What is Pickles about?

Pickles is a professional campaign created by TDI Group for the Formann brand, launched in Russia in 2014 and aimed at the Recreation and Leisure market. The campaign centers on the concept of unlocking personal strength, using the slogan Open up your strength! to encourage audiences to discover and unleash their inner power in everyday moments. Executed through an innovative ambient media approach, Pickles utilizes a single impactful media asset to engage viewers in public environments, aligning with Formann’s positioning as a brand that promotes vitality and active lifestyles. The campaign was primarily communicated in English to broaden its appeal beyond the local market.

What creative device does Pickles use?

Pickles employs the Symbolize the Benefit technique, classified as FORMAT#9 in Clapboard’s 12-format taxonomy. This creative approach uses symbols or exaggerated visuals—in this case, the unexpected metaphor of pickles—to represent the product’s positive impact. Rather than relying on direct demonstrations or testimonials, the campaign visually communicates the idea of hidden or surprising strength, paralleling how something ordinary can contain unexpected power. This aligns with the campaign’s central message of unlocking inner strength and reinforces Formann’s brand promise in a memorable, imaginative way.

What is the campaign proposition for Pickles?

The campaign proposition for Pickles positions Formann as a catalyst for empowerment and vitality within the recreation and leisure sector. By adopting an ambient medium and narrative genre, the campaign targets active, experience-oriented consumers who value authentic engagement over overt advertising. The message—Open up your strength!—frames Formann’s offerings as tools for enhancing both physical and mental resilience, encouraging audiences to view leisure as an opportunity for self-improvement. This strategic positioning aligns the brand with contemporary values of health, vitality, and purposeful recreation, differentiating Formann in a competitive market.

How does Pickles rank in Clapboard's archive?

Pickles holds a Clapboard Campaign Score of 59/100 in Clapboard’s global ad archive. This score reflects the campaign’s creative ambition, execution quality, and cultural relevance within the context of the recreation and leisure sector.

Who are the competitors in Formann's category?

In the recreation and leisure market, Formann competes with several established brands. TUI Russia is recognized for its comprehensive travel services and global-local integration, appealing to travelers seeking convenience and reliability. Tez Tour targets budget-conscious consumers with affordable packages and strong customer service, while Coral Travel focuses on trust and family-friendly experiences through personalized service. Biletix stands out as a digital-forward platform catering to tech-savvy travelers who value flexibility and speed, and Pegas Touristik emphasizes reliability and comfort with integrated tour and accommodation solutions for a broad range of leisure seekers.

This Formann campaign channels everyday strength through inventive ambient media, motivating leisure audiences— Clapboard's Global Ad Archive.

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Pickles - Formann | Clapboard Ad Archive

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Description

Formann’s 2014 campaign Pickles, developed by TDI Group for the recreation and leisure sector, stands out for its unexpected yet striking approach to brand storytelling, leveraging the ambient environment as the stage for a message built entirely on visual symbolism. At first glance, the campaign’s abstract title Pickles reads as a playful non-sequitur, but under the banner Open up your strength, the creative execution reveals its clever intent: pickles become a metaphor for latent power, suggesting that just as these everyday objects conceal surprising robustness inside fragile exteriors, so too does each person hold untapped reserves of strength within. With an English-language platform extending beyond Russian borders, Formann reinforces its aspirational identity as a brand committed to energy and self-discovery, targeting a cosmopolitan, wellness-driven audience that views recreation as integral to personal growth. The heart of the work is a single, impactful media asset that refrains from literal demonstration or testimonial in favor of exaggerated visual cues — in line with what Clapboard’s taxonomy identifies as FORMAT#9 — Symbolize the Benefit, wherein the functional or emotional promises of a brand are dramatised through heightened imagery rather than narrative explanation. By recontextualising pickles as objects of empowerment within a leisure and lifestyle narrative, TDI Group invites viewers to suspend disbelief and engage at an instinctive, emotional level, sparking both curiosity and brand affinity. The choice of ambient media deepens real-world relevance, ensuring the campaign’s call to action is experienced experientially rather than passively. The campaign earns 59/100 in Clapboard’s global creative archive. In a category often dominated by literal depictions of activity and product use, Pickles signals the value of a concept-forward, metaphor-driven approach in elevating leisure marketing to a more evocative, imaginative plane.