We are kicking off the New Year with positive, upbeat campaigns as January is well known for being the most depressing month of the year – urgh! Despite us all throwing down the chocolate, cake and alcohol this month and frantically grabbing the fruit and veg, we have all chosen campaigns that relate back to food!
David Lloyd – Run For Your Bun PR Campaign
Every New Year sees an influx of ‘new year, new you’ themed PR stunts along with campaigns that have a huge emphasis on health and weight loss.
This January, health centre and gym company David Lloyd is offering its members the unique opportunity to earn their food in exchange for working up a sweat. Following new research that reveals that the average office worker spends 90% of their working day sat down and not moving, David Lloyd Clubs is launching a new café giving customers the chance to ‘pay’ for their lunch with a six-minute micro workout. The café, called ‘Run For Your Bun’, aims to encourage workers to be more active during the working day and highlight the important role that a balanced diet and regular exercise plays in a healthy lifestyle.
Diners will be invited to choose a lunch item from the menu prior to beginning a high intensity interval workout to be used as their method of payment for the meal. Once the workout has been completed, guests are then invited to take a seat in the café area and refuel with their delicious chosen lunch.
The quick ‘HIIT’ (high-intensity interval training) workout includes one-minute on a rowing machine, one minute on a spin bike and one minute on a treadmill, as well as 60-seconds of sit-ups, bodyweight squats and lunges, with 30-second rest periods between each exercise.
The lunch options at Run For Your Bun:
- Smashed avocado with cherry tomatoes, goats cheese, chilli and lime on toasted wholemeal bread
- Giant couscous with apricots, raisins, pine nuts, lemon, coriander and fresh basil with a balsamic dressing
- Grilled chicken breast burger with tomato, red onion and garlic mayo
- Pitta pockets with mixed salad and a choice of smoked salmon or grilled halloumi filling
Run For Your Bun café was open to the public on Wednesday 11th, Thursday 12th and Friday 13th January, between 11:40am and 3pm each day. The first session sold out due to the great PR coverage that this campaign has received.
A Lighter Way to Start the Year
With talk of Blue Mondays, diets and detoxing we welcomed the new outdoor advert from Maltesers. The nation’s favourite ‘Lighter Way to Enjoy Chocolate’ brand has been championing disability and promoting inclusiveness for a while now with its ‘Look on the Light side of Disability’ campaign. The campaign kicked off last year with Maltesers featuring disabled actors in its TV commercials. Mars consulted disability charity Scope while developing the ads and said it wanted to open a conversation with other brands about how to better represent the UK's diverse population through advertising.
World Braille Day is on the 4th January every year and to mark this year, Maltesers created a special build OOH (out of home) advert display at a Farringdon bus station in London, to raise awareness of the day and of course promote the brand as well. The billboard advert is made entirely of braille and is the latest addition to the campaign, which also saw the first ever TV advert to air completely in sign language.
We think it’s great that such a big name, household brand is breaking down barriers by normalising disability with its advertising and communications strategy – and even better adding a sprinkle of humour.
Whitworths: Shot Property
PR agency WPR was tasked with launching a new concept in healthier snacking – Shots by Whitworths. Under 100 calories these were a hero product internally – and quickly became one externally too.
The challenge was to use the Shot products to secure product placement and sampling opportunities – with the overall objective of increasing awareness of the entire Whitworths snacking collection.
So, to stand out with key press contacts, the agency developed ‘snack time’ media packs – including a full range of products, complete with an alarm clock set to 11am, urging the press to remember ‘snack o’clock’. The packs were distributed through a series of one-to-one press briefings where they were well received – with titles such as OK!, Homemaker and Love It! tweeting photos of their own happy snack time moments.
In order to get the Shot products directly into the hands of consumers, WPR worked with the organisers of relevant events to distribute a total of 22,000 samples. This included product visibility at London Fashion Week, Red Magazine Fashion Evenings, Clothes Show Live, Ideal Home Show at Christmas and Prima – as well as key magazine editor events.
All this was accompanied by a strong trade focus to attract the attention of key buyers. They ensured that Whitworths’ spokespeople were leading commentary around healthier snacking and unique product offerings, during the launch period.
Following the press visits, key titles such as OK!, Healthy Food Guide, Morrisons Magazine, Your Home and Woman’s Own Diet Special all featured various flavours of the Shot products – and other snacking options within the range.
Trade wise, thanks to attendance at the Lunch! show and PR support, Shots were awarded the Gold in the innovation category. This accolade has brought the product to the attention of even more key buyers and resulted in some brilliant new outlets for the brand.
Fair to say that Shots weren’t the only heroes for Whitworths that year.
Kellogg’s Rice Krispies Made, Shared and Gave this Christmas
Kellogg’s Rice Krispies partnered with ‘Toys for Tots’ and Instagram Star Misterkrisp (Jessica Siskin) to help give joy to children in need. Kellogg's Rice Krispies encouraged families to embrace the holiday season of giving with the "Treats 4 Toys" program. For every Rice Krispies treat they made and shared using #Treats4Toys, Rice Krispies donated a gift to Toys for Tots to help bring a little joy to a child in need.
For every original photo posted to Facebook, Twitter or Instagram between September 26th 2016, and January 1st 2017, using #Treats4Toys, Rice Krispies donated $10.00 to Toys for Tots (up to $50,000 total), which was used to help buy toys for children in the US.
So who are Toys for Tots and Jessica Siskin?
Toys for Tots Foundation is the fundraising and support organisation for the US Marine Corps Reserve Toys for Tots Program. The foundation was created at the request of the US Marine Corps and has supported Toys for Tots since 1947. The mission of the program is to collect new, unwrapped toys during October, November and December each year and distribute those toys as Christmas gifts to needy children in the community.
New York City-based food artist Jessica Siskin began making edible Rice Krispies Treat sculptures in December 2012. When Siskin realised that food colouring could be added to the side-of-the-box recipe, she felt an immediate impulse to make a Rice Krispies Treats shaped cheeseburger. She continued to experiment with Rice Krispies Treats recipes, techniques, and designs until Misterkrisp was born in October 2013.
Titles such as GoodHouseKeeping.com and Metro US and The Daily Mail UK have covered this generous, light hearted news story.
