Fowler Packing's Kiah Ruvalcaba Discusses New Unfluencers Campaign
FRESNO, CA - How do you stand out on the produce stage? Sometimes it takes inventiveness on another level, a campaign that walks the line of irreverent and genius. What do I speak of, you might ask? Peelz™ Mandarins Unfluencers campaign. I know I had loads of questions, so let’s get right into it with Kiah Ruvalcaba, Marketing Director.
“We have been very intentional and focused on building consumer brand awareness, especially since we’re going into our fourth season,” Kiah told me. “Last season, we launched the Thiz iz Peelz campaign, which for us just hits the simple nail on the head. It’s a Mandarin, let’s not overthink this. People love Mandarins and there’s no need to 'sell' them to our consumers. We like the idea that our brand is built on dumbfounded simplicity. This notion of not taking ourselves so seriously is refreshing for the category, and marketing itself for that matter. And this year with Peelz Seazon, our Unfluencer campaign turns that same simple dial up on social media.”
The tagline of the campaign furthers the company’s basic concept of Mandarin marketing. It reads: The influencers nobody needz for a product that sellz itself. The brilliance of the campaign lies in user-generated content and the recruitment of spokespeople, which helps spread the word about the product. Or in short, who needs an influencer to sell something that doesn’t need selling?
“The internet was built on advertising, and in the world of social media, influencers are a huge part of that. So, we thought, ‘Well, if our product sells itself why use influencers at all?’ Instead, let’s do the opposite and champion people with no influence on the internet. Just regular people. Those are our Unfluencers. And we’re recruiting an army of anyone who wants to become one,” Kiah outlined. “Our announcement video for the campaign is basically a recruitment piece to get people to join us. We’re using real influencers, who are the only ones who can’t be Unfluencers, to get the word out.”
For those on TikTok and Instagram, see the announcement video here or check out three big players on the platforms that have agreed to spotlight the campaign on their channels. These include @kristy.sarah, @brittany_broski, and @nicholas—flannery. All three of them combined have a reach of 17 million followers.
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The campaign launched November 21 and runs through December 21 on both Instagram and TikTok.
“We don’t want to be just another brand in the category. We want to push and be thought leaders. A, because it’s just more fun, and B, because we know it supports our retail partners by investing in the category inside and outside of their stores. The Unfluencer campaign does both those things. It takes a culturally relevant thing and flips it on its head in a simple way that speaks to the millennial and Gen Z audience, which is the largest opportunity for penetration growth,” Kiah concluded.
We’ll continue to keep track of this inventive campaign as it rolls out, so stay tuned.
