Stand by for a not-so-superhero

Beanman is coming. Old favourite Watties Baked Beans will this week unveil the not-so-super hero chosen to lead its first major advertising effort since the late 1990s.

Tim Skellern, Watties' business manager for meal solutions, said Beanman marked a deliberate move away from the kind of advertising the brand had used in the past, because the company wanted to target the gap in the baked beans' customer base - 18- to 25-year-olds.

Although the brand had high profile among youngsters and the over 35s, young adults were suddenly faced with a far greater choice of foods when they left home, and beans suffered.

Market penetration for baked beans dipped to about 70 per cent in that age group, compared with 80 per cent plus for other groups.

"We want to make sure that in 20 years' time we are still talking about Watties Baked Beans being a family favourite," said Skellern.

"We want to remind them that baked beans are a good choice: healthy, quick, and relatively cheap to prepare - all the things they should be looking for."

A veteran of Unilever's campaigns for Lynx in Britain, Skellern said Watties had set its agency, DDB, the difficult task of invigorating "lethargic" young adults, without alienating the main buyer of baked beans, the household shopper.

It had gone for a campaign that would surprise, using humour as an attempt to keep the appeal broad but featuring a character he hoped would especially appeal to 18- to 25-year-olds.

"Beanman is not your average superhero - he's pretty average," said Skellern.

The $1.7 million campaign kicks off shortly with teasers ahead of the debut of two new television commercials on Sunday, which will feature the tagline "Who needs a superhero when you have superfood?"

Previous advertising for the brand has focused on sporting heroes. A campaign in the early 1990s featured the mothers of All Blacks, while cyclist Sarah Ulmer featured in advertising that ran between 1996 and 1998.

Apart from a one-off TV ad in 2002, the brand has not received much promotion for more than six years.

Howard Russell, head of branding consultancy Strategic Insight, said the success of the campaign with young adults would depend on whether the problem lay with the brand, or with the product itself.

"Are they never in a situation where they want to open a can, and throw it on a piece of toast, or is the barrier more around how they look at it - 'It doesn't excite me, but if you zest it up I'll take another look'?"

Watties would win back many lapsed eaters when they had children, but it still needed to address the loss of the over-20s, he said. The trend for people to have children later in life boosted the risk of a growing gap in consumption.

Russell expected to see more older brands forced to rethink their image with young adults.

Dr Kathy Mortimer, a lecturer in advertising research with the Auckland University of Technology's business faculty, said humour was the best way to communicate to young adults without alienating other age groups, unless ads were offensive.

She was surprised that baked beans had lost traction among young adults, given their price and ease of preparation.

"I would have thought there was a market opportunity if they haven't got high sales in that area ... You just open the tin and heat them up - even 18-to-25s can do that."

Skellern said Watties had no intention of relaunching baked beans as a youth brand, given that its main buyer was the household shopper.

But it was prepared for a "healthy level of discomfort" with the baked beans image change, otherwise there was no point. The brand has been growing at a rate of up to 2 per cent a year, and Skellern expected Beanman would double growth.

The campaign will run until October, and, if successful, the Beanman character will live on for more.

Apart from television, the push will feature consumer promotion such as sampling, internet advertising and a Beanman website, some advertising on radio and in bus interiors, and as much point-of-sale advertising as possible.