5 Gum: How to Completely Annihilate Your Brand Image

in 2007 Wrigley's five gum would make its commercial debut with one of the most outlandishly over-the-top marketing campaigns ever developed for a food product seriously five's advertising was the edgiest thing a snack company's done since they decided to put master chief on Doritos bags and that doesn't even come close originally named after the five human senses and the five calories in each stick Wrigley 5 managed to take something as mundane as chewing gum and posture it as the most extreme sensory experience available on the market even the names of the flavors were intense it wasn't peppermint cinnamon and spearmint it was Cobalt flare and Rain five was a completely new take on how gum could be sold a unique approach that focused Less on the traditional themes of longlasting breath freshening monotony and more on the visceral experience of the product itself and this attitude didn't just pertain to the gum heck even the packaging was unique seriously there's a whole case study about it online it was surprisingly Innovative and it was these Innovations to marketing and packaging that made the product so strangely captivating for its time in 2007 five gum was a product specifically engineered for an entirely new age of consumer early insights show that Wrigley 5 was looking to Target the demographic of quote 14 to 25-year-old male St Seekers which I guess just translates to guys that are into Andrew Tate now I don't know it was a Coming of Age type of product one that said hubba Bubbas for babies and drew a line in the sand separating the boys from the slightly less prepubescent boys look for those that grew up in the late 2000s there's no denying that five was kind of the Axe Body Spray of gum and during the peak of the product's life cycle its popularity was primarily associated with Middle School boys but the truth is the success s of 5's marketing would capture a consumer base far beyond the reach of their targeted demographic and that was all thanks to a 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displate.com slowstart where I've handpicked some of my favorite designs to help get you started and by using the code slow start at checkout you can get up to 33% off your order thanks again to displate for sponsoring this video the five gum commercials were a high octane adrenaline driven thrill For The Senses designed to illustrate to the viewer that five wasn't just a flavor it was an experience and each one was different the taste of cobalt was equated to being launched at Mock speed through some sort of subzero pneumatic tube system the taste of flare felt like skydiving onto the heat of a thousand air vents and rain was to be honest I still have no idea what this one was about but that was part of the enjoyment the commercials made five's flavors appear mysterious and Abstract yet still enticing I mean how are you supposed to know what swerve tastes like well guess you'll just have to buy a pack and find out to add to their Allure the advertisements always took place in a mysterious uncanny looking testing facility where the subject was always put through some sort of strange experiment of the senses like what's even going on in this one why are they doing this who's funding this and it didn't stop there Wrigley would continue to promote their new brand in print ads which in my opinion were incredibly under ated ever tried lying on a thousand vibrating cell phones no ever tried Bungie jumping into a volcano why would I do that ever ride through a whirl poool on an electric eel these are becoming progressively more ridiculous all in all five gum's original advertising forged an unforgettably distinct image for the brand that over 10 years later has yet to be rivaled within the industry of snack foods within a year of its release five was practically a household name suddenly gum was cool again and now Hubba Bubba Juicy Fruit extra and the rest all had some new competition now I'm just kidding literally all those brands are owned by rley they are the corporate Puppet Masters of the gum industry but regardless of this five gum would enjoy over half a decade of well-earned success expanding into a roster of over a dozen flavor experiences and continuing their epic ad campaign well into the early 10s but by 2014 things started to take a bit of a turn you see five gums saw its rise to fame during a time when gum sales were actually starting to dip at first it wasn't that alarming advertisers were kind of in a state of denial with an attitude that felt something like hey kids how you doing John uh baby junior baby junior Wrigley here how you doing hey isn't chewing gum great man I love me some five but really though guys uh please buy our product breath Min are taking over our market share where a dying industry this is serious by the mid 10s companies could no longer ignore the problem with chewing gum sales declining year over year Wrigley was forced to close down one of their major manufacturing plants it was in Toronto actually it hit very close to home we still don't really like to talk about it but this shutdown wasn't just a kick in the pants it was a call to action for Wrigley to completely reassess their marketing strategies when it came to their products and what Wrigley Learned was chewing gum had kind of lost its cool Factor what was once seen as a hip and rebellious confectionary was now no longer valued within youth culture and with the growth and popularity of Alternatives like breath mints consumers now had more options to choose from so like any company facing a critical loss in market share Wrigley would panic and attempt to drastically modify their marketing strategies in the hopes that a new angle might help push sales now this is where things started to get weird for five you you see in an attempt to update its image Wrigley would abandon five's adrenaline driven attitude in favor of a more downto Earth style of advertising all of a sudden five's marketing was no longer centered around visceral flavor experiences now it was about the joy of being young taking risks and the beauty of the human condition and it wouldn't stop there over the next decade the company would experiment with virtually every conceivable angle they thought they could capitalize on seriously somehow five ended up going through more phases than the middle schoolers they were marketing to moving from runchy to Wholesome to no one's actually done something like this before you know taking a piece of gum and making it into a piece of jewelry oh and to add insult to injury every attempt to Rebrand was more desperate and ridiculous than the last So today we're going to look at all of them and point and laugh to begin let's start with fives first offense in 2015 the brand ushered in a completely new era doing away with their tried and true slogan in favor of a much humbler Mantra life happens in five now you don't have to be a marketing expert to notice that this new slogan communicates an entirely different message prior to this change five's whole identity was intentionally over the top but here we see an attempt by the brand to equate five to more relatable realistic experiences all of a sudden the thrill of five is no longer about blasting out of a peppermint cooled Cannonball now it's about the thrill of sneaking out going in for a sudden kiss or doing balet but where these commercials especially miss the Mark is with the feeling they attempt to convey yes all of these experiences could be seen as heart pounding thrilling moments but they have almost nothing to do with the thrill of the s senses something that five's earlier commercials captured so effectively look at it this way if my chewing gum delivers an overwhelming minty sensation that's invigorating if it starts making my heart pound I'm calling 911 it almost feels like five tried to create a more updated and relatable take on their old commercials but forgot about the gum in the process they're also still targeting young people but this time around it just feels way more forced photos from their website show 20s somethings hanging out smiling and enjoying the moment while awkwardly holding gum for the camera like that's something people just do look I'm not trying to be difficult I understand that it's an advertisement but there's a huge difference between someone posing with a product like this versus an ad that's awkwardly trying to look organic but you know what if five gum offered me money I'd be taking pics with it too I mean every family photo every candid anyways how did F follow this up well in 2016 the company reintroduced five Truth or Dare a packaging gimmick that included an edgy Truth or Dare Challenge on each stick of gum I guess the idea is that since gum is a sharable item then people would be inclined to challenge their friends before giving them a piece yes I know it's incredibly lame they tried to push this did a promotion at VidCon engagement was poor and yet somehow they managed to keep this gimmick running for over 4 years it was also very clear that this campaign was another hamfisted attempt by five to try and Pander to young people I mean just look at this weird video from five's marketing team that probably isn't meant to be publicly on YouTube Five gum rained is the hot youth brand for years but eventually other options stole our share of the hearts and pockets of modern Millennials so we had to remind them that five gum is the gateway to intriguing experiences cringe it's pretty clear that this is one of those videos an ad team puts together every quarter where they flash a bunch of big numbers on the screen so they can all highfive each other in a boardroom meeting and whenever one of these things makes it out to the public they are almost always embarrassing to watch they're always crammed with cringy stock footage of stuff companies think young people do like frolicking on a beach or dancing in a skate park why is it always a skate park but the campaign didn't stop there in 2017 five upped the launch Factor by making all their Truth or Dare challenges a fill inthe blank Style game which gave rise to packaging that said things like what's the most horrible place you've ever or have you ever with your pants on this isn't even edgy anymore it's just crass but what made this even weirder was the fact that the next year the company would immediately follow up this runchy marketing gimmick with a tear jerking socially conscious new ad campaign in 2018 five introduced the hash T no regrets campaign an emotionally charged series of advertisements that documented the stories of elderly people and their biggest life regrets you can't make this stuff up if this isn't proof that corporations aren't just the archetypal manifestation of a shape shifting gesture then maybe it's a me problem seriously I've had weeks to ponder over this ad campaign and I still cannot wrap my head around what possessed them to take this angle for gum it is shocking ly sad each story in this campaign is a personal profile on someone who due to bigotry social stigma or poor living conditions was forced to live with a regret that they will carry to the grave and while these videos actually do a surprisingly good job at shedding light on some pretty heavy topics it still feels really weird knowing that at the end of the day this is just an ad for chewing gum now look I get it social issues are important to a lot of young people and if companies touch on these to topics it will have an influence on their purchasing decisions but that doesn't make it feel any less out of place if you look on their Instagram you'll see what I mean on August 30th 2018 five gum made a post about Lynn a Chinese performer that was so tied down by work that she never got the chance to travel outside of her Homeland and then immediately after five gum posted what's your favorite way to # five Tru or Dare never never have I seen a brand communicate such a blatant loss of identity to their consumers it's just off the rails at this point by 2019 five gum's entire brand image is in a million pieces the popularity of gum is still in the dumpster and in countries like Australia the product is just flat out being discontinued so naturally there's only one thing left to do in 2019 five is forced to make one last Act of desperation a final Hail Mary with one of the the most forbidden marketing tactics known to Modern Advertising pandering to Gamers April 27th 2020 5 makes its first Instagram post don't game without five gum engagement is clearly high this one guy claims he almost ate an entire pack of gum while gaming by God this might actually work the pandering continues suddenly every post five gum makes is somehow tied to video games along with baseless claims about how their gum now apparently improves focus and they barely even need to try half the time they're just photoshopping the gum in front of PS4 controllers and somehow it's being received well then in October it happens a post is made on five's official Instagram promoting their brand new specially engineered gamer gum [Music] this is the bad ending in late 2020 five gum introduced respawn a gamer Centric chewing gum produced in partnership with computer electronics company Razer now for those who aren't too familiar the Razer company is Infamous throughout the gaming world for taking regular everyday products and rebranding them for a gaming audience this goes for everything from from beverages to athletic wear to animated shows to RGB face masks don't let them forget they tried this you see Razer was one of the early Pioneers when it came to identifying Gamers as a legitimately profitable demographic and that's inspired them to experiment with all kinds of ridiculous products which is why it comes as no surprise that the company was more than enthusiastic to enter the gum business the whole idea behind respawn spawn was to offer a collection of uniquely flavored gum that promised to improve focus while gaming according to their claims respawn utilized a mix of B vitamins and green tea extract which supposedly served as a cognitive stimulant and while I was completely ready to tear this claim down piece by piece I was weirdly surprised to learn that the science behind these claims is actually fairly solid turns out the consumption of B vitamins has demonstrated improved focus in scientific studies which means respawn could kind of technically maybe improve your performance while gaming it's a stretch and it's much more likely that simply having an energy drink would be infinitely more effective but regardless that's not the actual problem here the real question we should be asking is who chews gum while playing video games am I missing something here is this a niche corner of gamer culture that I never got hipped to when has that action ever been annonymous with gaming Doritos sure Mountain Dew yes gfuel fine I guess but bubblegum who wants to sit in a Discord call with a guy smacking his lips together we can't gank top like that we can't rush be it's too annoying in fact I can prove it can you hear me yeah what are you guys up to not much I was just uh writing an email what kind of email that was an email to my boss I was talking to him yeah yeah just about um sorting out sorting out what that's so that's really that's actually hurting my ears I got to turn you down what what is that just gum okay so as far as the actual product goes from what I can tell online it doesn't seem like respawn ever managed to take off anywhere at all as with most heavily hyped gaming consumables it always feels like there's a ton of promotion online without the proper distribution to back it up so as a result respawns official Instagram page is just filled with 14-year-olds asking why they can't find it at Walmart and that basically brings us to today as of 20123 wriggley has practically pulled back the reins on the entire brand apart from a few sponsored publicity stunts five doesn't really advertise to the level they used to and their roster of flavors has pitifully DWI L from over a dozen different options to about four so who's to blame here well while it is true that the popularity of chewing gum has fallen drastically it still never felt like five gum did themselves any favors along the way between the tasteless packaging gimmicks social pandering and the encasing pre-wed gum inside of jewelry sorry I didn't cover this one in the video there's not much to it it's just really dumb it feels like along the way wriggley forgot what it was that that made their product so enticing in the first place so here's my take on it if Wrigley wants to get us excited about their product again they need to take five back to its roots they need to remind us what made five such a captivating product remind us that five is an experience they need to remind us how it feels to two5 gum thanks for watching and a big thanks to our patreon [Music] producers

Channel: slow start

Views: 2,735,526

Keywords: 5Gum

Id: yoCPV3f1xDQ

Length: 19min 56sec (1196 seconds)

Published: Sun Dec 17 2023