Unilever is offering $10,000 (£6,087) in a competition to find ideas for its next TV campaign for snack food brand Peperami, using its quirky Animal character, as it decides to drop its ad agency of 16 years and turn to crowdsourcing for creative ideas.
The company, which has worked with Lowe on the Peperami brand since 1993, is looking for ideas from people that are a cut above the user-generated content level competitions run by Pringles and Doritos last year. The winner of the Doritos competition claimed to have made the TV commercial for £6.50, while Pringles winner spent £300.
Unilever wants to turn the best idea into a TV and print campaign, with the caveat that the ad has to feature the cheeky Peperami character Animal, created by Lowe London.
"We believe Peperami is a brand that deserves radical creative solutions and are confident taking our brief out to thousands rather than a small team of creatives will provide us with the best possible idea and take our advertising to the next level," said the Peperami marketing manager, Noam Buchalter.
"We are extremely thankful to Lowe for the brilliant work they achieved over the last two decades and are looking forward to seeing the ideas to take Lowe's legacy forward into the next era of Animal."
Ideas have to be submitted to a specially created website and will be turned into an ad by the winner with help from specialist agency Smartworks.
Unilever said it has no plans to retain a full-time ad agency for the Peperami account in future.
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