Have We Gone Too Far?
Issue 15 | June 2010
Agency
Iris, London
Creative Team
Senior Copywriter: Lucy Clark; Senior Art Director: Libby Young; Senior Designer: Keith Franczak; Artworker: Murat Ince
Production Team
Production Manager: Nicola Retter
Other Credits
DM pack: Account Director: Dave Hill; Account Manager: Jo Barber; Planner: Kathryn Gray; Sampling Campaign: Senior Account Director: Christy Peters; Senior Account Manager: Amy Magierek; Senior Account Executive: Kara Johnson
Date
22nd February 2010
Background
The brief was to create a national direct mail and sampling campaign to promote the launch of the new Marmite cereal bar. The aim of the campaign was to invite consumers to try the new bar and tell Marmite what they think, whether they think it is delicious or disgusting.
Idea
Asking the question, ‘Have we gone too far?’, DM packs featuring a spoof tube of Marmite Toothpaste were sent out across the UK. The recipient was told that though this could have been a step too far, Marmite had however launched the first savoury cereal bar.
Inside, the pack gave the consumer a choice of coupons, either to get money off a Marmite Cereal bar or to get money off money off Signal toothpaste, depending on whether they loved or hated the new bar.
In addition, Iris designed special Marmite booths for major train stations nationwide where commuters were encouraged to try the new bar in the booths and have their reaction filmed on camera. The best ‘love/hate’ reactions were then displayed on digital screens throughout the stations and online.
Results
DM: 250,000 packs with Marmite cereal bar sample distributed.
Sampling:
288,000 samples & coupons distributed
4,530 videos clips recorded
Our Thoughts
The guru Jeremy Bullmore once invented a game called Brandicide. The idea was to select a brand and have ideas about how you could stretch it perfectly logically but massively damagingly into completely new territories. After-Eight chewing gum, for instance.
Well, here’s a brand playing Brandicide with its consumers. Very, very few could get away with it but thanks to the brilliant strategy created by DDB London some 10 years ago, Marmite can. Wondering quite how disgusting you can get with Marmite-flavoured NPD is an engaging game, which we at Directory were not the only ones to play. If Google is to be believed, around 60,000 conversations started up online around how far you could take the idea. Marmite-flavoured condoms, anyone?
The fact this launch uses direct marketing as opposed to TV is interesting in itself and I would be interested in knowing if this unconventional approach to a new product launch has been successful. Love it.