British sweet manufacturer Swizzels launched a TV advertising campaign last week, alongside the release of its new ‘Great British Puds’ sweets.

The advert premiered on July 17, 2020, featuring the “eccentric inventor”, Mr. Swizzels, with the company describing him as “the best kept secret behind Swizzels’ sweet innovations”.

The ad campaign will run throughout July and August across TV channels including ITV, Channel 4 and Sky One. It is part of a multi-channel campaign which will include PR, social media, digital advertising, sampling and influencer outreach.

Swizzels is known for products such as Love Hearts, Squashies, Refreshers and Drumsticks. MD Jeremy Dee said the character and story had been in development for a long time, and he was excited to introduce Mr. Swizzels to the nation.

Dee said: “Great British Puds is our latest and one of our most exciting developments over recent years so it was only fitting that Mr. Swizzels had a hand in helping us launch the product to new and existing Swizzels fans.”

Sarah-Louise Heslop, marketing manager at Swizzels, said the company decided to create a mascot to represent the “enthusiastic and creative people working at Swizzels”, and to show fans of the brand a behind-the-scenes look at its Derbyshire factory.

The TV advert was written by Cheetham Bell and created by stop motion animators the Beglan Brothers, who also worked on the animated Kellogg’s Signature advert in 2010.

On using stop-motion, Heslop said: “With Swizzels being one of the last remaining family owned British sweet manufacturers we wanted a style that looked familiar and British and would evoke a feeling of nostalgia.”

“The Beglans were amazing fun to work with and a very impressive team. They visited the Swizzels factory and took photos of every detail… The Derbyshire fields were made from green towels and every leaf on the trees was stuck on by hand.  The pipework was made from children’s trumpets and the models of the characters were all made in clay.  The CGI element was then added to bring the characters and factory to life,” said Heslop.

The chew bar sweets will be the flavours of classic British desserts, including sticky toffee pudding, lemon meringue, rhubarb crumble and apple pie with custard.

Great British Puds was the winner of the company’s Sweetest Invention competition to celebrate Swizzels’ 90th anniversary in 2018, where public were invited submit ideas for new products. The winner of the competition, Tracy-Jane Fielding, worked with Swizzels’ production team for 18 months on the product. Her inspiration came from working in the hospitality industry, as she saw which British puddings stayed popular over the years.