Grey London on the Pringles and Super Mario ‘Collabvert’

After multiple campaigns spent levelling up Pringles’ gaming presence, Grey London faced the final boss: a collaboration between Super Mario and the snacking brand that seems almost too symbiotic to be true. Creative directors Angela Harding and Terry O’Neill note the mirrored visual elements between the two brands like the “moustache / moustache, cans / warp pipes, coins / chips” which was “staring us in the face.”

Leaning into the shared brand elements and ‘90s gaming culture, the team used Super Mario’s distinctive green pipes and reimagined them as Pringles tubes in a series of displays and activations across digital, social, OOH, and in-store. The epic campaign is a culmination of Grey London’s efforts over the last six years to make Pringles a more authentic brand within gaming through multiple, considered campaigns and activations like The Battlecouch and The Pringlesonic Chip.

LBB caught up with Angela and Terry to learn more about harnessing the power of ‘90s gaming nostalgia for the campaign, working with the legendary George Takei, and respecting the Mario IP across every touchpoint.

LBB> Pringles are a go to snack for a lot of occasions already. What did the brand want to do with this campaign and who did they want to reach? Tell us about the brief.  

Angela and Terry> Historically, Pringles was known as a snack brand for lots of occasions, like watching movies, football or general get-togethers. But it wasn’t a snack that was associated with gaming, which surprised us. It became clear this was an untapped market. So six years ago we set out to make Pringles a more authentic brand in the space and try to entertain at the same time too.

After multiple campaigns and growing awareness in the gaming world it was time for the ultimate partnership: Pringles and Super Mario. The brief for the campaign was to use the love for both brands to get people in store and buying the limited edition cans. A true mass appeal campaign that current gamers or ‘80s OGs can relate to.

LBB> Why was gaming the right angle and space of opportunity for the brand to pursue?

Angela and Terry> Pringles is the most playful of snacks and gaming is playful. So, there was a natural fit there. But Pringles had always been on the outside of gaming looking in so we made the decision to become part of the entertainment and make the brand more authentic for the audience. Working closely with the Pringles team, we’ve helped build this over the last six years starting with:

The Battlecouch, a bespoke 70-metre long 100-seat gaming sofa that brought together players from all over Europe to game in the same physical space – and to eat Pringles, of course! This became a two-hour live contest on Twitch that was streamed to six markets. 

Additionally, we launched the world’s first paid job in a video game as part of Pringles NPC. We invited applications in the game and across social for a real person to take the virtual job refilling a Pringles vending machine in a Train Sim World. As well as other activations like Meet Frank and The Pringlesonic Chip, we were able to help build the Pringles brand as the ultimate snacking option for this space, becoming synonymous with gamers. 

LBB> Super Mario is an iconic character and has been for 40 years. What made this the perfect partnership with Pringles?

Angela and Terry> Super Mario and Pringles are both icons from the sector they’re in. Pringles has had icon status for many years with a long history of appearing in popular culture. The brand appeared in The Simpsons multiple times and has cropped up as a bootleg version in Family Guy. But the appearance of Pringles in films and live-action TV shows has been most prominent, having popped up in the likes of Stranger Things and the remake of Ghostbusters. So, carrying that through into the gaming space seemed like a no-brainer.  

And let’s be honest: Super Mario and Pringles is a match made in heaven. Even the branding goes well together, with warp pipes, cans and moustaches everywhere. 

LBB> Nostalgia is one of the defining trends in culture right now but getting it right is tricky. Talk us through how you approached and executed this in the new campaign to hit the right tone.  

Angela and Terry> Nostalgia is an interesting subject. When we look back it’s all poppy colours, crazy film characters, and gaming. It’s all very visual, in your face with no apologies. Pringles has always stood out on shelf for these reasons and has carried that overt visual style into the gaming space they’ve played in as well. We wanted to bring this punchiness to the OOH.

For the social animations we recruited George Takei to be the voice of the campaign. He plays a massive part in nostalgic popular culture and is loved the world over. He did an amazing job. His comedic performance and range of ‘gleeful gravitas’ was a perfect fit for this collab. We understood that not everyone will listen and recognise his voice but those who know, know. It’s a nice little Easter egg for people (of a certain age) to discover.

LBB> Using the Pringles cans as the pipes that appear in the game is brilliantly simple and visually effective. What was the creative ideation process behind this like?  

Angela and Terry> We’d like to say the route to the end result was simple, but as is usually the case, it wasn’t. There were many versions of the OOH, social film, and activations that were put forward and played with. But the one thing we all kept coming back to was the cross-over between Pringles and Super Mario. It was hard to ignore the perfect mirroring of moustache / moustache, cans / warp pipes, coins / chips – it was staring us in the face. So, when the creative team presented a green Pringles can that merged with a green warp pipe from Super Mario with the piranha plant popping out the top, the ‘collabvert’ was born.  

LBB> The campaign appears across a series of displays and activations across digital, social, OOH retail, and in-store. How did you adapt the campaign across the different formats?

Angela and Terry> Once we had decided on the half and half imagery, it allowed us to span all the different media and touchpoints fairly easily. 

With the OOH element of the campaign being huge (over 200 assets across Europe) we were concerned about whether the creative could hold up, but the constraints to make sure we were honouring both brand’s IP actually became the campaign’s biggest strength. The approach was really flexible from a literal POV, and whatever space it appeared in, it didn’t lose its visual punch or power which is a testament to both brands. 

LBB> Did you encounter any challenges while working on the campaign? How did you overcome them?

Angela and Terry> The biggest challenge was respecting the Super Mario IP. It carries a lot of weight and rightly so. We worked hard to keep the concept simple and to not add layers that would dim either iconic brand. 

LBB> What was your favourite part of the campaign / working on the campaign?

Angela and Terry> Being able to work with the brilliant George Takei and experiencing his amazing performance skills and warm personality first hand will stay with us forever. The title ‘legend’ gets thrown around a lot these days but he is someone that is worthy of the label. And having one of our fly posters torn down and stolen in Berlin. The biggest compliment. The IRL ‘like’ button.

LBB> Is there anything else you would like to share with us?

Angela and Terry> This was sadly our last campaign with Pringles therefore marking the end of a fantastic era. We’re very proud of what we’ve achieved together. It's been a blast. Let’s go!