Swanson: A Chinese New Year Cooking Challenge
Use this as a referenceThe Brief: A Shared Meal for Chinese New Year
Chinese New Year brings families together around the table. For its Come Home campaign, Swanson wanted to show how its clear chicken broth could help busy people prepare a meal and spend time with family. Darkroom Studio was commissioned to create an entertaining variety-style short film, connecting the product’s convenience with the warmth of the season through a lively cooking competition.
The Approach: Food, Humour and Competition
The film takes the form of a cooking battle, placing the product naturally within a cheerful competition:
Brisk Variety-Show Editing: Animated captions, comic sound effects and fast-paced editing emphasise the contestants’ kitchen mishaps. From preparing ingredients to seasoning the dishes, the edit picks out the mistakes and reactions that give the competition its humour.
Appetising Food Photography: Alongside the comedy, close-ups show the contestants cooking with Swanson clear chicken broth. Bubbling broth and ingredients coming together in the pan illustrate its place in a home-cooked dish and connect the product with the appeal of a family meal.
An Invitation to Take Part: The closing sequence introduces the Cooking Class prize and invites viewers to join the campaign, giving the entertainment a clear next step for audience participation.
The Finished Film: A Brand Story Told through Humour
The short film brings a light, humorous approach to Chinese New Year content. The laughter and shared meal place Swanson within the preparations for a reunion dinner, presenting the broth as part of the cooking rather than interrupting the story with a separate sales message.
About Swanson’s Chinese New Year Cooking Challenge
Year: 2021
Q&A
How does the film combine a cooking competition with a family reunion?+
The film uses a reality-show cooking challenge to create pace and friendly competition. Darkroom Studio uses fast split screens and timer graphics to follow the participants as they prepare festive dishes with Swanson broth. The competitive sequence leads into the warmth of the family tasting the food together, connecting the film with the Come Home theme.
How does the filming make the food look appetising?+
Food is a central part of the film. We use close-up shots to capture broth bubbling in the pan, the colour of ingredients as they cook and the rising steam. Warm lighting gives these moments a welcoming, home-cooked feel and makes the product’s role in the dish visible.
Why use a recipe challenge for a Chinese New Year social campaign?+
Preparing a reunion meal can put pressure on the household cook. A recipe challenge offers practical, solution-led content rather than relying solely on a sales message. Accessible recipes and visible cooking steps demonstrate how the product can be used, including by less experienced cooks. This soft-sell approach is intended to make the brand useful and relatable during the festive season; any impact on sales needs to be established separately.
- Client
- Swanson
- Project
- Come Home — Chinese New Year Cooking Challenge
- Services
- Social video, variety-show production and festive promotion
- Date
- 2021-03-25
