I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter! was already popular among young mothers when Story partnered with them, but the brand wanted to reinvigorate its base to foster even deeper loyalty. So Story launched exciting new-media content initiatives, starting with creating a cast of characters for an animated webisode series that turned ICBINB! into a provider of successful entertainment. By improving audience analysis, we also developed customized creative messaging for the brand’s eCRM program, growing their database by making content more relevant to each individual. We followed these successes by capitalizing on celebrity partnerships (2011's You Can Have It All, featuring Kim Cattrall).

Our first crop of webisodes featured protagonist “Spraychel” and friends as part of an integrated multi-channel campaign. Spraychel is truly the taste of the town—her fridge-mates either love her or hate her. In this first installment, her extra-buttery flavor gets her unfairly framed for a crime. Can her handsome lawyer save our heroine? Can consumers solve the mystery? Entertaining content and user interactivity engendered a loyal viewership that eagerly awaited each new webisode. Plus, a popular MySpace page enticed them further.

The audience response to Spraychel was so positive that we brought her back for new webisodes, launched in conjunction with the 2008 presidential election. Spraychel had now gone to politics, campaigning on the platform that everyone has the right to great butter taste and the freedom from extra fat and calories. Like the real candidates themselves, we turned to Facebook to drive awareness.

This time, two brands with a waistline-watching audience teamed up: ICBINB! Spray and Wish-Bone Spritzers. To encourage portion control, we executed another tongue-in-cheek series featuring Spraychel and Spritzy (Wish-Bone’s character) — modern, confident, and sexy fridge fixtures in control of life…and portions! We furthered participation with a celebrity-style blog covering plotlines and Spray gossip and viewers voting on the stories’ outcomes. A commercial, online media, print ads, and satellite media tour backed our work while targeted eCRm, blog pickup, and word of mouth helped drive traffic.

Story developed the digital creative for ICBINB!’s Bake It to Believe It! campaign. The goal: build brand awareness, educate consumers, and drive purchase. Chefs and authors Bobby and Jamie Deen — AKA the Deen brothers — joined the cause. In addition to rich-media banners and the microsite, we cooked up more than 20 games for an online contest. Our virtual kitchen let players pick recipes to “bake” — cracking eggs, garnishing tortes, etc. Outside the thousands of instant prizes, one contestant met the brothers in their hometown.

ICBINB! got even more sassy when Megan Mullally put on her dancing shoes to “Turn the Tub Around.” The campaign focused on the products’ health benefits. A commercial put the spotlight on her getting down to a jingle inspired by disco-classic, “Turn the Beat Around.” We headed up the site dedicated a video contest where consumers “turned the tub around” like the TV star themselves. Later, they returned to watch and vote on their favorites for the winner to meet Megan.