Quaker is launching its largest global campaign to date as the PepsiCo brand looks to bring back lapsed consumers and attract new ones after seeing a surge of growth during the pandemic.

The campaign, called “You’ve Got This” from Uncommon Creative Studio, focuses on unsung heroes. One ad is set in a kitchen and shows a father watching his son achieve milestones, including the first day of school, first soccer game and heading to college. They cheers bowls of oatmeal each time. When the son eventually has a kid of his own, he keeps up the oatmeal tradition. The commercial was directed by Charlotte Wells, who wrote and directed the 2022 film “Aftersun.”

While Quaker has done global marketing before, the brand described the new campaign as “the first-ever unified international platform with a range of initiatives bringing the platform to life.”

The campaign is already live in Canada and Latin America on TV, digital video, social media, and in movie theaters. It will then roll out in the U.S. this year. The ads adjust based on the country they are airing in. In the Mexico ad, the oats are not cooked but blended into a smoothie.

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The campaign comes as Quaker looks to sustain the growth it experienced during the COVID pandemic, when consumers had more time in the mornings to cook and were baking more. 

“The brand has seen growth momentum in the last few years and we want to welcome back those lapsed consumers, but also speak to younger families,” said Ciara Dilley, VP of marketing for global food brands at PepsiCo.

Dilley said that the challenge was to create a globally understood story, with creative that could run for several years. To do this, Quaker dug deep into consumer insights and sentiment around the brand.

“One thing we hit on early was the specialness of the morning,” Dilley said. “No matter how the week has gone, the dawn of a new day is a step towards things getting better. Linked to that, consumers told us that part of the day going well was seeing a certain person in their life, especially on a day that matters, like the job interview, the big test.”

Dilley said the brand didn’t want to focus on big, non-traditional days, like weddings or holidays, but regular days that might have something extra a consumer has to do, such as giving a big presentation or trying out for a sports team.

In addition to TV and digital, the campaign will also include out-of-home, print and personalized mobile. Quaker did not disclose how much it is spending on the campaign.

“We built modular creative with photos that are occasion-based and then we added personal messaging,” Dilley said. “The creative might reference back-to-school, the big test or an interview. We can also seasonally target, so push more when there is cold weather.”

Uncommon was behind British Airway’s “A British Original” campaign that used answers travelers filled in on the “What is the purpose of your visit?” Digital outdoor ads adapted to reflect current weather, location and also what's happening in the news. The Quaker digital ads will also adjust based on consumer data and weather.

“This is new for Quaker but Uncommon learned a lot with the British Airway’s work and wanted to help us,” Dilley said. “From what we’re hearing from our rollout in Canada, these resonate. They have people saying, ‘Quaker gets us.’”

The campaign comes about two months after Quaker drew negative headlines over a recall of several granola bars and cereal for possible salmonella contamination.

PepsiCo’s Quaker Foods North America revenue fell nearly 16%, to $893 million, in the fourth quarter and was down 2%, to $3.1 billion, last year. PepsiCo does not break out Quaker sales in other geographic regions, but Dilley said Quaker is “one of the top five brands in PepsiCo.”

“The team is really resilient and the absolute focus of our team is the health and safety of our consumers,” Dilley said. “Nothing matters but that.”

PepsiCo’s Quaker spent $44 million on U.S.-measured media in 2022, and $9 million in the first half of 2023, according to Vivvix, including paid social data from Pathmatics.