A secret world of foodie obsessions has just gone public. It’s all about passion for Italian tomato brand, Mutti, and it’s created by Australian indie agency, WiredCo. It’s hard to make a staple grocery item stand out from its competitors. The campaign, a docuseries called Confessions of a Muttiholic, intends to conquer the challenge.

The campaign extends the brand platform, When You Know, You Know, with its stories of Australia’s most passionate Mutti lovers, born from an insight that when people discover Mutti, they not only love it, they become obsessed with it.  

“It might sound unusual to say people have a real connection with a tomato brand, but with Mutti, they genuinely do. We’ve seen such deep love and loyalty from fans that their commitment goes far beyond the ordinary,” explained WiredCo group business director, Samantha Nunura.

Confessions of a Muttiholic will cover paid media (OOH, social) content, organic social and earned media, with the goal of celebrating Mutti’s loyal brand lovers in an unconventional, mass scale way, thus breaking free from category norms.

To test the waters, the process started back in May via a recruitment style media push and the creation of a Confessions of a Muttiholic hotline together with a custom landing page, with fans leaving hundreds of anonymous voicemails and DMs, confessing their wonderfully passionate obsessions about Mutti. 

“It was a test of sorts to mine for insights and see what we could surface. To our delight, we discovered stories like the woman who used Mutti in her skincare, the man who cracked open a can every morning like it was OJ, the bride who made Mutti the centerpiece of her shower, and the woman who tattooed a Mutti can on her arm for eternity. It proved that Mutti obsessions run deeper than we’d ever imagined,” explained WiredCo creative director, Joe Stuart.

To complete the unearthing of the brand’s most loyally obsessed, a Mutti Confessions Sessions activation was staged in partnership with Fabbrica Pasta Bar in Sydney’s CBD.  Over two days, Muttiholics turned up by the thousands to show their love, and via a custom-made confessional booth as part of the experience, each Muttiholic recorded their confession and was rewarded with a bowl of Mutti Napoletana Pasta.

The earned media push generated 99 media and creator hits, almost 7 million opportunities to see, and captured 190 fresh confessions on camera, giving the brand and agency a chance to meet these passionate fans in person.

 “We were blown away by the response. The more we learned, the more layered it got, proving that these weren’t just made-up stories, it was real passion for the brand. So, we wanted to amplify this at a mass level,” stated Mutti marketing director, ANZ, Samantha Filocamo.

Using the best confessions from the hotline and confessional event, WiredCo. chronicled the cult of Mutti in a three-part Confessions of a Muttiholic documentary series on TikTok and Instagram.  Each 2-minute film, produced by PlayLab Creative and directed by Harry Sanna, unearths a different confession – an artist sculpting and painting Mutti into pop art, a man drinking a can of Mutti daily, and a budding chef creating the world’s first ‘Muttinnoli’ – a cannoli made with Mutti.

WiredCo. and Mutti found themselves with so many unique stories to tell, they chose to go one step further by visualising them in a large format nationwide OOH campaign.

“We’ve always wanted to behave differently to the category, and so the idea of a big ad featuring a woman using Mutti Tomato Paste tubes as hair rollers is unexcepted and the perfect representation of people’s deep obsession with the brand. We’re hoping this helps us drive people to watch the new docuseries and cements the Muttiholics name into everyday Australian vernacular,” Samantha Filocamo added.

Credits:
Client: Mutti
ANZ Managing Directors: Trish Pegorer & Samanatha Filocamo 
ANZ Brand Manager: Alex Zappia 
ANZ Shopper Marketing Manager: Amy Smith

Creative Agency: WiredCo.
Partners & Managing Directors: David Kennedy-Cosgrove & Michelle Hampton
Group Business Director: Samantha Nunura
Creative Director: Joe Stuart 
Creative: Sophie Millican
Account Manager: Liv D’albertanson
Earned Media Account Director: Jessica Nutt
Earned Media Account Manager: Connie Nicolaou
Earned Media Account Exec: Emily Kelsey
Head of Social Content & Creative: Steph Edwards
Social Media Specialist: Maddie Rowston
Account Executive: Mia Nimmo
Head of Media & Strategy: Alex Frankis
Social Media Lead: Kelsey Hensby
Paid Media Executive: Anna Garcia 

Production Company: Playlab Creative
Producer: Mikie Wakerman 
Director: Harry Sanna
DOP: Calum Stewart
1st ACs: Shaun Graham & Darren Mak
2nd ACs: Victor Xi & Alyssa Lee 
Wardrobe & Set Design: Jodie Andarakis
HMU: Marnie Gerber 
Sound Recordist: Philip Myers
Video Editor: Mark Parry
Colourist: Marcus Timpson

Sound Design & Mix: Mosaic Music & Sound

Activation & Artwork Partners: Sophia Papas @ OMG XP & Chris Hall @ Gusto Events, 
Media & Influencer Partners: Time Out, oOh! Media, QMS, Meta, TikTok, Sophie Fisher, Dezi Madafferi, Wavemaker (OOH implementation)