How Ocean Spray Is Making the Holidays Its Own Super Bowl

Ocean Spray’s fan-favourite 2022 holidays spot, ‘Power Your Holidays’ – endearingly nicknamed ‘Jiggle’, due to the wibbly-wobbly nature of both the cranberry sauce and actors involved – was the first brief that CCO David Kolbusz sunk his teeth into after joining Brooklyn-based creative agency Orchard 18 months ago.

Jump ahead to the festive season of 2023, and David has teamed up once again with the cranberry company and Biscuit director Jeff Low to create ‘Power Your Party’ - an equally absurd and engaging sequel to the mealtime mayhem of 2022.

Speaking to LBB’s Ben Conway, alongside Ocean Spray’s SVP and chief commercial officer, Monisha Dabek, the CCO says that the off-beat new direction originally came about as Ocean Spray was looking to reach new audiences. After the market had “inured to the charms of” the beloved long-running ‘Two Guys in a Bog’ series of ads, he explains it was time for a change.

[Above: 'Power Your Party']

“They knew they had to do something relatively different… or radically, I suppose, in this instance. The first one was difficult - not that it wasn't meant with enthusiasm - but because it was a new thing,” he says. “Everyone just had to hold hands and charge forward in one direction.”

Monisha adds, “We’ve always used humour in our ads, but this off-beat humour tone we’ve set with these companion spots demonstrates our renewed brand persona to show up in wildly uncommon ways.” Calling it a “wonderful demonstration” of the brand's wider marketing strategy, she explains that the North Star is ‘to turn boring into fun’ through the transformational power of their own star of the show: the cranberry.

From the jiggle at the Thanksgiving table to the mix of cranberry juice in a boring punch, this ethos has been a holidays hit, two years running. But a sequel wasn’t always on the (Christmas) cards.

“We did not initially plan for a sequel – but we are really glad we did,” says Monisha. “Last year’s spot was one of our first steps in ushering in our new creative approach, and it was a definite departure from what consumers have seen from the brand. What we loved is that it taps into how organically people think and use cranberry in the season.”

David reveals that towards the end of Q1 2023, the teams eventually identified the desire for a follow-up after setting out to develop the holiday season into “Ocean Spray’s own personal Super Bowl” - akin to the British ad industry’s approach to Christmas campaigns.

Describing the creative approach to the sequel, David says, “The narrative had to change a little bit but we had to retain a lot of the raw material that made the first one good. It's a sequel, but it's also not a sequel, because it is different enough – I think you get new things out of it.”

With Ocean Spray highly involved in the creative too, Monisha says early discussions were focused on exceeding the standard set in 2022 and the insight that 40% of consumers mix cranberry juice with either vodka, seltzer, or other juices. “Since consumers already know that adding cranberry to your drink or punch turns the party from boring to fun, showcasing the product through this creative lens not only makes sense from our brand perspective but will also be instantly recognisable to the end consumer." 

She continues, “It was imperative that whatever the action was – last year’s ‘jiggle’ or this year’s ‘mix’ – was inherently understood by the end consumer.”  

[Above: 'Power Your Holidays']

At first, the Orchard team and director set about making the sequel stand out from the original as much as possible, even contemplating making it humour-less or using red ribbons instead of the bombastic human movements that embody the products in both of the final pieces. However, they soon decided they were needlessly overcomplicating the process.

“Eventually, we were just like, ‘Maybe we don't have to make it that different to make it just as good? Maybe we have to change a few little things',” says David. “So instead of it being autonomous movements, like it was last year, where people controlled themselves, [this year] we had people on rigs swirling around. It was a new visual effect that felt like it was going to be different enough.”

Noting the new three-act structure and emotional elements as other evolutions from ‘Power Your Holidays’, he says one key aspect was vital in the new spot’s success: the ‘elderly woman’ protagonist.

“Seeing her tip the bottle into the punch bowl just immediately made us laugh,” he says. “And then we just started grabbing close-ups of her which weren't even boarded. At the time, we just had to get bonus shots of her watching the mayhem unravel and unfold, and in doing so, a film was born.”

One of the main challenges of the campaign also came during production, as the rigs - operated manually by people in green screen suits - had to spin the actors at a precise rate; fast enough to not need excessive speed-up in post, but slow enough to keep the actors relatively still.

“The actors had to pick an expression and hold it, remaining unbelievably still as these people moved them around on rigs,” explains David. “Interestingly, it wasn't one of those cases where you can just cast anyone. The actors needed to be able to hold their expressions and not get freaked out by people moving them on the rigs. It was an unnerving experience that not a lot of people could do. So it was just as challenging for our cast this year as it was last year – but they did a nice job!”

After seeing the finished spot for the first time, Monisha says she felt like the expectations set by ‘Jiggle’ had been met, and that the creative for both films has helped reframe Ocean Spray’s brand perception. “Many people knew us as ‘the guys in the bog’ – which we love – but we lacked consumer engagement from the younger generation around our products.” 

She adds, “Following the viral success of [skateboarding TikTok sensation] Doggface, we became comfortable taking more risks. Now, we aim to show up in the world and in our consumers’ lives in ways unexpected for Ocean Spray, but highly relevant for our consumers. You’ll see this from our social media, our new packaging rolling out in 2024, and our desire to spark consumer conservation.”

As for the ‘Power Your…’ holiday campaigns – now that the juicy sequel has released to an equally warm response as the jiggly first film – David says this might just be the beginning of Ocean Spray's personal, seasonal 'Super Bowl'. “All of a sudden there does become an expectation that there's going to be another. And I think that will probably be the case. If there's appetite on [Ocean Spray’s] end, there will definitely be appetite on our end.”