copywriting 101 | Huevos San Juan
Back in 2017, Huevos San Juan set out to change how Mexican consumers viewed eggs. This is how they did it.
Eggs are a staple in most households everywhere around the world. They don’t feel like a product because, for most of us, they’re a foundational component of our daily diets. Aside from passionate vegans, people don’t have strong feelings about them: you crack them or boil them, you eat them, that’s it. We want them fresh, conveniently priced, and safe. Those of us who are concerned about the quality of life and the health of the chickens who produce them also care about the conditions in which they’re created and harvested, but that’s it. That’s where our involvement ends: it’s entirely intellectual or logical, and not at all emotional.
For many Mexicans, however, the Huevos San Juan boxes bring to mind much more than just eggs. These cardboard boxes evoke important events and life transitions, such as moving, starting over, leaving the past behind, and hoping to build a legacy from the ground up.
Some of us have used the Huevos San Juan boxes to pack our entire lives into them, and then have them carried via truck to a new city, where a new home, a new job, and new people are waiting for us. Some others use these boxes instead of suitcases and board a bus or a plane, carrying with us a product, a project, memories, or things for our friends and families. Every box carries a story. Huevos San Juan decided to find people at bus stations in Mexico City who were carrying their belongings in their signature white & blue cardboard boxes, and offer them to exchange the boxes for actual branded suitcases. Huevos San Juan wanted to convey the message that using their boxes as luggage was not tacky or embarrassing: it meant that the person had dreams, courage, vision, and hope.
The suitcases were never the point: they were a tool of connection between brand and audience, at a time during which the food industry lacks relatability and humanity. They elicited a conversation and an exchange of narratives and emotions, which - in turn - made the brand feel warmer, more human, and more trustworthy. Huevos San Juan said “we see you”, and in return, their current and future customers saw them in a completely different light.
The brand didn’t stop there.
From a copywriting perspective, their strategy is a goldmine: rather than coming up with a way to make people care about eggs themselves, they set out to give their customers many compelling reasons to care about the stories surrounding their product.
Eggs are often one of the most affordable foods. They’re part of a balanced diet. They’re simple to prepare, so much so that many people who don’t know how to cook will at least know how to boil or fry an egg. They’re ever-present, reliable, and bring memories of safety and comfort. This wasn’t lost on Huevos San Juan either: whether it’s about a young adult leaving home to begin their life independently, or about someone going through a divorce and cooking the first breakfast for their kids in a different place, or an entrepreneur risking it all and having to temporarily cut down costs on food so that they have enough to cover the rent of their first location, eggs play a key role in people’s lives that often goes unnoticed.
That is why, aside from the viral Huevos San Juan branded suitcases, every container of eggs that Huevos San Juan puts on the shelves of stores and supermarkets across Mexico also contains motivational stories about their millions of Mexican consumers. During the pandemic, Huevos San Juan added comforting messages stamped on every eggshell, right under the production code: “CUÍDATE” (Take Care of Yourself) was the most frequent one.
