Cravendale returns to TV screens this spring with the launch of the new ‘Barry the Biscuit Boy’ campaign. A 30” TV spot kicks off the brand’s integrated campaign, complete with fresh, new packaging in store.

The ad communicates the irresistibly delicious flavor of Cravendale’s ‘filtered to be marvellous’ milk, cementing its reputation as the brand for serious milk lovers and appealing to Cravendale’s core family audience.
Inspired by fables of old, the ad takes Cravendale’s milk-related musings in a deliciously dark new direction, with the twisted tale of Barry the biscuit boy and his near fatal attraction to the cool charms of a refreshing lake of Cravendale.

Created in collaboration with Blink Ink, the film combines the visual flair of directors Andy Huang and Joe Mann with the talents of veteran puppeteers Johnny and Will to bring Barry and his milky world to life.

Wieden+Kennedy creative Ben Shaffery says: “We wanted to build a world that felt like nothing we’d seen before. By using a mix of puppetry, stop-motion and CG we were able to marry visually striking modern techniques with the warmth of old-school charm.”

Sophie Macaulay, brand manager at Cravendale said: “At Cravendale, we’re extremely proud of the cult following our adverts have received in the past, and we’re confident that this new ATL campaign will be equally well received. We wanted to use the new ATL to dial up Cravendale’s purpose as a marvellous milk and the role it plays in fuelling family betterness, while at the same time ensuring we surprise and delight our fanbase. We think Barry will certainly do that.”

Breaking on Saturday 29th March during Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway on ITV 1, the 30” ad aims to maximise the brand’s exposure amongst milk lovers as well as positioning Cravendale as the ultimate dunking partner. Alongside the TV and print executions, the campaign will be supported by social media activity featuring our very own social media baker, with baker extraordinaire Fancy Nancy engaging with Cravendale fans and creating edible masterpieces in response to cultural moments. The results will be shared on Cravendale’s channels as the campaign unfolds.

twitter.com/Cravendale

facebook.com/Cravendale 

milkmatters.co.uk

A few months ago, W+K account director Hanne packed her bags and waved goodbye to her everyday Shoreditch surroundings to try something completely new – putting her skills to use with an NGO in Uganda for a few weeks, as part of the TIE programme. 

Hanne has penned a story for The Guardian about her time there, and it's up on their site now. Read the whole piece over on The Guardian or right here on this very blog. 

In October I found myself in an unexpected place: rural Uganda. I am normally at an adverting agency in Shoreditch called Wieden + Kennedy.

The opportunity to go to Uganda arose at work. You could apply do a placement with an NGO, through a programme called the International Exchange (TIE). TIE pairs the expertise of communications professionals with the needs of non-profit/NGOs to create sustainable change – contributing skills that these organisations need but rarely have the resources to pay for.

To be considered you needed to articulate your motivations. It felt like the right time in my career to take a risk and, on a personal level, I wanted to gain a different perspective on what I do, on the world and on myself. 

Before I was fortunate enough to get picked, I knew that I wanted to go to Africa. It felt like the furthest removed from normal life and I knew it would challenge some of my preconceptions about the continent.

I looked into a few Africa-based projects, but The Kasiisi Projectstood out for its focus and what it wanted from me. They work to improve the poor educational opportunities available to children in the areas surrounding the Kibale National Forest – east Africa's largest primate habitat. Through a range of educational programmes in local schools, the project supports the community as well as instilling in it an understanding of the importance of its natural environment. The project helps children stay in school, opening up opportunities for them beyond subsistence farming.

Hanne Haugen with the members of the Kasiisi Project. Photograph: Hanne Haugen

Close to 100% of The Kasiisi Project's funding is from abroad but its long-term ambition is to become self-sustainable, with income-generating initiatives to support the school programmes they run. My brief was to create a business and communications strategy to this end. 

The assignment was in and of itself a meaty challenge. I'm involved in strategy in my role at work, but rarely tasked to do it on my own. Add to that a foreign culture, a complex issue and board of directors comprised of local academics, who had to vet and agree to anything I proposed. There was a lot to contend with.

Some of the biggest contrasts to my life back home were practical. Power and internet connections were, if not quite luxuries, then unreliable at best. Particularly during the rainy season power-outages were frequent. The heavy rain also meant that the roads – and I use the term loosely – were so bad that a journey of a few miles could easily take hours. I learned to work around, even embrace this. There's something wonderful about letting life happen and not try to control it all.

Professionally, what felt like the biggest revelation was the change in my perception of the advertising industry and the skills I've developed as a result of being a part of it.

I've always enjoyed working in advertising and taken pride in what I do, but to some extent I've been guilty of seeing the industry as a bubble, divorced from the real world. Most people are inherently distrustful of ' "big business'", and ofsee advertising agencies as their henchmen. There are also misconceptions around what an agency actually does – as the general public only see the output of a long process, involving months, sometimes years, of insights work, big strategic and creative debates, problem-solving, hard work, sweat and tears.

What I saw through my TIE placement is that the skills we develop from this process are hugely beneficial for an NGO. Budget and resource constraints require innovative approaches to solving problems. Complex problems require the ability to understand underlying issues, finding the pertinent insight and drilling down to a workable solution. And the crux of what we do – making sure a message is clearly articulated and heard by the right people – will have a big impact on an organisation's development, which in turn drives social change.

Advertising's ability to help affect social change may become more explicit as time passes. The more people who benefit from an experience such as TIE, the more likely this is to happen.

By Hanne Haugen, account director, W+K London.