March 31--Uncle Dougie's, a Chicago-based purveyor of hot sauces, marinades and barbecue sauces, is launching an April Fools' Day TV blitz with its first commercial.
The 30-second spot features the real Doug "Uncle Dougie" Tomek, who announces that his line of "award-winning" stuff was missing some of the ingredients included in the top-selling national brands. After perusing the barely-blurred labels of some familiar looking bottles, lab technicians then add "all the delicious chemicals" everyone else is using.
"You're going to love the new Uncle Dougie's," Tomek says, followed by a flashing April Fool's message. The competition may not find the joke so funny.
The campaign to promote the 100 percent natural, "no crap" line of sauces, was created by Chicago ad agency Schafer Condon Carter, which took majority ownership of the brand in 2012. Other investors include former Pabst Brewing CEO Kevin Kotecki and 42nd Ward Ald. Brendan Reilly.
Tomek, who first whipped up his homegrown spicy wing marinade in a Palatine farmhouse in 1989, is debuting as TV spokesman for the brand.
"This was kind of a little bit of a screen test for Doug," said Tim Condon, CEO of SCC. "One of the strategies going forward is kind of bringing Doug to the fore and really leveraging this authenticity."
The commercial is slated to run more than 100 times Wednesday, airing locally in Chicago on ESPN, Food Network, CNBC and CNN, among other networks. The total cost of the TV campaign is $125,000, including about $10,000 for the one-day Chicago cable buy. It also will be supported by a Chicago radio buy.
"We wanted to make a little bit of a splash and just raise our awareness," Condon said. "We thought this was a really good opportunity to do that within a specific window because we're not necessarily seeing this as a hugely advertised brand."
Since buying into Uncle Dougie's, SCC has rebranded, repackaged and relaunched the line of 15 sauces and rubs. Distribution has expanded to 28 states and into Canada. Sales tripled in 2014, and will be into "seven figures" this year, Condon said.
The all-natural sauces are priced at about twice the national brands. Uncle Dougie's products are available locally at Whole Foods, Jewel, Mariano's and Sunset Foods.
While Uncle Dougie's is SCC's smallest advertising client, the TV campaign may live on past Wednesday's trial run, Condon said.
"This is a one-off in this case, but we already have this spot edited so that it's ready to go outside of the April Fools' environment," Condon said
rchannick@tribpub.com
