Still Hearing it Through the Grapevine -- The California Raisins

AROUND THE BLOCK

I learned today

I learned today, courtesy of the New York Times Magazine, that the California Dancing Raisins are still in the news. Sort of.

In an article entitled The Raisin Situation (online) and Raisin Noir (in print), the Times describes the animosity and rancor that is the raisin industry, based in and around Fresno, California.      https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/27/style/sun-maid-raisin-industry.html

As the article suggests, that enmity existed even back in the day when there was “a reluctance to work together on raisin advertising, which is especially strange given that the raisin industry commissioned and paid for one of the world’s most recognizable advertising campaigns,” the California Dancing Raisins.

As the individual responsible for supervising the California Raisin Advisory Board (CALRAB) account at the advertising agency Foote, Cone & Belding (FCB) that created the Dancing Raisins, I thought it might make sense to provide a little back story on that legendary campaign.

FCB was responsible for the CALRAB account for many years. Over those years the agency produced numerous TV advertising campaigns for the client…campaigns that were written against different marketing strategies all designed to stimulate raisin consumption.

There was the “Nature’s Candy” campaign which suggested to consumers that 100% natural raisins were indeed “candy from nature,” a wholesome, healthful snack to give to your children. The most notable spot in this campaign was called “Baby Sitter” which featured a very young, pre-Breakfast Club, Molly Ringwald playing a baby sitter extolling the virtues of giving raisins to her charges.

There was the “How They Make Them” campaign which, in one spot, showed kids loving their raisins but wondering how they were made…with the payoff – they weren’t made, they were 100% natural snacks, “made” by simply being dried in the California sun.  

Another wonderful spot in this campaign was the animated (not Claymation) “Factory” spot which whimsically demonstrated the raisin “factory assembly line”…raisins being picked, dried naturally in the sun and then packed.

But, despite these great ads, raisin sales remained flat.

So, a new strategy was developed, leaving snacking behind and emphasizing raisins’ versatility as an ingredient in a wide variety of recipes and dishes. The spot we ran, “Rondo” was simply beautiful, showing raisins falling in extreme slow-motion, into a variety of dishes with Mozart’s "Turkish Rondo" as the background music. This spot was so successful creatively, it won a Clio, at the time the advertising industry’s Oscar equivalent.

But raisin sales didn’t budge.

So back to the drawing board. And, what do advertising agencies do when they go back to the drawing board? Do research. Find out what the issues are. Determine what might trigger consumers into consuming more. And that we did.

The results of this research: consumers knew, after all those previous campaigns, all they needed to know about raisins – natural, wholesome, great for kids, great for snacking, great as an ingredient. But they didn’t think of them and when/if they did, they were kind of boring and old-fashioned.

Eureka! Let’s make raisins fun and hip and exciting. Let’s bring raisins, a product everyone knows, from the back of the mind to the front.

Armed with this insight we went back and developed a spot – young hip folks, enjoying raisins against a high-tempo, energetic sound track (I think we even had some fireworks for good measure). The client bought it, we developed a test “animatic” (a rough animation) which tested well. Production was scheduled a few months later.

My client at the time was Bob Phinney, CALRAB’s marketing director. Bob and I were on a European business trip promoting California raisin sales against our arch enemy, Turkish sultanas. 

Walking back to our Copenhagen hotel after a distributor’s dinner on a cold, snowy December night I confessed to Bob that I thought the spot we presented to CALRAB was OK, but not great. And since we had several months before we had to produce, would he let us try one more time to get to “great.” Bob, who was the best client I ever had, said, not surprisingly, “I’m with you…I’m not in love that spot either. Just tell me what it will cost.” I told Bob, “$20,000, the cost of another animatic.” His response, “Go for it. I’ll take care of the internal politics.”

The rest, as they say, is history. Back in San Francisco I got Seth Werner, a great creative, assigned to the account. Seth came up with the idea of dancing raisins, and importantly, the stroke of genius to use the heretofore little known Will Vinton and his Claymation technique, to produce it.

The animatic was produced. It tested through the roof and my team and I, with Bob’s support, recommended full production to the CALRAB marketing committee. There was only one roadblock. Sun Maid’s representative on the committee raised his hand and asked, “We already have a spot that tested well. I like that one. Why are we doing this?” To which I responded, “Because it’s better!”

As the Times article says, raisin sales spiked…but truth be told…Dancing Raisin merchandise and tchotchkes sales soared! 

At the time, Advertising Age, the industry trade bible, published a monthly survey listing the most remembered advertising during the previous month. The top 5 always included advertisers like Coke, Pepsi, McDonalds, each of whom spent upwards of $200 million on their TV campaigns. And California Raisins? Either number one, two or three in the survey. At a spend level of around $8 million.

Ah, the power of a great idea!