2022 Silver Retail and E-commerce

Agency: OLIVER/U-Studio

Client: Marmite, Unilever

Campaign Name: Pre-Hated Marmite

Campaign Overview

Marmite: you either love it or hate it. The brief was to activate this brand truth on April Fools' Day, by creating a compelling experience that would engage and reward Marmite lovers and bring fame to the brand - but with zero spend and a small production budget.

Strategy

To engage Marmite fans in an unexpected way the campaign focussed on hate not love, dialling up the loathing and repulsion that haters have for the brand. It was a high-risk strategy to cut through and bring the lovers of Marmite together.

April Fools was identified as an opportunity to build on the brand property of 'You either love it or hate it' ,with an immersive experience that used guerrilla tactics to hijack and transform eBay and real-life shopping into a much more engaging experience.

Creativity

The team devised Pre-Hated Marmite - a product with a ridiculous USP. Marmite jars that have been opened, tried and discarded in disgust by haters, now available to buy at deliciously discounted prices for lovers on eBAY and in real life, but only on April 1st.

Promoted on social, detail and authenticity were key. Every listing on eBay was specifically written to get across the full range of loathing that haters had for Marmite, with headlines including ‘Rated R for Repellant’.

Results

By tradition, April Fools' jokes must end by midday. In just one morning, and with zero advertising spend, Pre-Hated Marmite generated 17,000 organic engagements, more than one million social impressions, 4.7 million PR impressions, and press coverage in some of the UK’s biggest newspapers including The Sun.

The brand sold out of Pre-Hated Marmite. One jar with a starting price of 1p sold for £16: more than 16 times the price of a brand-new jar.

The Team

OLIVER - Rod Sobral, Global Chief Creative Officer - Magnus Thorne, Creative Director, Art Director, Writer - Paul Turner, Creative Director, Art Director, Writer - Tanya Lock, Achilleos Creative Producer - Andrew Tuffs, Creative Director - Sara Lim, Client Service - Christiaan Rautenbach, Editor - Alistair Hood, Film Maker

Unilever - Sophie Allan, Brand Manager