While some marketing campaigns are done half-ass, Dr. Oetker pizza brand Momenti’s latest effort could be described as half-horse, “centaured” around appealing to health conscious young women through humour.

The campaign, which went live in January, features a young woman in her kitchen talking about pizza with what could be her boyfriend, and the camera pans over to reveal his hybrid anatomy. There’s then a reference to the new pizza’s taste, with its “best of both worlds” value proposition. 

The spot builds on the surreal fun-centred narrative Dr. Oetker brought to market last Valentine’s Day, featuring a schmaltzy lounge singer and a chance to win a diamond and personalized love song. OMD handled the buy.

Indresh Kohli, executive head of marketing at Dr. Oetker, tells strategy Momenti is aiming to connect with women aged 25 to 35 and that the brand’s use of humour is a real attention-grabber for the demo, as well as good way to target an audience that increasingly desires convenient food solutions that satisfy both taste and health credentials. The “have your pie and eat it too” ethos lines up thematically with the half man/half-horse beast from Greek mythology.

“[With a centaur] our agency partner Giants & Gentlemen came up with the perfect creative expression to illustrate how Momenti can provide the ‘best of both worlds,'” Kohli says.

“While there has been a shift towards more at-home cooking, consumers are experiencing some level of fatigue with cooking and meal prep,” Kohli explains. “Frozen pizzas provide a haven for consumers seeking quick and convenient meal solutions with little to no planning.”

With more consumers working from home, Kohli says Dr. Oetker is seeing heightened demand for daytime consumption occasions such as lunch or a quick snack. Also, he says single households and solo eating occasions are growing, but there’s a pain point in frozen meals as adult consumers feel guilty eating unhealthy snacks that are often geared for kids.

According to Kohli, the frozen pizza snacks category is currently dominated by kids products with a strong focus on value. With the introduction of Dr. Oetker’s Momenti brand, he says younger adults now have a single serve pizza option that suits their need for indulgence and also low-cal and no artificial flavours or colours.

With restaurants closed and people being at home, COVID has spurred increased demand for all frozen products, Kohli claims, and frozen pizza snacks and single-serve pizzas are no exceptions.

He says that the brand has a robust national media buy to support this campaign, including 15-second TV and six-second cutdowns on social and YouTube, as well as programmatic, influencer and in-store blades. .

“We feel the combination of an integrated media plan along with bold creative will break through the clutter and resonate with our target consumer,” he says, adding that people tend to be more health conscious in the New Year.