
Kernel Season's
"Just Add Interesting"
Making Popcorn a Whole Lot More Awesome.
The funnest brand no one's heard of.
In the land of popcorn seasonings, Kernel Season’s is a market leader that can’t be topped. In other lands however, many people don’t know popcorn could even be topped. We found that almost everyone who tries Kernel Season’s buys it again, but how do you get the unseasoned popcorn population to take a bite?
Our task was to create a brand platform that made people realize they can’t have popcorn without Kernel Season’s.
We began our mission with one-on-one internal stakeholder interviews, our brand workshop, and a heavy dose of research. After crunching the numbers/insights, we landed on their positioning: popcorn's mischievous best friend. For centuries, popcorn has played it safe with salt and butter. Kernel Season’s role is to be that movie character with the spunk and spontaneity to take popcorn on a joyride with popcorn’s dad’s sports car. Much to popcorn’s chagrin and or delight.
With the strategy in our brains, it was time to make the popcorn platform.
From Ho-Hum to Woah, Yum!
Sure, popcorn is fine by itself. That is, until you add a shake of Kernel Season’s. Now that popcorn tastes like pickles. Or cookies. Or buffalo wings. That’s the magic of this popcorn dust, it turns anything into interesting. And voila, a platform was born: Just Add Interesting.
Shake Shake Shake
After giving Kernel Season’s a fresh coat of updated branding, we got to creating our launch spots. Our videos followed a simple formula: we enter a mundane scene, an omnipotent hand from above shakes on some Kernel Season’s, and then something unpredictably amazing happens. Thanks to the wizardry of Ben and Dave, (plus the cinematographer from Napoleon Dynamite) we were able to pull this off 93% in camera—making everything feel a little more crafty and quirky.
We then brought the interesting over to social with headlines that playfully introduced the many flavors of Kernel Season’s. Even gave some of them an extra animated shake for good measure.
This is just the beginning of our adventures with popcorn’s mischievous best friend. Stay tuned for more interesting to come!
Earned Coverage:

Popcorn Eaters Get a Hand From Above in these Quirky Ads from Kernel Seasson's
Ad Age

Wednesday Stir
Adweek

Kernel Season’s Is Popcorn’s Mischievous New BFF in Comedic Campaign from Familiar Creatures
Production Hub

Kernel Season's "Just Add Interesting"
Ads of the World

Kernel Season’s Is Popcorn’s Mischievous New BFF in Comedic Campaign from Familiar Creatures
Adland

Kernel Season's: "Gold Mine"
Best Ads on TV

Kernel Season’s – “Just Add Interesting”
RoastBrief

Familiar Creatures, Directors Ben Hurst + Dave Thomas Mine Quirky Comedy For Kernel Season's
SHOOT

Familiar Creatures adds a little Kernel knowledge to bland popcorn
Reel 360

The Pitch: Advertising and marketing news for 5.9.23
Richmond BizSense

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