Bumble Bee’s major new advertising campaign – its first in years since the canned tuna price-fixing scandal in the U.S. – asks consumers to re-think shelf-stable tuna.
It’s cheeky “YES! BUMBLE BEE!” messaging centers on “touting tuna’s many benefits by showing up creatively in ways you may not anticipate, but frankly, places that Bumble Bee tuna has always rightfully belonged,” the San Diego, California-based company said in a press release.
The campaign asks and answers questions such as, “Tuna as a source of protein to fuel your workout? Yes! Bumble Bee!” and “Tuna as the ultimate fast food? Yes! Bumble Bee!”
“The ‘YES! BUMBLE BEE!’ campaign is a positive, uplifting and hopefully a tad bit funny campaign that is meant to bring a smile to people’s faces — something we all need a bit more of right now,” Bumble Bee Executive Vice President and Chief Growth Officer Todd Putnam said in a press release.
“Bumble Bee is a 120-year-old brand that deserves a refreshing, innovative re-boot. We’ve made several changes over the last couple of years to our products and packaging and now we are topping that off with a breakthrough marketing effort,” Putnam added.
Putnam shared Bumble Bee’s new product and packaging initiatives with SeafoodSource last month.
New products include Protein on the Run, a kit that features a three-ounce can of skipjack tuna in oil, packaged with upscale sea salt crackers. The supplier is also re-launching the Snow’s canned chowder line with revamped packaging and formulations to reflect Snow’s history dating back to 1920.
According to Bumble Bee’s consumer research, even among regular tuna consumers, people were simply not equating tuna’s benefits with the Bumble Bee product — offering an opening for the company to work on building brand love and preference, Putnam said in the release.
The resulting “YES! BUMBLE BEE!” campaign is a series of four spots that utilize the iconic styles of sports, active lifestyle and fast food commercials to surprise viewers with the benefits of shelf-stable tuna and push up against category norms, Bumble Bee said.
