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63 About this deal
The campaign will be live from July 18 to August 15, running across print and digital 96 and 48 sheets in London, Leeds, Manchester, Birmingham and Glasgow. Around 180+ billboards have been placed in these key cities. Onwards has also designed a mascot for Surreal; a smiling face with a cereal bowl for a mouth. Ryrie describes the face as a secondary logo, which can adapt to a variety of expressions. “We wanted the whole brand language to feel surprising and uplifting and a little bit off-beat,” he adds. We couldn’t afford one of those special, flashy, custom billboards, so we decided to save some pennies and make our own billboard from scratch. This GRUELLING task involves giving cereal to people and having nice conversations with them if they want to chat (but this is London so they probably won’t) Best of all? The SURREAL recipes are plant-based and gluten free, meaning they’re suitable for all sorts of diets too!
Surreal has also been very intentional with their image. They have successfully crafted their image as an “offbeat brand”, whilst tapping into the aesthetic of childhood cereals, incorporating a health conscious yet playful image. It’s most clear in the brand’s messaging, according to Ryrie. “The copy is thought-provoking, upbeat and a little bit eccentric rather than just fun and playful,” he says. These include taglines like ‘You cannot be cereal’ and “It’s surreally good”, which roll out across social media campaigns. This was demoralising for about twenty minutes, and then we realised it’s the perfect excuse to just not try ever again.Anyway, buy our new bowl and spoon. Or don’t. Whatever.
The Forbes-listed brand, since its entry into the cereal scene, has employed creativity and humour to distinguish itself in the industry which has somewhat been starved of innovation for years. How do new brands make their mark in established and concentrated markets? As a startup, going up against larger-than-life household names can often be perceived as a losing battle, deterring a business from executing an idea to its fullest. But, there are the occasional instances where new brands have not only been able to break through, but actually stand their ground against competitive giants. And Surreal cereal is doing just that. The cereal market is a well established one, and so there was an initial challenge for Surreal to set themselves apart from the rest. Surreal provides customers with the nostalgia of their favourite childhood cereals without the guilt, but with the added nutritional value. This is a fantastic midpoint between major competitors in their market; less exciting cereals providing nutritional value and sugary cereals that people love but don’t necessarily benefit from.
So the exclusion of animal products instantly makes Surreal a more eco-friendly option than the majority of traditional cereals. A great lesson to takeaway from this case study is how Surreal’s intentionality in their brand messaging served as a strategic catalyst into their market. What lessons from this do you think you can apply to your startup?That depends on your perspective. If you’re comparing it to the cheap crap that sells on supermarket shelves, then it is a little on the pricey side. However, if you’re prioritising convenient nutrition at breakfast, then Surreal is value for money, particularly when you opt for their subscription service. But breakfast cereal is notoriously un-vegan-friendly and, quite frankly, full of shite! High in sugar and low in pretty much everything nutritionally important, conventional cereals frequently leave us unsatisfied. They’re the last thing any health- or eco-conscious individual would wish to consume, let alone want their children to guzzle for breakfast each day. The wordmark – which uses the typeface Roc Grotesk – shifts perspective on the second ‘r’. This lets the brand display the wordmark horizontally or vertically while remaining legible, Ryrie explains.
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