5 for 5

Background

The innocent company purpose is “to make natural, delicious food and drink that helps people live well and die old”. It has become a trusted, honest and healthy brand with a strong relationship with its consumers.

What was required was a truly innocent event to let as many people as possible know that eating their five-a-day portions of fruit and vegetables did not have to be boring.

Idea

Innocent created their very own Pop-Up Café for a week in Shoreditch, East London with a giant lettuce wall, much greenery, reclaimed tables and original art-works bringing innocent values to life in a memorable experience.

While it was there, it served 5,000 people the five portions of fruit and vegetables human beings need each day for a healthy diet.

A bespoke vegetarian menu was designed by famed chef Gizzi Erskine and a menu was put together to prove that getting your 5-a-day could be both tasty and healthy.

Diners listened to a live jazz band and enjoyed their meal and a smoothie under a ceiling of fairy lights before leaving with a bundle of recipe cards to cook at home.

Results

The Café was sold out a week before launch. Over 400 smoothie & Veg pot takeaways sold whilst café was open.

It got press and consumers talking. Even Ruby Wax considered the café worth a visit. It gave journalists a reason to write about innocent again with 97 pieces of press coverage which hit PR targets with a combined circulation of over 26 million and total AVE of £155k.

Online there were hundreds of twitter and blog comments; and over 20,000 hits to the café’s website with a further 45,000 unique users visiting other innocent channels including twitter, blog and newsletter. And all recipes were available to download from the dedicated café website.

For the staff it was also a good experience also. As one said, ‘As with the banana phone, I think these activities should be compulsory as they epitomise what our drinkers expect from us, as well as keeping us close to the drinker.’

One emailer wrote,  ‘My first impressions on walking into the tram station was pure delight. I felt like I'd stepped into an indoor garden party in a Victorian conservatory. The wonderful live band gave a great atmosphere and had me sit-dancing as we waited for our food. My only complaint is that the cafe will only be here for 7 days.’

Our Thoughts

Dan Germain is the creative director at innocent and a man who hides his light under a bushel. His contribution to the innocent brand has been immense. For starters, the copy he wrote on the packaging in the early days was pure magic and has been much copied. It didn’t win him any awards at the time because juries didn’t see it as being the brilliant advertising it was, and is.

He and his team have always done things different, from covering their vans in Astroturf to make them look natural through to this pop-up café. Marketing organizations often trumpet Richard Reed, one of the founders of the company, as the man who grew the brand from a hobby to a multi-million pound business but as you can see, he has had the support of some very inventive people.