Marmite is a British yeast spread with a dividing taste. You either love it or hate it. That’s been the brand truth, and indeed, the slogan for years.

Fans of the brand are exceptionally proud of their ‘lover’ status – and like anyone who is in love - really respond well to anything Marmite does that highlights this love.

Our brief was to activate this brand truth on April Fools’ Day by creating a compelling experience that would engage and reward Marmite lovers and create genuine noise and fame for the brand – with zero advertising spend and a production budget of less than £5,000.

Our idea embraced the silliness and spirit of April Fools' and the ‘You either love it or hate it’ essence of Marmite.

Introducing 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.

Our target audience was fans of Marmite – the lovers. But we wanted to engage them in a totally unexpected way, an approach that is especially relevant to April Fools’.

So instead of using the traditional ‘you are a lover’ approach to target them we instead focussed on how much haters hated Marmite – really dialling up the loathing and repulsion that haters have for the brand.

A high risk / high reward strategy that we hoped would cut through and bring the lovers of Marmite together to support and defend the brand.

On April Fools’ 2022 we launched the Pre-Hated Marmite store on eBay and in real life. Selling jars that had been opened, tried and discarded in disgust by haters - at discount prices for lovers.

A deliberately repulsive and utterly ridiculous USP that tapped into the spirit of April Fools’ and the love/hate essence of Marmite.

Promoted on social, detail and authenticity was key. From the item descriptions in eBay through to the point of sale used in real life.

We made sure that buyers could see just how much each Pre-Hated Jar was hated with descriptions such as: Rated R for Repellent. Disgusting - Zero Stars. This is Rank. Yuk Out Of 10. Completely and utterly repulsive.

While prices were set at a few pence to underline the loathing.

Our strategic and creative gamble paid off. The more we hated the more our lovers loved it.

By tradition April Fools' jokes must end by midday. But in just one morning, and with zero advertising spend, we had generated:

- 17,000 organic engagements

- over 1 million social impressions

- 4.7 million PR impressions

- With press coverage in some of the UKs biggest newspapers like The Sun.

Plus we’d completely sold out of Pre-Hated Marmite. One jar with a starting price of £1p and described as WHAT IS THIS ?????????!?!? sold for £16. That’s over 6 times the price of a brand-new jar!!!

With comments like:

“The dedication here is immense, love the eBay listings when you click the link”

“@Marmite That’s totally brilliant”

“You deffo won April Fools' this year”

All being typical of the response.