Humanaut 'Spreads Sunshine' with SunButter Campaign and Packaging

Humanaut has developed a rebranding initiative for SunButter - a healthy, high-protein spread that has advantages over peanut and almond butters - that includes a strategic shift, new packaging and a multichannel advertising campaign. Additionally, Humanaut drove the innovation and branding process for a new SunButter Chocolate SKU.

'Spread Some Sun', which launches this month, dramatizes how the sun is the natural source of all happiness on earth. Through humour, it shows the effect of the sun’s rays 'spreading' to sunflowers and from there to all of humanity - the happy, healthy vibe of SunButter is contagious. The action ends up at a TV station where a weatherman predicts sunny skies across a map of the US and a producer swears this is “not a conspiracy theory to make people happy” before breaking into an evil 'Mua-ha-ha' cackle.

Humanaut created the 90-second hero ad along with two 30-second, two 15-second, and a 15-second video for Chocolate. Other media includes digital, social, and a radio/podcast spot. The agency won the project one year ago and this campaign is the result of a “Creative Test Studio” package that combined multiple cycles of rapid brand prototyping and consumer testing to rebuild and relaunch the brand.

SunButter is a growing national brand that was built on a loyal niche following. Unlike nut butters, it’s allergy-free, and therefore has become the champion of a specific consumer set. However, even with good Covid momentum (+3.3% vs. last year), the allergy-free positioning was limiting SunButter’s potential, leading to widespread but shallow distribution, and overall volume that doesn’t live up to the potential of such a no-brainer value proposition. That combined with relatively low household penetration means there’s tremendous untapped potential for growth. SunButter needed to communicate its broader brand attributes to attract a wider audience without losing its existing (and extremely loyal) consumer base. 

“This brand re-launch with Humanaut was a journey that resulted in a breakthrough product innovation,” said Justin LaGosh, managing director at SunButter, who worked closely with the team. “This is tough to find in a world filled with agencies that sell clients what they want to hear—which doesn’t breed success. Humanaut is an extremely well-rounded group of marketing specialists with expertise in strategy, positioning, research, innovation and creative campaign development.”

Humanaut’s objective was to reframe the SunButter brand as a new kind of delicious superfood snack that sparks health and happiness for anyone who tries it. 

“SunButter has been pigeonholed as the peanut butter alternative for kids with allergies, so people assume it must taste weird, like other ‘healthy replacement’ foods,” Humanaut founder and chief strategy officer Andrew Clark explained. “Meanwhile, nut butters like almond butter have taken off, and SunButter hasn’t had its rightful share of that booming category, despite the fact that it beats the pants off almond butter on taste and environmental sustainability. All we had to do to mainstream this secret superfood was prove to the world that SunButter is all the uncomplicated goodness of the sun in spreadable form. What could be more universal than that?”

The package redesign is a subtle shift that gives SunButter more presence on shelf. Humanaut rebuilt the packaging, updating the brand identity, colours and art to 'pop' off jars, and appeal to a more modern, mainstream consumer, not just natural food aficionados and allergy sufferers. They also restructured the design hierarchy to emphasize taste, plant-based nutrition, protein, and all-family appeal. The redesign was applied to five existing products as well as the new Chocolate Sunflower Seed spread.