In another innovative use of ‘Internet of Things’ technology, Richmond Sausages launched a new campaign in the UK, helping to fuel family bonds with a microchip tracking device for childrens’ toys.
Centered around a TV and YouTube video, the brand’s positioning centres on the extreme lengths that parents will go to, to bond with their children and draws on the emotional ties between children and their prized toys.
With the caption ‘Keep the whole family together with Richmond and a toy tracking chip,’ Richmond and Saatchi & Saatchi London have developed atoy-tracking microchip that can be attached to toys to enable their whereabouts using an app that can be downloaded to a parent’s phone.
The Bluetooth tracking device, created by tech firm Amigo Partnership, is available through on-pack giveaways, offering lucky winners the chance to win one of 200,000 Richmond toy-tracking devices.
The app, which can be downloaded from either the App or Google Play store, uses a range of technology to help reunite children with their lost toy.
By combining low power Bluetooth, sound and a phone’s GPS, it makes losing teddy almost impossible. The Bluetooth signal and speaker helps locate teddy when it’s nearby, letting parents know when it is in the next-door room or within arm’s reach.
When teddy gets left behind on a day out, the app uses a phone’s GPS to help record its location, using the GPS coordinates of where it last received a Bluetooth signal so parents know where to return to look for teddy even 1000 miles away.
The £3 million “sausages and chip” ad will run on TV, cinema and video-on-demand. There are also a series of online films showing the bond toys have played in families.
Richard Huntington, the chief strategy officer at Saatchi & Saatchi London group, said: “It’s every parent’s nightmare: the words ‘where’s blanky/bear/la la/bobbit’ followed by the realisation that they are somewhere between gran’s house and the services on the M6.
“Solving a crisis like this is a perfect role for Richmond, a brand built on bringing every member of the family together.”
The campaign was created by Mike Whiteside and Ben Robinson. The film was directed by Wilkins and Maguire through Stink. Vizeum handled the media planning and buying.
Sarah Davies, a senior brand manager for Richmond, said: “Sausages & Chip will be our biggest campaign of the year and comes at a key sales period when sausages are a meal-time favourite for families and an essential Christmas dinner ingredient.”