The Mysterious Case of Arnott’s Wifi Teddybear
Dr Mumbo loves a mystery.
And there’s little more mysterious then the Mysterious Case of The Twisted Fave.
In the last few days, Dr Mumbo’s attention has been drawn to a mysterious YouTube channel, branded as Arnott’s Biscuits.
Mysterious because until Dr Mumbo signed up, it had no subscribers.
And mysterious because it only has one video on it.
And that video is pretty darned mysterious too.
It features the story of a little girl straight from central casting who can’t sleep because her guilty mum is always away from home for work.
So, naturally, like any parent would, the guilty mum calls in biscuit maker Arnott’s to perform surgery on little Evie’s teddy bear.
In what the guilty mum describes as a “surprise” for Evie, the teddy bear is unstitched and has a mysterious “device” implanted which glows in the dark, apparently whenever her mum chooses to tap her smart watch.
Which would, Dr Mumbo thinks, have been a terrifying experience for a little girl to wake up to.
Although perhaps not as terrifying as waking up to discover she has a film crew in the room with her.
Meanwhile, this amazing technology doesn’t stop here. Apparently the guilty mum’s smart watch is monitoring her heart beat, which the bear is now synched to.
Luckily, like most middle class five-year-olds, little Evie has the latest iPhone.
Curiously, it seems to be a magic iPhone though. On close inspection, the battery life appears twice – almost as if the heart beat monitor has been crudely added into the image in post production.
In another mysterious technological leap, Evie’s hug triggers an alert in a special app on guilty mum’s smart phone.
Quite what this has to do with the launch of a new biscuit range is a little beyond Dr Mumbo’s understanding. But luckily, the video explains…
“To keep Mum and Evie connected…”
“… we twisted purple bear by fitting him with a device”
“Twisted”. Gerrit? Twisted, like Arnott’s new range of “Twisted Faves” biscuits.
It’s bang on strategy after all. And to think that Dr Mumbo had suspected it started off life as a creative idea looking for a strategy, or a brand. Shame on Dr Mumbo.
And he’s sure that it’s absolutely not another example of an awards-chasing prototype which never actually comes to mass production.
The Little Evie video was posted to YouTube on December 8. But given that at the time Dr Mumbo writes this, it has only had 24 views in the subsequent six weeks, it’s almost as if a decision was taken not to publicise it.
Things became even more mysterious when Dr Mumbo’s colleague called Arnott’s to find out more about the project.
“I know why you’re calling,” the PR told Dr Mumbo’s colleague, adding that she thought it was to do with an article Mumbrella had written at about the same time the video launched. A formal statement followed:
“The platform, ‘Arnott’s Present Another Twisted Fave’, developed in collaboration with TKT Sydney, is focused on putting a twist on an old favourite. The campaign was designed to celebrate the arrival of the latest ‘Twisted Faves’ biscuit range, hitting shelves in time for Christmas 2016. Initially created to commemorate the company’s 150th Anniversary, the Twisted Faves range takes Arnott’s most-loved family biscuits and puts a new twist on them for a modern generation of fans.
“The popular concept, which has already seen the reinvention of the Monte Carlo with a Salted Caramel filling and a Jaffa Delta Cream with an orangey twist, has helped to inspire the new creative campaign. The campaign will see a number of video content pieces rolled out across social channels and online platforms, with an emphasis on facilitating genuine family connections through a series of unexpected twists.
“To start the campaign, Arnott’s put a twist on one very special teddy bear, which was engineered to enable a busy working mother to feel closer to her daughter when away from home. The teddy bears are hoped to be released to form a second campaign later in 2017.”
Dr Mumbo notes that TKT shares an address with Arnott’s creative agency, Clemenger BBDO Sydney.
Given the very high production values, Dr Mumbo is sure that the team behind the video must be devastated to have only received 24 views for it.
Dr Mumbo hopes that as some sort of minor consolation, it wins a lot of awards.
Let’s hope Mummy switches it off when she’s getting it on.
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How did Dr Mumbo find it? Unless you are browsing for Arnotts videos regularly, had you been tipped off? Cos that would be less mysterious.
As for the creepy tech involved here, what a hideous idea, that a bear is supposed to replace your busy working mum to the point of feeling her heart beat? I do like the dark humour of an alert coming from ‘Twisted Toys’, but why are biscuit ads beckoning a robot-parented dystopia?
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Hi Bucks,
I’m afraid that Dr Mumbo never tells us his sources…
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella
…shows that it has 2.6 million views on Facebook.
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so after going to so much effort to hunt for a youtube video, you’d think there’d be a quick search for any other content.
if the point here is that it only achieved 24 views so it must be scam, the supposed ROI (if views are the objective) is actually 188,333 times higher than Mumbrella has reported.
Again, such high views suggest there is sizeable paid support behind the video, at least on Facebook.
assume mumbrella will be issuing a correction to reflect this.
sure it looks a bit scammy…but dayum mumbrella, you’re not doing yourself (or the admirable cause) any favours with such shoddy reporting
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‘Dr Mumbo’ sounds like the name you’d give some creepy, monomaniacal sociopath. Stay away from his van people.
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But we won’t let a little thing like that get in the way of a good mystery AMIRITE??
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Well, where do I get one of these heart rate things?
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More importantly… where do i get one of those double battery life things
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Anyone reminded of the 2013 Durex Fundawear? Or the HB ring? Or even Teddy The Guardian?
Nice insight, shitty female-shaming execution… But yes, the video on Facebook has more than 2.9 million views.
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yes… 2.6 million facebook “views”, thats a solid metric.
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