Matildas striker Sam Kerr is the first voice in a new campaign from agency WiredCo ‘Confessions of a Muttiholic: Saucy Stories’ which builds on a platform Mutti and WiredCo. launched last year, when the pair gathered fan confessions for a documentary series.
This time those confessions have become scripted romance stories, written by Penguin Random House author Emma Mugglestone and produced by Rabbit, directed by Lachlan Dickie.
Kerr voices a fan who packs tins of Mutti’s Polpa into a suitcase for a romantic getaway. A singer and an Olympic gold medallist will narrate two further instalments in a second phase.
In the campaign, Kerr reads out romance stories written by award-winning Penguin Random House author Emma Mugglestone, with each one inspired by a real Muttiholic confession. Kicking things off is Sam Kerr in a way you’ve never seen or heard her before. She lends her voice to the story of an everyday Aussie whose devotion to Mutti saw her packing tins of Polpa into a suitcase for a romantic getaway — a love story that, fittingly, begins with a mutual love of pasta sauce.
“Romance stories have become Australia’s latest cultural obsession, so turning real confessions into saucy short stories, voiced by talent like Sam Kerr, lets us meet that obsession inside culture rather than interrupt it. It’s also about building a community around this — inviting our biggest fans in and celebrating the Mutti lovers who’ve made the brand what it is,” Samantha Filocamo, marketing director at Mutti ANZ, said.
“Nobody’s quite as passionate as the lovers in a romance novel. Except, perhaps, Muttiholics. So, it felt fitting that this year, Confessions of A Muttiholic got the full romantic story treatment. Three confessions, will become three romantic stories, voiced by three iconic Australian celebrities in a way you’ve never heard them before. It’s a saucy evolution of last year’s in-depth documentary series, dripping in star power,” said Joe Stuart, creative director at WiredCo.
“The crafting of this was so important to us all. We wanted to present something that was authentic to the real confession itself and to the romance genre, so we spent a lot of time looking for an experienced romance author who could treat this in the right way.
“When you consider over 9 million Aussies listen to podcasts weekly, and the BookTok movement that has over 300M views, this gave the campaign lots of media connections points.” said Ollie Carthy, head of paid media and strategy at WiredCo.
“This meant weaving together a media narrative and ecosystem across audio and video streaming, social and radio alongside impactful OOH placements to contextually complement listening habits but also align with category entry points around mealtimes and inspiration,” added Carthy.
But building that story over time didn’t mean sacrificing impact. “We wanted a big saucy moment, in environments that felt organic to the genre, so we launched with high impact placements across Spotify, TikTok and YouTube followed by a 60” roadblock across the Nova radio network during drivetime to deliver Sam Kerr’s saucy story to the nation,” said Carthy.
“We loved the challenge of taking what we started with Muttiholics last year and finding a fresh way to keep telling the story across paid, owned and earned. Saucy Stories is our way of celebrating Mutti fandom again in a playful, culturally relevant way. Next up, a world-famous singer and Olympic gold-medalist will follow during phase two of the campaign,” said Samantha Nunura, general manager of client services and business operations at WiredCo.
