What makes a true challenger brand?

Living Things are an independent brand up against giants in the functional soda category. Pretty much every brand takes the category title too literally, focusing their marketing on functions & features.

Living Things noticed this creating an impossible ‘features battle’, with brands going toe-to-toe on how exactly how many milligrams of fibre they contained. A sure way to blend in. Instead we ran billboards as pure statements of feeling and joy.

It’s a bit of a myth that challenger brands have to be really in your face and shouty. It’s not mandatory at all. Quietly challenging your category norms can be much more powerful.

When we rebranded modern funeral company Poppy’s, one of the most radical things we did was reveal truth where most of the category obfuscates. The illustration here shows two children colouring in a cardboard coffin. The brand also uses confident language to tackle its subject.

With My/Mochi we had a big job to do. Every American knows ice cream. They don’t know all know mochi ice cream. We had to show and teach and squish until America learned how to chew its ice cream.

The entire visual approach for My/Mochi became texture and sensation. Mouthfeel through the eyes. It was the only way to scream “this is something you need to physically try”. Cue mochi in straightener.