Joy Premium Bananas

A sustainable banana brand is moving into a commoditized market dominated by legacy brands. How do they set themselves apart?

This spec campaign won the live client pitch contest. It was developed by The A-Team: Alethea Ng, Arianne Richardson Fenton, and Alexa Schwartz.

The Ask

Pacific Produce is a grower and distributor for produce like asparagus, grapes, and avocados from the Americas. They needed to launch Joy, their premium banana brand, in the U.S.

They asked The A-Team to develop a campaign that could do double duty with B2B and B2C clients:

Convincing B2B partners that Joy is a strategic differentiator worth premium pricing
Engaging consumers to choose Joy over commodity alternatives
Establishing Joy as a thought leader in sustainable produce

The Challenge

The banana market is heavily commoditized. Most people neither know nor care what brand of banana they buy. Additionally, the market is dominated by legacy brands like Dole and Chiquita.

Not to mention, with grocery prices going up, people are keeping a closer eye on their budgets.

In this landscape, how can a brand like Joy—that costs more because it prides itself in its sustainability, transparency, and partnership—convince people to pay more for what it offers?

The Audience

It’s no secret that life feels serious.

Consumers are inundated with bad news: TikTok videos telling us exactly what we’re doing wrong, newsfeeds saturated with stories we’d rather not hear. They wonder: “When did life get so serious?”

Businesses and procurement specialists struggle with tariffs affecting their supply chains. They try to hit their ESG goals but it feels like a losing battle. They too wonder: “When did life get so serious?”

And this seriousness follows us into the grocery store, where 86% of us are stressed about grocery prices and 64% of us are paying more attention to what we buy and eat.

It feels like being a seriously good parent or a seriously good business requires that you be… well, serious.

Insight

We feel like we’re under pressure to act serious, like we have no space for joy.

But the truth is… Joy is what we need most.

And we’re here to show that there is space for joy—all while doing seriously good work.

The Strategy

You don’t have to take yourself too seriously in order to do serious good.

The Creative Concept

Serious Good.

This creative concept asks: How can Joy show up in people’s lives in a way that feels authentic, memorable, human, and light? How can we give people permission to drop the seriousness—while continuing to do good?

We decided to spotlight the many people doing good behind the scenes of the Joy banana you pick up at the grocery store—building sustainability and community without being too serious about it.