Snapple 'Snapsolutely Refreshing'

Snapple and Deutsch LA approached us with a stunning craft-led idea... and a short deadline.

Tasked with bringing to life an authentic New York bodega filled with a colourful cast of characters for a ‘snapsolutely refreshing’ campaign, Matte Cooper deployed his immeasurable animation world-building skills for Snapple.

A go-to talent for characterful and humorous stop motion, Matte crafted an shining example of why hand-wrought production should never be discounted, even when timings are tight. Developed, shot and edited in a speedy seven week period, there’s no emulating the creative fizz needed for a project of this scale…unless it's for the kombucha.

Brand Challenge

The core challenge for Snapple was two-fold: to reclaim relevance in a drinks market increasingly obsessed with wellness trends, adaptogens, and functional benefits, and to reintroduce the brand to a younger generation that may not be familiar with its heritage. The “Snapsolutely Refreshing” campaign aims to cut through by embracing a flavour-first, nostalgic voice.

Rather than compete on “shoulds,” such as health claims or mood-boosting promises, the campaign’s brand objective was to emphasise simple enjoyment, a drink that just tastes good, and to remind consumers, especially on the East Coast where almost 40% of its sales come from, of Snapple’s origins and personality.

Creative Brief

Deutsch LA Creatives set the stage with a robust brief. In close collaboration with them, Matte crafted a storyboard and approach for an expedited pre-production period that made no compromises on the desired impact or on-set experience for a client and agency team eager to have some fun!

In the end, good old on-set riffing captured enough impromptu moments and alternate takes to produce some additional social content, extending reach of the campaign even if ever so slightly.

Design

Matte set about bringing the Snapple world to life, animating and directing alongside a talented team of creatives. Over fifty original fake brand packages were designed to populate the New York-style bodega environment that was erected on set, as well as twenty original, hand-painted puppets.

Each puppet was fit with a bespoke mechanism for speaking/expressions, and a complicated rigging system behind and beneath the two respective fridges that were built for the set, accommodating up to four puppeteers at a time, operating both mouths and body actions, with only pupil movement being tackled in post.

The characters were first created by Matte in 2D, then built practically, where choice in materials and additional details were added to match the personality that came through in their respective VO lines, which were captured ahead of the shoot and used by the puppeteers to inform their performances on set.