ANOTHER AWARD IN THE BAG FOR VSB

By STEVE WILKES, JOINT HEAD OF CREATIVE
17/09/2020

Earlier this year, we were well-chuffed to win Best Integrated Campaign at The Drum Roses for our work on the Greggs Vegan Steak Bake launch (see this previous blog for the full story). This week, we’re cracking the cava again because we’ve bagged a coveted Marketing Week Masters award for the same campaign.

The Marketing Week Masters celebrates and rewards true mastery in marketing by recognising work that combines creativity and innovation with effectiveness, and sets new standards for the industry. So as you can imagine, we were up against some pretty hefty hitters.

Taking its cues from the ‘drop culture’ of fashion and lifestyle brands, the campaign hyped the Vegan Steak Bake as this season’s must-have product. The year before, Greggs set the world on fire with the launch of its legendary Vegan Sausage Roll. For Veganuary 2020, the weight of expectation was firmly on our shoulders.

As we no longer had the element of surprise in our favour, the follow-up product needed a different strategy. We reimagined the product launch playbook, using the scarcity effect and creating FOMO (fear of missing out) to build anticipation well in advance of the launch.

To cut a long story short, it worked. Figures showed the campaign secured 1,110 pieces of high-value media coverage, and there were 4 million video views across social media platforms, sparking top 10 Twitter hashtags for 48 hours. And during launch day, it gave Greggs a 41% share of voice on social media channels.