Dive Brief:

• Green Giant is launching its first national ad campaign since 2016 with help from the viral Corn Kid, according to details shared with Marketing Dive.
• The effort, titled “That’s Giant,” responds to the plant-based foods craze, with Green Giant noting that its products have put veggies first since well before the trend took shape. New creative, including a spot starring Corn Kid, promotes the debut of Green Giant Dino Veggie Tots.
• Green Giant first teamed with Corn Kid last year on corn-themed recipes and activations around Thanksgiving. “That’s Giant” shores up an association with the budding social media star, showing the B&G Foods label working more influencer marketing into its strategy.

Dive Insight:

Green Giant is again enlisting the help of internet sensation Corn Kid as it enacts its biggest media push in seven years. Developed with agency GYK Antler, “That’s Giant” positions the frozen and canned vegetables marketer as an authentic plant-based foods purveyor versus a company that has chased a fad as consumers seek more better-for-you and meatless options in the grocery aisle. Sales of plant-based foods jumped 6.6% to reach $8 billion in 2022, according to industry estimates.

Green Giant’s national ad campaign will appear across connected TV, retail touchpoints, social media content, display ads, online video and influencer partnerships. It rolls out roughly a year after Corn Kid, whose real name is Tariq, went viral due to a Recess Therapy video where he energetically espoused his love of corn.

Green Giant collaborated with the seven-year-old last fall as his online celebrity first started to take off, while “That’s Giant” shows the brand deepening the relationship beyond a one-off play. This marks the first time Corn Kid has starred in a proper commercial, though other brands have collaborated with the child star.

Green Giant hopes that Corn Kid’s enthusiasm for veggies can translate to consumers as it bows its new Green Giant Dino Veggie Tots in time for fall and the back-to-school season. In one ad, Corn Kid storms around the kitchen in a dinosaur outfit as his mom prepares the plant-based offering. A separate spot, “Soccer Mom,” depicts a similar scenario as a mom cooks up the brand’s restaurant-style vegetable side dishes while dealing with her kids kicking a soccer ball around.

Both commercials close with a cameo from the marketer’s iconic Jolly Green Giant, appearing as a set of CGI hands that swoop down to garnish the meals or steal a bite. The brief appearance from the brand mascot is intended to square with Green Giant’s “less is more” approach to marketing. Green Giant foregrounding an influencer for its latest campaign comes as spending on influencer marketing is forecast by Insider Intelligence to grow 3.5 times faster than spending on conventional social advertising in 2023.

Green Giant said it has focused on innovation in the veggie-based foods category since it and its sister brand Le Sueur were snapped up by B&G Foods from General Mills in 2015. B&G Foods in May acquired the frozen vegetables manufacturing unit of Growers Express, a deal intended to strengthen Green Giant’s supply chain operations, Food Business News reported.