Driven primarily by impulse buying, the candy category is fickle and highly competitive with new products and innovative flavours being introduced to consumers every day. Maynards is the category leader but has been struggling with both its brand saliency and maintaining its share. Competitive pressures from the #2 manufacturer, Wrigley, were strong and the share gap between the two was getting tighter. Not only had Wrigley stepped up its game on its advertising spend, outspending Maynards for the first time with its Skittles brand, but it also gained significant grounds with format innovation. This has resulted in a decline in interest and relevance as consumers constantly look for the next shiny object. Maynards needed to fight back on the innovation front. They decided to launch a new product in May 2012 that would help jump start sales.

The challenge was to conceptualize this new flavour – sour apple – and bring it to market in a way that would break through and grab consumers’ attention.

Shelves are so cluttered with new products these days that telling people that a product is new, improved, or has a new taste just won’t cut it anymore. People need a reason to like the product or better yet, love the product, before they even try it.

Meet Sour Granny Smith, the newest member of the Maynards candy family. Yes, it tastes like green apple, yes it’s sour, but that’s not what consumers were told. Instead Maynards embraced its brand platform of ‘deliciously odd’ and very literally, brought the candy to life. The agency created Granny Smith, a sour old bag of a lady, and put her in all the typical candy locations: lying on a shelf, being wheeled into a store on a trolley and crammed into a vending in a machine. These executions ran across billboards and national transit media.

In addition, the agency tapped into a recent cultural phenomenon by creating a “Sour Granny Smith” meme, which appeared as wild postings throughout urban cores and across the digital universe. The campaign ran from May 14 through July 31, and Granny has also made recurring appearances on Maynards’ Facebook and YouTube pages.

The Granny Smith character has been a hit amongst consumers. The campaign garnered recognition from Buzzfeed, Creativity and Funny Or Die, and the memes in particular sparked significant conversation on Reddit. Granny’s YouTube video also has over 230,000 hits and counting. It’s clear that despite her sourest efforts, consumers have embraced Granny Smith.