Good vs Bad - Bad
Be Natural, "Pledge", Online and ambient
Leo Burnett, Sydney
Where to start with this one? It's like a campaign where everything has been tacked together with the hope that someone might see it as a singular epic movement.
Firstly, the "Pledge Wall". So I'm supposed to stop my busy day to re-write a failed New Year's resolution on a chalkboard and then feel good? What happen's to all the pledges? Do they get erased by a perky promo girl at the end of the day?
So I thought I'd have a look at the website, maybe there's an explanation there. Nothing much really, just "Day of Change" and some product shots. It asks me to make a pledge, either using one of the provided superhuman ones, or creating my own. I opt to create my own, though not sure what angle I'm supposed to be taking, I pledge to use less paper. I hit submit not sure what will happen next.
Oh! It's a printable coupon (read; printable. No scan on your smart phone at the register or NFC chips here) which really ties in with the whole environmental campaign. I get 50% off one of their products at Woolworths. So if I do get around to printing this thing off on A4 using my inkjet and remembering to take it to a Woolworths store, I may buy this product. Will I make repeat purchases at full price? Probably not.
Oh, and as a side note while googling this campaign to try to understand it in any way, I find out that for every pledge one tree will be donated to Landcare. That part must have been blue-tacked onto the side of the campaign by the intern.
I go back to the site to see if I can find my pledge and maybe read what others have pledged. After a brief search of the barren page I find nothing that stands out as a portal through to such a page. I'm out.
So, does ad clearly identify the brand? Well, the colours used are a hint, and by the look of the ambient set up with the trees, wood paneling and the chalkboard it does feel much like the brand. But I don't think it could be identified from this.
In terms of communicating the brand's unique promise, it does do this in a way, however not clearly. The message is not straight-up easy to understand, from what people have pledged on the wall, some have written fitness goals, and one just says "less coal". But all the suggested pledges from Be Natural and centered around food.
"More of the Good Stuff" is the tagline for Be Natural, but this isn't really seen around the campaign, which again confuses the message. Then I'm seeing "The closer we are to nature, the better off we will be" slogans around the pledge wall. Again, there is no consistency or strong tie-in to the brand's message.
I don't think this campaign ticks the box of standing out among competitors. The health food section in any supermarket is a mass of natural colours of oak and honey, and the same tired looking cereal and nut bars. All health food snacks are natural, this campaign for Be Natural does nothing to differentiate them from all the others.
Does it look and feel any different from any other brands using outdoor advertising and samples? No. It's the same old tired Fed Square/Queensbridge Square/Martin Place sampling. Be Natural haven't utilised anything natural from their surroundings, they haven't positioned the brand in an organic way using nature or even existing grass. They've simply done a pop-up style outdoor sampling and BYO'd some trees and a chalkboard. And they're asking consumers to reconnect with nature?
The brand has made an attempt to reinforce its positive values, but with other actual home-grown, small-time health food brands out there, I don't think a pop-up wood paneled store and a micro-site with no community engagement will change many people's perceptions or shape the brand too much.
To sum-up, I feel this campaign is very first-thought, unoriginal, and doesn't do much to define the brand. It has little to no shareability, and all the elements have a very "tacked on" feel about them. Be Natural have a lot of wishful thinking if they think that a consumer is going to do more than write a sentence on a chalkboard, grab a free muesli bar and continue on with their life














