Fisher Nuts pivots to emotional-driven narrative to attract young bakers

Dive Brief:

Fisher Nuts' "Fisher Together" holiday campaign, developed with agency Blue Chip, marks a new approach for the 100-year-old brand as it seeks to extend its reach beyond hardcore bakers and home chefs to engage younger or less experienced cooks, according to a release emailed to Marketing Dive.
The effort includes ads on Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest, as well as shoppable content on Amazon and Instacart. A traditional commercial boasting the brand's first attempt at an emotional-driven narrative will also run on food-oriented cable networks and social media.
A social-good component encourages consumers to document making and delivering baked goods and other recipes to loved ones. For every upload to social media using the #FisherTogether hashtag, the brand will donate to Meals on Wheels.

Dive Insight:

Fisher Nuts' goal with its holiday campaign is to inspire home cooks during a year when baking has become a favored way for homebound consumers to relieve stress. The effort includes the brand's first narrative commercial depicting a grandmother and grandson bonding over making pies in-person in the past and over video chat in the present, a nod to how holiday traditions are different this year.

"Holiday needs a new recipe this year," Joel Walker, vice president and group creative director at Blue Chip, said in a statement. "There's an urgency to adapt traditions to preserve their meaning. This is our first foray into capturing emotion in narrative form for Fisher, so we focused on a timeless dynamic that can resonate beyond this moment."

Along with a bevy of other CPG companies refreshing their brands this year, Fisher Nuts, a division of John B. Sanfilippo & Son, is also acknowledging it needs to expand its consumer base by attracting new and younger consumers to the brand. The move shifts away from showcasing celebrity chef Alex Guarnaschelli to focus on what the brand does for people.

The marketing revamp may be a reflection of the sales decline recently reported by Fisher Nuts' parent company, at a time when other baking related brands like King Arthur Baking have experienced a sales surge during the pandemic.

Additional resources from Fisher Nuts, such as a redesigned website, will provide recipes and tips to alleviate the nervousness younger consumers may feel about making their own food. In addition to the shoppable ads, the new website, FisherTogether.com, will point consumers to places to purchase the brand's products, per the release.

In an appeal to younger consumers' stated desire to shop brands that give back, Fisher is launching a "Holiday Challenge" to consumers, asking them to deliver home-cooked foods to friends and family. For every person who documents the experience and uploads it to social media with the hashtag #FisherTogether, the company will donate $30 to Meals on Wheels (up to a total of $30,000).