If you’re going to do a tactical campaign, make it huge and make it matter. So Merkley + Partners teamed up with content partner, Funny or Die, and Facebook Live to present The Great Pulp Debate for Florida’s Natural orange juice…
Then it turned The Great Pulp Debate into an epic event. After all the campaign’s rival debate is massive. Hillary and Donald are enthusiastic users of social, traditional and advertising media.
Kelly Wade, marketing manager, Florida’s Natural, commented, “As the only national orange juice brand owned by citrus farmers, we are the perfect people to settle this debate once and for all. Considering the craziness of this campaign season, we thought a light-hearted approach was the best way to raise visibility for the brand.”
You noticed the word, massive, above yes? The Great Pulp Debate included:
The Great Pulp Debate Poll: People can cast their vote and proudly share their “pulp position” – No Pulp, Some Pulp or Most Pulp – via social media.
Facebook Live Great Pulp Debate: An “historic” Facebook Live broadcast of the first (and probably only) Great Pulp Pulp Debate, where Pulpiticians battled it out in a virtual town hall setting with Q&A from Funny Or Die.
(This was the first time onscreen graphical polling has been used on Facebook Live. As of November 2, the debate had 309,000 views.)
<iframe width=”560″ height=”315″ src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/3Ko1JWDwkF4″ frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen></iframe>
Facebook Live Focus Group: After the debate, a Facebook Live “Frank Luntz-style” focus group was held to gauge public perceptions.
(The group had 123,000 views by November 2.)
Facebook Live Cable News Show: A cable news-style Facebook Live segment where Funny or Die debate moderator and newscaster review the Pulp Debate and answer more live questions from the internet public.
(By November 2, the segment had 83,000 views.)
The Great Pulp Propensity Quiz: A humorous, interactive and shareable quiz posted on Funny or Die and Facebook that determines the participant’s actual pulp preferences.
Great Pulp Debate Attack Ad: Last-minute votes matter. To capture these, the agency launched attack ad videos on November 2, that pit 12-year old Grayson Totman, making the case for a “No Pulp” household, against Mom and Dad, who respond with attack ads of their own.
Great Pulp Debate Swag: There are Facebook covers and Twitter headers whose messages correspond to how the participant voted (for example, “A tall glass of indifference” and “The middle ground is quite nice this time of year” for a “Some Pulp” vote) and stickers.
Final Results: The day before the actual Presidential election day (November 7), the final results will be tallied and announced, and the people-preferred variety will bask in victorious glory.
Erich Hartmann, group creative director, Merkley+Partners, noted, “Everyone knows that pulp is polarising (in a fun way), so we needed the perfect media and content partner to help give our election/debate campaign idea that little extra bit of awesome. Funny or Die was an obvious choice, and the collaborative content became the tent poles of our campaign. The tone was perfect, too: just the right amount of endearing political snark, especially for this election year. Being the first to use interactive, live, on-screen polling graphics for Facebook Live was a very cool bonus.”
CREDITS:
Merkley+Partners
Chief creative officer & chairman: Andy Hirsch
Group creative directors: Erich Hartmann & Steve Pashkoff
Junior copywriter: Cait Cannon
Junior Art Director: Julie Endow
Associate creative director, Digital Design, UX: Yoni Kim
Lead web developer: Rich Chu
Chief digital officer: Scott Gelber
Digital group account director: Jennifer Cimmino
Digital group production director: Max Bennington
Associate Media Director: Sam Kaufman
Project manager: Tiffany Geiger
Senior content strategist: Kim Price
Community Manager: Ben Delatte
Group account director: Maggi Vale
Account supervisor: Taylor Rhodes
Content Partner: Funny or Die
Client: Florida’s Natural
Chris Groom, VP Sales and Marketing
Dan McSpadden, Marketing Director
Kelly Wade, Marketing Manager
