Stouffer’s combats dinner anxiety with clever outdoor ads during the Olympics, using billboards and DOOH to surprise and engage consumers when "dinner dread" strikes.

Introduction to Stouffer's Campaign

Stouffer’s is leveraging the anxiety people experience when trying to decide what to have for dinner with an integrated campaign that will appear during the Olympics, according to details shared with Marketing Dive.

The Concept of 'Dinner Dread'

The concept was inspired by what the brand terms ‘dinner dread,’ or the uncertainty that tends to creep up around 4 p.m. about what to eat for dinner. Stouffer’s offers a solution to the problem with creatives featuring a new tagline, “When the Clock Strikes Dinner.”

Outdoor Advertising and DOOH

Media buys, including digital out-of-home (DOOH) placements, are timed to catch people as the dinner dread hour strikes. A Spotify activation and print ads disguised as placements for other products, like perfume, also aim for an element of surprise.

Campaign Insight

Stouffer’s is addressing a daily conundrum for on-the-go consumers with what the Nestlé-owned brand is calling one of its biggest integrated campaigns in years. WPP’s VML New York handled “When the Clock Strikes Dinner,” a title that is also the prepared frozen meals marketer’s new tagline.

In spots “Homeward” and “Wednesday Walk,” people going about their day see the clock strike 4 p.m. and are suddenly hounded by the question “What’s for dinner?” from passing construction workers, babies in strollers, and even static billboards and garden gnomes. Stouffer’s comes to the rescue with easy-to-prep meals. The ads will run during the Olympics, giving them a large stage.

Additional Media Strategy

Additional media buys aim to catch hungry consumers off guard in a similar fashion to what happens to the characters in the commercials. Stouffer’s is taking over this week’s issues of People and Us Weekly with four consecutive ads posing as promotions for other categories, like jewelry and apparel, but carrying the refrain of “What’s for dinner?” Digital OOH has the same creative bent: One billboard is modeled on a typical razor ad breaking down product characteristics, but instead of boasting four blades, the copy reads, “What’s 4 dinner?”

VML worked with sister WPP agency OpenMind on the outdoor advertising strategy, which will see ads go live in Atlanta, Cleveland, Dallas, Washington D.C., Indianapolis, Tampa, and Los Angeles in the window between 4-6 p.m., or when Stouffer’s believes dinner dread takes hold.

Conclusion

“As consumers encounter our campaign flipping through a magazine, commuting to work, or listening to music on Spotify, we hope they will be inspired to add Stouffer’s to their cart, stock their freezers, and know there’s always a solution for dinner,” said Megan McLaughlin, senior brand manager at Nestlé, in a statement.

Stouffer’s campaign mirrors a recent one from rival Oscar Mayer around the Kraft Heinz brand’s thick-cut bacon and its 12-hour smoking process. Ads showing the salt-cured pork sizzling on a grill end before shifting to seemingly unrelated commercials for lip gloss and men’s razors that are eventually revealed to still be for Oscar Mayer.

This campaign demonstrates the effectiveness of using billboards and DOOH media to capture consumer attention at key moments of the day, leveraging common anxiety to offer direct solutions and increase brand visibility. This approach can serve as an inspiration for Outdoor advertising companies and advertising companies near me seeking to create impactful and memorable campaigns.