Maynards Bassetts creates biggest i-spy game to celebrate summer road trips

The campaign by VCCP invites the nation to play a larger than life game of I spy, with giant inflatable sweets hidden up and down the country

By creative salon

03 August 2022

‘I spy Maynards’ is the latest campaign from Maynards Bassetts and is designed to highlight that Wine Gums and Jelly Babies are the perfect travel companions for summer road trips.

To celebrate, Maynards Bassetts have turned the creative juices up and have hidden giant inflatable 20ft Maynards Bassetts Jelly Babies (Brilliant and Bubbles) and Round Sherry and Port Wine Gums along Britain’s roadside for everyone to find in the massive game of #ispymaynards.

To drive intrigue and encourage Brits to hunt down the giant sweets, the campaign will be supported by colourful and playful OOH billboards across the country. Also rolling out across Absolute Radio in a deal brokered by Bauer Media and The Story Lab, an on-air activation running until the 5th August will encourage families to keep their eyes peeled for giant sweets as they set off on their annual staycations.

Running throughout the first week of the school holidays, Absolute Radio’s breakfast show hosts Dave Berry and Matt Dyson played a game of i-spy live on air offering the audience a chance to win big with Maynards Bassetts.

Additionally, spotlights across the Absolute Radio Network direct the audience to a dedicated #ispymaynards page where they can either guess a location based on a series of clues or detail where they have spied the giant sweets in real life to be in with the chance to win.

To further drive awareness and spark conversations, impactful and high reach formats will go live across Maynards Bassetts owned Twitter and Facebook channels to show the giant Wine Gums and Jelly Babies hidden near iconic roadside landmarks or within the countryside.

As the staple of every family getaway, Maynards Bassetts jellies are the original icon of the jelly sweet category and the campaign places Maynards Bassetts in a moment where sweets already exist - the Great Road Trip.

Anna Ulrich, brand manager at Maynards Bassetts, said: “Our goal for this summer was to continue evolving our Set the Juice Loose campaign by adding an activation element to it. We are engaging with our consumers by inviting them to take part in a popular car game, I spy. Whether you are going on a road trip with your family or a shorter journey, Maynards Bassetts sweets are the perfect travel companion so we wanted to celebrate this perfect pairing.

David Masterman, executive creative director at VCCP London, added: “Journeys have always been better with a bag of Maynards Bassetts sweets, and we're just simply reminding people of that fact with a bunch of twenty foot high Jelly Babies and some Wine Gums the size of trucks."

Jonathon Kriening, media planning manager at Carat London, added: “We wanted to bring this campaign to life through an integrated media ecosystem that would deliver a dual objective of building anticipation through attention grabbing & standout formats, and entice people to take part in the competition for their chance to win.”

‘I spy Maynards’ is live from today in the UK until 7th August and will roll out across OOH, radio, PPC, an activation and across social media including Twitter and Facebook. A consumer PR campaign will be run by Good Relations. The media strategy and buying was realised by Carat, while The Story Lab planned and developed the Radio partnership in collaboration with Bauer Media.