and rewards them every time they buy products without all the artificial junk and unwanted chemicals."

The Merryfield app allows users to take a photo of their receipt from any store; when an item purchased matches one of the curated clean-label brands in the app, users accumulate points that can be redeemed for gift cards at Whole Foods, Sephora, Panera Bread, and REI, among other retail outlets.

The long form video and short-form cut down running on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Hulu and YouTube, feature a man singing a passionate but cliched song about Merryfield, and various shoppers interrupting him with questions and commentary. As one bored kid shopping with his mom describes it, Merryfield is the 'No-crap clean shopping app'.

Consumers can accrue points by purchasing brands like Applegate, Beyond Meat, Califia Farms, Country Archer, Hello Bello, LesserEvil, Nadamoo, Nellie’s Free Range, Once Upon A Farm, Orgain, Pete & Gerry’s, Purely Elizabeth, Stonyfield Organic, Thinkbaby, Thinksport and Vital Proteins, to name a few.

“We look carefully at every ingredient and ask whether it’s safe, necessary or something you’d expect to find in a ‘clean’ product,” said Joe Dickson, co-founder and head of quality standards and policy at Merryfield. “We’ve created standards for all categories in the grocery store, including beauty products and pet food. We also look hard at label claims and language that could be misleading to help make sure you get what you’re promised on the label.”

Merryfield’s Clean Council of industry experts scrutinise the labels of thousands of everyday products and identify which ones meet their criteria to be 'clean'. Members include Dickson; Mia Davis, former head of environment, health and safety at Beautycounter; Kim McDevitt, R.D., MPH, a registered dietitian specialising in family nutrition; and Errol Schweizer, former vice president of grocery for Whole Foods Market.

“One of Humanaut’s specialties is explaining complicated or high-minded ideas from disruptive, better-for-you brands to a more mainstream audience. For brands that need to reach beyond the traditional Whole Foods scene in order to grow, we help them think outside that bubble to reach the Target or Walmart shopper. This is a group that increasingly cares about all that good stuff, but doesn’t have the patience for a lecture about sustainability or the evils of high fructose corn syrup,” said Clark.

Humanaut has built a solid client list of natural and organic food brand categories, working with the likes of Splenda Stevia, Organic Valley, Nutribullet, Hello Oral Care and Suja. The agency was awarded Merryfield’s digital project work in April without a pitch.

The agency/client relationship evolved thanks to an introduction from Only Organic, another Humanaut client. Only Organic provided its 'Skip the Chemicals' video to Merryfield for use in the app to help app users learn more about Organic products.

"We wanted to produce a landmark piece of work to help us launch our new company. I didn't know what that should be. And I didn't know if it was even possible in the middle of a pandemic, explained David Mayer, founder and CEO, Merryfield. “Humanaut quickly delivered a concept and execution far greater than I could have imagined."

The ad targets a mainstream audience who wants to make healthier eating choices, rather than just die-hard organic buyers, a typical storytelling format for Humanaut. It also marks Humanaut’s largest production since Covid-19.

Merryfield is a partner of No Kid Hungry and donates 1% of its sales to end childhood hunger.