Maryland says ‘KEEP IT KOOKIE’ with new brand positioning

Maryland Cookies, Burton’s Biscuit Co’s £50m flagship brand, is going all out to encourage consumers to "Keep it Kookie" in a major brand repositioning which plays on the fact that Maryland is "unashamedly different".

Backed by a £750,000 investment, Keep it Kookie will support Maryland with a fully-integrated, digital-led marketing campaign, complemented by a new commercial which will run across social channels including YouTube, Facebook and Instagram, and on prime-time TV.

The 360˚ campaign is set to reach over 14 million consumers, including 91 per cent of core Maryland consumers almost seven times, heightening brand awareness and driving shoppers to fixture.

In addition, the Keep it Kookie commercial will be shown during Ant and Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway on Saturday, March 6. "Aunt Deb" (right) is the star of the show, arriving unexpectedly at a family home, inviting herself in before taking a seat and comically shimmying a Maryland Cookie from over her eye into her mouth, to everyone else’s amusement.

The commercial will be used to seed the humorous "Maryland Cookie Race Challenge" on TikTok, inviting consumers to challenge Aunt Deb and each other and sharing their fun experiences of moving a Maryland Cookie down their face into their mouth, using TikTok’s duet (video sharing) feature.

“Aunt Deb personifies Maryland Cookies’ new positioning,” says Burton’s Biscuit Co’s Marketing Director Kate Needham. “She’s a bit kookie, really engaging, and unashamedly herself in a way that is endearing to those around her. And like Maryland Cookies, she’s a bit of a talking point!”

A digital focus will also feature what is thought to be a first for a UK biscuit brand, with Keep it Kookie images featuring on the GIPHY keyboard.

Fronted by a celebrity influencer, Maryland will also be seeding social content depicting wonderfully kookie characters who embrace and take pride in their kookie personality.

“The whole campaign celebrates the fact that Maryland Cookies are a little kookie, proud to be unlike any other biscuit and with a new brand positioning which reflects the fact that no two Maryland Cookies are the same," said Needham.