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Close your eyes and think of a hot sauce brand. What do you see? Skulls and crossbones? Flames and grim reapers? Red Peppers?
What about a teddy bear?
In the first spot to promote his Tingly Ted’s hot sauce range, “a dip designed to make you smile, not sweat,” musician Ed Sheeran is teamed up with a fuzzy bear called Ted: a grouchy mascot who is only happy when he’s dolloping the condiment onto his plate.
Starting out as an idea from Sheeran himself, two flavors are being brought to supermarket shelves via the newly launched Ventures arm of Warner Music Experience (WMX), Warner Music Group’s music culture, media and content business. The product development unit will collaborate with artists to identify areas of interest and take their ideas from conception to launch.
Tingly Ted’s launched in U.K. supermarkets in May 2023, with fans rushing to pre-order beforehand following a launch announcement in February. Leaning into Sheeran’s reputation as a crowd pleaser (in 2021 he was named the most-played artist in the U.K. by PPL), the tongue-in-cheek launch creative underscores the musician’s natural tendency to make things for all people extends to hot sauce.
Tingly Ted’s isn’t going after hot sauce heads, instead it’s positioning itself as “an everyday essential, not a niche novelty,” the “ketchup of hot sauce” or “quite simply, Ed Sheeran in liquid form but with a tingly “‘je ne sais quoi.’”
Extending artists’ legacy beyond music
Kraft Heinz worked closely with WMX on the product spec. Then creative was developed and produced by Smuggler and directed by Benji Weinstein. Specialists at animatronics shop, John Nolan Studios were enlisted to create Ted.
From June 13, three social films featuring Ed and Ted will be featured across Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Pinterest and Reddit. Spotify ads and OOH takeovers will follow.
Bob Workman, who holds the dual role of head of WMX, artist and fan experience and the svp of international artist and brand partners, told Adweek that the project was the first major work for Ventures in the U.K. He said it highlighted an increasing trend among artists to bring their own ideas to life, building “artist-owned brands” in the process.
