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November 20, 2006
By Barry Janoff
NEW YORK -- H.E. Butt Grocery will break a series of regional TV spots this week featuring members of the NBA’s San Antonio Spurs.
The campaign, “My H-E-B,” via McGarrah/Jessee, Austin, Texas, stars Tim Duncan, Brent Barry, Bruce Bowen and head coach Gregg Popovich in commercials filmed to look like homemade, YouTube-type videos. H.E. Butt, based in San Antonio, has more than 300 locations throughout the state and in Mexico, and is among the top 20 supermarket chains in the U.S. based on sales. Spend for the campaign was not disclosed. H-E-B spent $11 million on media in 2005 and $4 million January-September 2006, per Nielsen Monitor-Plus.
In “Brisket Room,” Duncan offers up a poem, beatnik-style, with Bowen and Barry interpreting on bongos, triangle and other accoutrements. “”Hickory smoked for hours, 18/Flavor so good, you know what I mean,” says Duncan as his two teammates supply the music. “Heats up in just an hour/You’ve got the power.” The spot ends with Barry turning into a Ginger Baker-wannabe and getting way too wild on the bongos.
In “Ground Beef,” Barry is an amateur ventriloquist who uses hamburger buns as hand puppets, which argue over the best way to use H-E-B meat. “I use [it] because it’s fresh,” claims one bun. “It tastes great,” yells the other. They then literally get into a fight over the proper use of ketchup. Popovich is seen in a backyard garden in “Produce,” stating, “H-E-B produce tastes like you just pulled it out of the ground.” He then pulls a carrot our of the earth and eats it, soil and all. “Actually,” he decides as he spits out the dirt, “H-E-B produce tastes better than if you just pulled it out of the ground.”
Beginning in early 2007, H-E-B will invite customers it Texas to submit their own “My H-E-B” commercials to be posted at heb.com. Consumers will be invited to vote on their favorites, and the top vote getters will be aired in media markets across Texas throughout the year.
“Our customers feel a sense of ownership and pride in the specific H-E-B stores in which they shop,” Cory Basso, H-E-B group vp-marketing and advertising, said in a statement. “They also feel a connection to the partners that work at H-E-B. Everyone across our company values this loyalty deeply and we want to focus on this phenomenon in our marketing.”
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