Adwatch - 17.08.11

Rob Fletcher

Latest ad maintains family-friendly cereal brand’s track record for appealing to all ages.

I grew up with Weetabix. I grew up with the ads on the telly. I remember most of them. We could all sing the Robin Hood lyrics. And the pirates ad. I remember the driving instructor, and still love Black Beauty. Withabix, withoutabix. Ok, so there was that “Bovva Boy” blip in the eighties and nothing much recently, but nearly all of it good. And I knew then and I know now that Weetabix gives me energy.

I love the new ad. I have four teenagers. 19,17,15 and 13. We talk about ads all the time. They talk about everything all the time. The other night I sat and listened as they all played through the new Weetabix ad. They knew all the bits in it. “is this boy having a laugh?”. They love it. They talk about it.

I asked them though “ahh…but what’s it say?” Without hesitation they reply “Weetabix gives you energy”.

It makes me think. We’re constantly reinventing things. New people come in to an organisation and change things, it’s the way it works now. We can’t be seen to do nothing. We must move forward. Out with the old. New strategy, new message, new media, new packaging.

My family and I are surrounded in new. We love new. New everything. New iphones, new blackberries, new curriculum, new series on E4.

I think Weetabix show us you don’t have to be new to be engaging. I was captivated by the Weetabix ad when I saw it on telly, just as I was when I saw the Pirates or Robin Hood ad.

I’m trying hard to think of a brand that has been as consistent over the years as Weetabix. Yes, they have new variants, new product development, of course. But as a brand I feel they haven’t changed. The packaging might have changed a bit, but only a bit. There’s really not a lot of new in Weetabix at all.

They have pretty much stayed the same. I can’t tell how refreshing that feels nowadays.

The marketing team have stuck to the same media, the same strategy and the same message. Then they have stood back and let a writer write and a director direct.

The result is they have an ad as new and shiny as anything else out there.

And people talk about it, and will probably buy Weetabix because it gives you energy.

Nothing new in that.