Parents Opps: Planters rebrands, significantly increases spend ahead of acquisition

Ahead of its incoming acquisition by Hormel, Planters is getting Krafty with its advertising, having recently rolled out a rebranded logo and packaging. The $3.35b acquisition is expected to close by the end of June 2021, and JKR handled the branding work. 

New work created by VaynerMedia positions Planters as "A Nut Above," the tagline it introduced earlier this year. Planters recently started advertising on Hulu for the first time, and it's using more digital OOH ads than ever before.

Hormel's execs reported believing this brand will need additional advertising and innovation investment, so and spend is expected to increase YOY, per Planters marketing head Rafik Lawendy. Lawendy will remain the brand's marketing head after the acquisition. Hormel didn't have a hand in this project, but this will change for future efforts.

According to iSpot, Planters has spent approximately $4.5m on national TV commercials YTD, down 39% from the approximately $7.3m it had spent by this point last year. The brand ended up spending approximately $13.3m on this channel last year, up 12% from the approximately $11.9m it spent in 2019. Planters's commercials of 2021 have targeted a wide audience through shows such as the Puppy Bowl XVII, Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, Family Feud, Last Man Standing and Two and a Half Men.

So far this year, Pathmatics reports the brand has allocated roughly $2.9m toward digital ads, almost 4x the roughly $795.4k it allocated within the same 2020 timeframe. Planters's estimated full-year 2020 spend of $7.8m more than doubled that of $3.5m in 2019. The brand has earned around 551.3m digital impressions YTD via Twitter (49%), Instagram (23%), Facebook (13%), desktop video (8%) and desktop display (7%) ads.

Planters is particularly targeting millennials and Gen-X, reportedly; however, its paid social ads also target Gen-Z. The brand's target demographic tends to skew toward parents. Remember, it's focused on OTT (Hulu) and digital OOH. Per Kantar data, Planters also tends to plant print and local broadcast ads. It holds planning conversations in Q2 and buying conversations in Q1.

Agency & martech readers - Your chances of securing brand-specific work will rise once Planters is acquired, but these chances will be relatively low since media AOR PHD Chicago and creative AOR BBDO Minneapolis handle most of its brands.