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If there’s one thing David Protein is going to do, it’s try to stand out. That’s why, when it came time to choose the packaging, the team behind the brand went for gold.
‘If you pass by the [protein bar] In today’s aisle, you’re bombarded with colors and different brands and really very little differentiation,” Oula Ghanem, chief of staff at David, told us.[Our] strategy has tried to distinguish between all possible features of the product.”
Even the name of the brand, a reference to Michelangelo’s David sculpture, is deliberately different of category standards, says Rion Harmon, co-founder and ECD at creative agency Day Job, which is working with David. “We have lines for the brand like, ‘Nature made marble and man made David,’ and it’s kind of hilarious, right?” he said. “We’re talking about protein bars here.”
That irreverence and desire to be different is a big reason why the brand’s marketing was unconventional for a protein bar. Since launching in September 2024, David has raised eyebrows by selling cod on his website, sending sex toys to influencers and posting subway ads without a lick of text – just a photo of the product.
Ghanem said the goal of all this is to increase David’s cultural relevance and attract an audience beyond the typically male and performance-oriented consumer of protein bars.
Something suspicious is coming this way
The idea for David’s cod campaign, Ghanem said, came from researching competitors and seeing other protein bars claiming to be the No. 1 source of protein for consumers.
“We thought, ‘It’s really not credible to always claim you’re No. 1,'” she said. “You have to be No. 2 behind someone.”
Or something. Before Ghanem claims that it is the bar with the most protein and the least calories on the market, the team decided to compare itself to a food product that has the “gold standard” protein-to-calorie ratio, namely cod. What started as a simple comparison on the website grew into a full-fledged retail and marketing strategy; The brand started selling frozen Pacific cod fillets last summer for $69 and was running cod themed billboards in New York City, creating buzz in the media and on social platforms.
“The result was a lot of awareness and attention,” Ghanem said.
It also helped the brand start a dialogue with consumers looking for natural protein sources. “We receive a lot of criticism about the processing of protein bars,” says Ghanem. “We never want people to rely on David as the main source of protein in their diet…but it serves the exact purpose of convenience and portability.”
Although the move has helped raise brand awareness among a new audience, David Protein won’t be making the fishmonger his main identity anytime soon. “Sending frozen cod across the country is very expensive,” says Ghanem. “The sale went well, [but] certainly not the main goal.”
Today, she says people still ask her if David is the “cod company” and if it was all a joke. “The fact that people are talking about it more than six months later is a signal of how successful that campaign was,” she said.
Marketing that satisfies
David recently kicked off the release of his Bronze protein bars with a campaign aimed at women, in which Julia Fox tells them that ‘men disappoint’, but ‘David pleases’. online and on billboards and digital kiosks throughout New York City. As part of the campaign, the brand partnered with sexual wellness brand Maude to send PR boxes of protein bars and vibrators to makers, far too many recipients’ surprise. One creator, Aubrie Williams, told viewers that she opened the box in front of her apartment staff expecting to share snacks.
“Originally we weren’t going to add a vibrator, but then we thought, ‘We’re positioning David as something that can give you as much pleasure as a vibrator, so two equal forms of pleasure,’” Ghanem said. “Some of our partners were a little uncomfortable with it, but overall I think it resonated pretty well.”
David is campaigning again in New York and using another way to stand out: this time by saying nothing at all. The ads, displayed in Subway cars and stations, show a photo of a protein bar in the David package against a white background, with no ad text or calls to action.
“When you go into the subway or get on the train, you’re bombarded with all kinds of images, and… all this information is coming at you from all sides,” Ghanem said. “Having a white face demands your attention and makes us stand out.”
David’s ubiquity in New York City stores was important to the campaign’s success, Harmon said, noting that the campaign is intended to reach people who already have a general awareness of the brand.
“It wasn’t meant to yell at you in any way,” he said, but rather to “[give consumers] the opportunity to sit with the brand and say, “Okay, what does this mean?”
Maxx out?
With the protein market becoming increasingly saturated, Ghanem says David’s approach is to avoid trends like ‘protein maxxing’ and position the brand as part of a science-based diet. That has prompted the brand to collaborate with health influencers such as neuroscientist and podcast host Andrew Huberman. David previously had a head of science, Peter Attia, but he got off earlier this month after appearing in the Epstein files. The David team is “still assessing options” on a possible replacement.
Looking ahead, Ghanem said he expects new product lines and partnerships. The campaign with Fox, she said, is the brand’s first step in a new strategy direction that she said is designed to build brand voice and with content that should be “engaging, not too fancy” and not too sales-focused.
“The goal is to build a great company and keep everyone excited and investing for the long term,” she said.
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