Bonfire's 'Eat the Wild' campaign for Skull Island Prawns hits two million organic views

Bonfire's “Eat the Wild” campaign for Skull Island Prawns has recorded more than two million organic Instagram views and 30,000 YouTube plays since launching in early August.

The agency's Western Australia team produced the campaign featuring an animated prawn playing a guitar, without the use of AI imagery. 

Music producer Matt Templeman, whose credits include Birds of Tokyo, Voyager, Sly Withers and Make Them Suffer, composed the original music, and the guitar solo was performed by John Overthrow.

Since launch, Skull Island has recorded 12% year-on-year sales growth and doubled its Good Food & Wine Show sales compared with last year. Skull Island Prawns is part of Austral Fisheries, one of Australia's largest commercial fishing companies. 

The campaign lands in a category worth about $500 million a year. ABARES expects Australian prawn production to peak at around $514 million in 2025/26. Austral Fisheries is a significant contributor to national production.

Bonfire creative director Luke Williams attributed the campaign's online performance to its mass appeal and production values.

"The best advertising usually comes from listening to what the product is already telling you. In this case, it was telling us to shred. Matt then helped turn that into an original, heavy-metal track that had enough musical credibility for the gag to survive beyond the first few seconds.

"Eat the Wild has resonated with audiences because it doesn’t behave like a typical seafood ad. A giant prawn shredding a metal guitar underwater is ridiculous enough to stop you, but the first-class production quality and original music make the joke good enough to watch and share.

“Importantly, you don’t need to know Skull Island Prawns to get the campaign; that’s why it’s travelled well beyond the original target audience into music, creative, meme and general entertainment communities.”

Dylan Skinns, General Manager of Marketing at Austral Fisheries, said: "We’re overwhelmed with the results of Bonfire’s campaign. Luke and the Bonfire team have succeeded in creating a campaign that gives Skull Island Prawns a personality that people love and can remember.

“Prawns are traditionally treated as a commodity. Consumers ask for tiger prawns, king prawns or Australian prawns - not necessarily a brand. Bonfire’s production values, creative idea and inspired approach, combined with Matt’s original music, have built mental availability around Skull Island.”

Credits

Client: Austral Fisheries
GM Marketing: Dylan Skinns
Logistics & Stock Control Manager: Heng Lee
People and Culture: Ashley To
Agency: Bonfire

GM - Creative Division: Rene LeMerle
Creative Director: Luke Williams
Senior Art Director: Mike Dann

Senior Copywriter: Bronagh Spence
Senior Account Executive: Sam Marshall
Senior Strategist: Evan Dela Grammaticas
Senior Performance Media Specialist: Brayden Zuin

Production: Outer Circle
Producer: Adam Keogh
Animation and Direction: Josh De Boer
3D Model: Eoin Cannon
Sound: Nick Gallagher @ Fable

Original Music
Producer: Matt Templemann
Guitarist: John Overthrow

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