Claussen's Penguin Tells Shoppers to Migrate to the Fridge

Claussen Pickles wants to make sure shoppers know to “migrate to the fridge,” so it teamed up with ad agency The Escape Pod to create a spot that features a penguin let loose in a grocery store who travels to the refrigerator section.

The campaign includes mobile-distributed video, mobile banners, and micro banners. Banner ads appear on mobile app extensions of NBC News, Cosmopolitan, Redbook, Family Circle, and Harper’s Bazaar, an agency rep says.

The mobile banners are visible to smartphone users and aimed to reach grocery shoppers, the rep adds.

As of August 21, the video has 758,000 views on YouTube.

In addition, Claussen has shared the video on Facebook and is asking its 119,000 fans to help choose a name for the penguin.

As of August 21, the post had more than 400 comments.

While Claussen asked for input on Steven Spear and Cukes McGee, fan suggestions also include names like Dilly and Sir Picklesworth.

According to The Escape Pod, Migrate to the Fridge builds off Claussen’s Journey to the Claussen Pickles campaign, which also educated shoppers about the product’s location. The video has nearly 1.2 million views.

“If you’re in the supermarket at the shelf with the pickles, Claussen is not there and if you don’t know otherwise, you can’t find them because they’re in the refrigerator section,” says Vinny Warren, creative director of The Escape Pod.

The point of the previous campaign was to “point out the geographic anomaly – they’re not where you expect them to be and they’re better because of that,” Warren says. “Those are the two things we have to nail.”

The polar explorer ads were “funny and successful” and the agency was looking to continue in the same vein, but with a different comedy vehicle, Warren says – hence the penguin wandering into the store and traveling to a colder place to find pickles.

In addition to Claussen, The Escape Pod works with other Kraft brands like Wheat Thins, Lunchables, and Philadelphia.

@ClaussenPickles has 1,800 followers.