SITUATION:

During the Covid-19 shut down in South Africa, alcohol sales were banned and local breweries had to stop production. This had an impact on the supply of yeast, a key ingredient in producing South Africa's infamous love-it-or-hate-it spread, Marmite. Production on Marmite was therefore put on hold and supplies in the country were low to non-existent, upsetting thousands of fans.

THE BRIEF:

Get Marmite Lovers to notice and buy Marmite by celebrating the return of the iconic spread in stores and acknowledging consumer’s love and uncompromising loyalty to the brand.

OBJECTIVES:

Awareness: Bring awareness to the return of Marmite in stores to drive talkability and purchase of the brand.

Retention: Build an engaged community of Marmite lovers centred around their shared love and loyalty to Marmite.

Most brands reinvent themselves when they return to a market. They change their recipe or improve their packaging. But Marmite was never going to change anything. So they chose to tell consumers they were new & unimproved in every way.

This audacious campaign put Marmite firmly back into the public eye after being dormant for two years.

Individuals and media immediately took note of the announcements and commented on the tone and humour of the campaign via social media. People who self-confessed to being a Marmite hater even praised the campaign for its use of wit, sharing the artwork on their timelines.

Since the campaign launched sales of Marmite rose dramatically by as much as 300% compared to when they were last trading in stores. This was well and truly above targets and objectives.

The lockdown in South Africa was particularly harsh in that alcohol sales and production were completely banned as well. This meant yeast was not in supply which meant Marmite could no longer be produced or sold.