One of my earliest projects working with Sunshine Snacks was the Taste of Sunshine campaign of 2021 starring Sunshine Snacks' Zoomers.
Target audience: Caribbean & Caribbean diaspora. Primarily Trinidad & Tobago and Jamaica.
Objective: Brand building for Sunshine Snacks Zoomers. A brand made in Trinidad and Tobago and unique to Caribbean culture in its flavour and shape.
The insight: Our favourite childhood snacks and foods are often what we crave most when we feel homesick.
The story
In the beginning of 2021, many persons from the Caribbean diaspora were long overdue for visits back to their Caribbean homes due to travel restrictions as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. It provided an opportunity for this uniquely Caribbean brand to reinforce its connection to "home".
While there is no substitute for a the warmth of the Caribbean sunshine, there's no substitute for a little taste of home quite like a pack of Zoomers. It is the perfect little taste of sunshine and home for the homesick Caribbean diaspora.
Making it happen.
I proposed partnering with one of the several existing online marketplaces already catering to the Caribbean diaspora at the time and finally settled on Caribshopper.
The Package
Originally, I wanted the box to remind the receiver of home by appealing to all five senses: taste, touch, sight, sound, smell. Due to some financial and logistical restraints, we were eventually able to capture at least 3-4 out of 5.
Taste (and touch) was naturally some of the classic favourites of Sunshine Snacks, with Zoomers as the star product. It being the most unique to the Sunshine Snacks brand.
Smell was brought to us by Galt & Maree, a Trinbagonian apothecary that specializes in scents inspired by Trinidad & Tobago. Scents that take you back to warm coconut tones, tangy citrus or the crisp scent of freshly cut grass in the Queen's Park Savannah.
For sight, we teamed up with another local artist, Nicholas Huggins who at the time was renowned for a series of architectural drawings inspired by places around Trinidad & Tobago. Working together with him we tried to capture the quintessential Caribbean snackette, including some subtle Sunshine Snacks and Zoomers branding.
Additionally, the box itself was an ode to the warm Caribbean landscapes and scenery throughout the Caribbean.
The People
Part 1 focused on the content creation using influencers of Trinbagonian and Jamaican heritage.
In collaboration with Caribshopper, we prepared our specially designed Taste of Sunshine boxes and had them delivered to Trinbagonian and Jamaican influencers who were living in the US, UK and Canada for some time, but still have significant reach to locally-based Cairbbean audiences.
Part 2 focused on encouraging user-generated content from our local audiences.
While the unboxings came in, an online competition was being run inviting persons to nominate family members living abroad to receive one of these packages by submitting the most compelling stories for why they believed their relative or friend should receive one of our packaes. Each week, winners were selected from the stories submitted.
The result
The Taste of Sunshine campaign was an amazing opportunity to show the profound emotional connection the Sunshine Snacks' brands, especially Zoomers, has with our audience. The way in which the packages resonated with the influencers who received them exceeded expectations.
Persons were genuinely delighted in receiving something that reminded them, not only of home, but of that unique nostalgia associated with their favourite Sunshine Snacks and growing up in the Caribbean. As influencers shared their unboxing moments and personal stories, the Sunshine Snacks brand ethos of cherishing memories and embracing meaningful connections became intertwined with their narratives, painting a vivid picture of what Sunshine Snacks stands for.
At a time when many indivuduals were unable to travel to visit their friends and family back in the Caribbean, this campaign was able to transcend geographic boundaries. It connected the Sunshine Snacks community through shared experiences and memories of their Caribbean childhood. It also captured the universal sentiment many persons' were experiencing at that time, a deep longing for home after that forced extended period of isolation and lack of human connection.
Storytelling vs. Hard sell
When it comes to social media marketing, creating content that builds that emotional connection with your audience, is far more likely to resonate than a hard-sell campaign.
The Taste of Sunshine campaign reinforces the idea that brands hold the remarkable ability to touch hearts, bridge gaps, and create moments that linger long after the interaction ends. It stands as a testament to the magic that unfolds when we prioritize the human experience, embrace our role as storytellers, and journey together in crafting narratives that resonate on a deeply human level.
This is where creativity meets strategy for your business marketing solutions.
