CLM BBDO Paris and M&M’s Touchdown with New Digital Campaign

Mars Wrigley UK has launched a new advertising campaign for M&M’s Bars – the latest extension to the M&M’s brand. The digital campaign, backed by a £1.4 million media spend, follows on from a stream of best in class digital launches from the brand

The campaign, which sees a suite of over 50 new digital assets all featuring the M&M’s characters comically stuck in a chocolate bar, launches alongside the return of the brand’s celebrated Super Bowl advert ‘Bad Passengers’ - created by BBDO New York. The campaign will be unmissable across social media and digital out of home – supported by influencer campaigns and a brand partnership with LADbible – and is expected to achieve a total of 466 million impressions.

The 30-second ‘Bad Passengers’ commercial, which was found the most emotionally engaging ad of this year’s Super Bowl[1], has been adapted for a UK audience and features the M&M’s characters Red, Yellow, and Orange stuck in a M&M’s Bar. The amusing situation that the characters have found themselves in is also entertainingly told across the vast range of corresponding creative assets.

The launch, created in conjunction with CLM BBDO Paris, complements a series of digital first campaigns from the brand, including last year’s Facebook campaign for M&M’s Mix which saw a significant sales uplift of 36% for M&M’s Mix and also for the wider M&M’s brand (+11%)[2], resulting in Sheryl Sandberg recognising the campaign as best in class[3]. The brand also recently launched ‘Red Recommends’ in partnership with Amazon Alexa, which helped users choose streaming content across multiple platforms. The M&M’s Bar campaign aims to therefore continue the brand’s digital leadership and experimentation.

Cordelia Linacre, M&M’s senior brand manager, said: “M&M’s® Bars is a massive launch for us this year so it was only fitting we went big with this campaign! Including the adapted ‘Bad Passengers’, we have over 50 new assets specifically designed for each social platform and algorithm – while also capturing the fun and playfulness of our distinctive M&M’s characters. We feel our diverse range of creatives are the perfect way to introduce M&M’s® biggest product launch of the decade to consumers, while simultaneously highlighting our continued investment in digital.”

Anaïs Courbez, account director, CLM BBDO said: “M&M’s Bars was an exciting creative opportunity for the team which we knew we could have some fun with. To amplify the campaign across the UK, we leveraged the ‘Bad Passengers’ advert produced by our global team, which featured the characters stuck in a chocolate bar, to build on the story of the characters’ situation further across digital platforms and highlight this new and tasty way to enjoy M&M’s.”