McCain Anything Goes with Baga Chipz
Submitted by We Are Social

McCain Anything Goes with Baga Chipz

Influencer Marketing

We Are Social cast Baga Chipz as the parody new face of McCain in Anything Goes, a social campaign that drove over 124M+ impressions with UK 18-34 year olds.

124M+Social Impressions
+9%18-34 Purchases YoY

About the campaign

McCain worked with We Are Social on Anything Goes, a socially led campaign that drove over 124M impressions. McCain has long tied itself to family mealtimes through its 'We Are Family' positioning. The brief was to win the attention of 18-34 year olds in the United Kingdom.

The agency found that Gen Z treats dinnertime as a shift from daily stress to relaxation. Their midweek meals also look nothing like the traditional sit-down family meal McCain had shown. So the agency built the campaign around dinner decompression. It parodied the trend of celebrity Creative Directors by naming Baga Chipz, of RuPaul's Drag Race UK, the new face of McCain. A series of scenes followed, shaped by native TikTok audience behaviour.

The agency reports over 124M impressions across social during the campaign. That figure ran more than 50% higher than expected. McCain purchases from 18-34 year olds in June 2022 were 9% higher than in June 2021. The work won best use of social media for FMCG at the UK Social Media Awards 2023.

Case in 60 seconds

McCain had spent years tied to family mealtimes through its 'We Are Family' positioning, so the brand needed a fresh way to hold the attention of 18-34 year olds whose loyalty shifts easily.

Young adults use dinner to come down from the day's stress, and because their midweek meals look nothing like a sit-down family table, a brand showing that table speaks to somebody else.

Anything Goes championed dinner decompression, and it borrowed the trend of celebrity Creative Directors as a parody so that Baga Chipz could front McCain with a wink the audience would recognise.

We Are Social named Baga Chipz of RuPaul's Drag Race UK the new face of McCain and produced a series of comic midweek dinner scenes, with the content shaped by native TikTok audience behaviour.

We Are Social reports over 124M impressions across social, more than 50% higher than expected, while McCain purchases from 18-34 year olds in June 2022 were 9% higher than in June 2021.

Strategy Breakdown

A younger generation of 18-34 year olds in the United Kingdom, described as Gen Z and as previously indifferent to McCain.
Gen Z midweek dinners sit far from the sit-down family meal McCain had portrayed for years, so the brand's own imagery had drifted away from how younger people eat.
McCain stepped in as the permission slip for an unfussy evening meal, the food that marks the move from a stressful day to a relaxed one.
Young adults treat dinnertime as a transition from the 'bad screen' of the working day to the 'good screen' of the evening, which makes the meal a moment of decompression.

Creative & Execution System

Assets & channels

  • TikTok

Partners

  • We Are Social

Creator role

  • Baga Chipz

Results & Evidence

MetricValue
Social Impressions124M+
18-34 Purchases YoY9% higher

Why We Are Social's strategy worked

  1. 1

    A heritage family brand can reach a younger audience by depicting how that audience actually eats, because showing the real midweek meal earns more recognition than repeating the idealised family table.

  2. 2

    Parodying a live industry trend such as celebrity Creative Directors gives a brand a self-aware entry into culture, which lets a mass food brand join the joke instead of being its target.

  3. 3

    Framing a product around an emotional transition, here the move from a stressful day to an evening of rest, gives a routine purchase a reason to exist beyond hunger alone.

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