The Mammoth meatball indirectly created a mind-shift about cultured meat through social media while turning thousands of micro, macro influencers and celebrities into unpaid ambassadors.

By bringing the Woolly Mammoth back to life as a meatball, a small company like Vow broke through the power of the gigantic meat industry. A PR-able reveal made the global press report on the statement piece, increasing the shareability of our story. The Mammoth meatball found its way to popular culture through memes, vlogs, and social feeds of the press and the people.

1 million species are at threat of extinction, with food production as a substantial driver. 14.5% of all human-caused global greenhouse gas emissions attribute to meat production. Growing meat consumption also results in inhumane conditions for animals. While ecological and ethical boundaries are met, human evolution rages on. By 2050, we'll need two planets to feed our growing population. At least, without radical and urgent changes.

But alternatives are on the rise. Cultured meat reduces the impact on the environment, is cruelty-free and can be designed to be preferable in both taste and nutritional value.

Yet Singapore still stands alone in having legally approved cultured meat for commercial sale. Combined with the meat industry lobby and the public perception of inability to change, the discourse has taken shape. We teamed up with ‘Vow’, international experts and scientists to change the debate and the willingness to eat differently.

The woolly mammoth is a symbol of loss and what drastic impact climate change can have. Could this giant become a beacon of hope for the future of food? Using new and innovative technology, the mammoth meatball was created. Illustrating the potential to eat ourselves out of extinction.

We sparked hope by turning what is no longer here, into an icon of today: a meatball. A popular dish for people all over the world who make their own version of it. An accessible dish, simple to make and affordable; exactly what we hope for cultured meat products in the future. Uniting complex innovations with an easy concept makes people question our today and consider alternatives for the future.

The creative idea does not aim to make people eat mammoth meat, but tells an impactful story people want to share. Turning small influencers and big celebrities into unpaid ambassadors.

There was no use in telling how we can change our future. We needed to show we can. Even when legislation, lobby groups or public perception are not on our side. By going beyond the impossible, we wanted to capture our audience’s interest and wonderment.Our message: the future of food needs to be questioned and changed.

With cultured meat as a more sustainable, ethical and feasible alternative.

Instead of targeting the powerful few to make a change – we targeted the critical mass to start a cultural change. The strategy centered around a reveal during a food futurism event (NL) to create exposure through PR. To keep the online conversation going, we provided the audience with facts about Cultured Meat. The simplicity of the meatball became a carrier for a complex discussion about the future of food that could take place on the light-hearted and the more content-heavy social channels.

The success relied on the development of the Mammoth Meatball. The iconic and groundbreaking piece is what makes people want to share their perspective on our product category. We identified the Mammoth gene and its DNA sequence to cultivate meat. Gaps in the DNA sequence were complemented with the genome of the African elephant. To finally insert the gene into a cell to be grown and multiplied, just like a mammoth would have done naturally.

The campaign was carefully orchestrated to ensure high shareability. The size, presentation, reveal, … of the meatball all contributed to its social currency. Before the launch event, we invited leading press titles for first interviews. Broader press was invited to the Food Futurism event. A campaign website, campaign movie and pictures were made available to let the social networks incorporate Cultured Meat in a simple post, Tweet or meme as a mammoth meatball.

Through the interplay of social media & PR, we got 13 billion impressions in a matter of days. Global broadcasts and 12.500 written articles covered the campaign globally even making Vow go from tiny start-up, to the front page of the Wall Street Journal. Altogether, amounting to an advertising value of $120 million. Being skyrocketed, the Mammoth Meatball found its way to social media feeds of people globally through meme’s, tweets, vlogs and TikToks.

We got the world to know cultured meat and changed its negative associations into anticipation to try. After seeing the campaign, 80% recognised the negative impact of the current meat industry on the environment and biodiversity loss and nearly 7/10 people perceived cultured meat as being nutritious, safe, healthy and tasty.Making 3/4th of respondents indicating cultured meat as an exciting, sustainable & realistic alternative.

The result: 95,7% increase in willingness to try cultured meat.

The call for eating less meat has never been louder. Yet the average global meat production has quadrupled since 1961 and is now at an all-time high.

A study in the Dutch market showed the perception of cultured meat is more negative when it comes to health, safety, naturalness and tastiness compared to meat, fish and Plant Based Alternatives. This shows a big gap needs to be filled to increase the willingness for people to convert to cultured meat as part of their diet.

The inability to fulfill the expectations raised by the plant-based alternatives hype (Beyond Meat, Impossible) made skepticism about meat alternatives grow with investors, press and public opinion. Leading press titles refer to cultured meat as the ‘next hope’, but it needs to build its image on the exchange failure and backlash of the unhealthy character of those who went before.