Honeycomb

After the long-running Honeycomb “Get What You Want” campaign, Kraft was looking to evolve the effort with a particular focus on the cereal’s honey factor.

Ogilvy’s solution: a boy raised by bees.

The TV spots, filmed in Jane Goodall-documentary style, introduced bee researcher Barbara Somerville and her discovery: a 12-year-old boy named Bernard. When viewers visit beeboy.org, they find Somerville Research, a bare-bones website where Barbara details her knowledge of bees and showcases the biggest news of her career, Bernard. There is no branding. Kraft agreed to keep The Corporation out of the equation for the launch period so kids could engage in the bee boy story without any turn-off factor. But Honeycomb will eventually appear on the home page as Somerville Research’s official sponsor.

The campaign, which launched in March, is already generating, um, big buzz. Based on high engagement on the site (40,000 hits in the first week alone, and an average visit of six to seven minutes), sightings of kids imitating Bernard’s distinctive buzzing, strong word of mouth and emails sent to Barbara (especially with kids asking if Bernard is real), Kraft is following up on the launch with major investment in more virals, features and contests, as well as TV.

The U.S. may adopt the campaign, and they’re holding this work up to all their agencies as a blueprint of success to be copied.