Pies face the pressure of healthy eating.After having a long history of success as the unpretentious, honest and satisfying lunch for guys, Four’N Twenty, the iconic Australian meat pie brand was beginning to struggle for something to ignite consumer interest. It also now suffered from being considered a bit of an unhealthy meal choice. Sure guys still loved Four’N Twenty pies, but often they couldn’t commit themselves to eating one because of constant pressure put on by society now to be more responsible with their diets. And all this health pressure frustrated them. We needed a new way to give them permission to enjoy the pies.

The Four’N Twenty Magic Salad Plate.Instead of denying Four’N Twenty’s lack of health, like so many other brands with their healthy choice meals, we embraced it, meeting societal pressure head on. We created a solution that worked with the pie to humourously say, “For five minutes society, can you bugger off and let me eat what I want!” – The Four’N Twenty Magic Salad Plate. A plate specifically designed with a 3-dimensional model side salad to let pie-eaters ridiculously appear to be also having some salad. Advertised across many mediums, plates sold online using unique codes collected from packs.

The pies and plates sold like crazy.The most successful marketing campaign by Four’N Twenty ever. The brand was immediately rewarded with huge free publicity for being “true to itself”. The brand and the plate became a symbol for letting guys just enjoy food. In the first fortnight, plate sales were reported at 25,000 and it was recently voted one of the best new products of 2008. It even appeared on eBay for 15 times its original value. More importantly Four’N Twenty pie sales soared with a 40% increase in single serves and 21% in 4 packs.

Pie eaters felt free to eat pies again.Building on Four’N Twenty’s history of being an unpretentious Australian brand, the Magic Salad Plate made light of health pressure and showed they understood the frustrations of their consumers. The plate was a true innovation in the food category, it was entertaining, and it also defied social trends that celebrate the notion of the “health nut”. It worked with double impact, first encouraging people to buy pies initially to get their plate, then driving people to buy more pies to actually use it. Soon plates were being used at worksites and workplaces around the country, further promoting the Four’N Twenty brand nationwide.