The Wild launches its first campaign for the McCain brand, Brew City

 

London, 29 March 2022: Brew City, the beer snack brand from McCain, today launches a tongue-in-cheek national ad campaign in a bid to woo the king of snacks (a certain Gary from Leicester) from his age-old crisp companion and inaugurate him as its new brand ambassador. Created and delivered by creative agency, The Wild, the ‘Courting Gary from Leicester’ campaign has been launched to make Brew City famous as the go-to beer snack for drinks with friends.

The three-phase campaign launches its national outreach today with a mischievous recruitment film released on Twitter, calling for Gary as the ‘King of the Snacks’ to join a proper snack, Brew City. The film features a custom-built office, set up specifically for it’s target brand ambassador, with more cheese and beer than he could ever need, 24/7 access to football on TV, and unlimited toilet roll (in case *it* ever happens again).

The national and local campaign consists of punchy OOH billboards, alongside online banners and radio ads. The playful creative features provocative phrases like; 'Crisps are good, Gary, but these are better’, ‘Gary, stop flogging crisps. Back a proper snack’ and ‘Enough about crisps, Gary’.

Over the last two weeks the brand has been running a local teaser campaign in the Leicester region, home to Gary and the headquarters of his long-standing crisp companion, to encourage anyone called Gary from Leicester to get in touch with messaging such as 'Anyone got Gary's number?', '#WeWantGary', and 'There's a new snack in Town, Gary'.

Alongside the above the line activity, the campaign’s social activity is its beating heart with Brew City spurring reactive conversation among consumers using targeted social media posts. The campaign aims to encourage conversation among its target consumers, engage with influencers, and promote Brew City as the ultimate accompaniment to beer.

Dylan Davenport, Managing Director of The Wild, said: “A certain Gary from Leicester has been with a snack brand since 1994. 1994! Surely things are turning stale and he needs a new challenge? And Brew City is here to offer that. As you can imagine it’s been a huge amount of fun developing this campaign. First off we blitzed Gary's hometown to gentry persuade him, and now we're taking our proposal with free beer and bog roll? Let's wait and see. Whatever the case, I for one have enjoyed plastering the name Gary up and down the country. Let's hope he has too."

Becky Slater, Brew City Product Manager, commented: "At Brew City we know we have a superior snack that goes brilliantly with beer, and we're not afraid to show up publically and take on the giants of the industry. It's been great working with The Wild on this idea - it goes to the heart of what makes great advertising: humour, story-telling and talkabilty. Let's now see if we can pull off the ultimate coup and lure the king of snacks himself to our HQ."