Our In the Loop blog series shares some of our favourite marketing stories from the last month. October saw campaigns from Yorkshire Tea, Burger King, Aunt Bessie’s… and we’ve even started seeing some Christmas adverts creeping in.
…Does it get earlier every year or is it just us?
Burger King told their customers to go to McDonalds
In a recent social media post, Burger King encouraged their customers to buy from “sister brands”, like McDonalds, KFC and Pizza Hut ahead of the second UK lockdown. All in the name of supporting restaurants employing thousands of staff during these challenging times.
We know, we never thought we’d be saying this either. pic.twitter.com/cVRMSLSDq6
— Burger King (@BurgerKingUK) November 2, 2020
A kind gesture from a major brand, and a big switch-up from their usual, humorous digital marketing tactics that we’ve talked about in previous blogs.
Overall, the response to their message has been positive, with consumers appreciating a sense of togetherness more under the current circumstances. They have, however, received some backlash from those who believe it’s more important to support independent brands.
From our perspective, it’s a nice gesture but also a clear marketing ploy… The message (in BK branding) has been shared hundreds of thousands of times and is likely to be something that customers remember for a long time.
Pepsi’s Christmas advert ignores traditional cliches
Pepsi Beverages UK marketing director, Natalie Redford, talked recently about the company’s Christmas ad ignoring traditional cliches.
They spoke about the fact that Christmas is going to be different this year, so they wanted to encourage people to reimagine it for themselves.
As has often been the case with Pepsi MAX, their ad is based around music. They worked with UK rappers Kamakaze and TrueMendous to change up the brand’s previous rap advert and create a new remix for the festive season.
On the collaboration with these two UK artists, Natalie said, “Music has always been at the heart of Pepsi MAX and this latest collaboration continues our legacy by creating a platform for two of the UK’s rising talents.”
Halloween campaign treats
Halloween seems to be something that us brits celebrate more and more each year. With the usual Halloween party plans cancelled this year, we enjoyed how some of the big brands celebrated the spooky holiday.
Here are two of our favourites that both happen to feature glow in the dark paint:
A glow in the dark billboard showcasing Hobgoblin’s new ‘Best Sipped in the Dark’ IPA. Campaign by media communications agency Mannin Gottlieb OMD and Twitter’s funniest Halloween tweets brought to life by some of the UK’s most renowned illustrators.
Yorkshire Tea called themselves the Covid underdogs
The pandemic has been an unusual time for us all, but it isn’t all doom and gloom. Certainly not for Yorkshire tea anyway.
Did you know that since the UK was placed in the first lockdown way back in March, we’ve consumed an extra 111,972,000 cups of tea a day? That’s a lot of cuppas.
And that’s how Yorkshire Tea has managed to overcome a market decline – by cultivating personality through their digital, TV and print marketing and steering clear of ‘maudlin’ Covid-19 advertising, according to their marketing boss.
Their social media team has played a particularly important role in interacting with their audience and reacting to relevant and popular content. That includes everything from Brexit to Bake Off.
Take a look at Yorkshire Tea’s Twitter.
A 25ft Yorkshire pudding cake
In keeping with the Yorkshire theme, Aunt Bessie’s created a 25-tier Yorkshire pudding cake to celebrate 25 years and our mouths are watering…
The large ‘cake’ was made with 25% bigger puddings than the regular Aunt Bessie’s favourites (965 of them to be exact!) and stood at around nine feet high.
An interesting campaign that certainly grabbed our attention! Nice one Cirkle PR.
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