Episode 151 - Marmite Baby Scan Ad Reviewed by Mars Wrigley, Paramount+ and TwentyFirstCenturyBrand
Marmite: either love it or hate it. The iconic British brand has stayed true to its reputation with consistent marketing takes. The latest one, chosen for us by Contagious, features baby scans and in-womb reactions to the product’s taste.
Is this cute and lightly humorous approach going to win any new customers? How does the self-aware, smart strategy of a polarising product come across in the execution? And what do our guests Adam Conley (Regional Insights Director, North America, at Mars Wrigley), Saira Rahman (Senior Manager, Brand & Title Marketing, at Paramount+), and Colin Chow (Global Managing Partner at TwentyFirstCenturyBrand) have to say about it?
Watch the latest episode to find out.
Episode 151 - Marmite Baby Scan Ad Reviewed by Mars Wrigley, Paramount+ and TwentyFirstCenturyBrand
Transcript is automatically generated, so not perfect, but you get the idea!
Dan Moseley 0:00
Welcome to another episode of Advertisers Watching Ads, the weekly show, where we invite brands to review other brands' ads.
This week, we have some brilliant guests with us, so I'll let you introduce yourselves.
Adam Conley 0:34
I'm Adam Conley. I lead North American human intelligence for Mars Wrigley.
Saira Rahman 0:39
Hi, my name is Saira Rahman, and I am on the brand side at Paramount+ leading Brand Marketing as well as Title Marketing and really excited to be here.
Colin Chow 0:50
Hi, I'm Colin Chow, Global Managing Partner at TwentyFirstCenturyBrand, and I lead our North American business.
Dan Moseley 0:56
Brilliant. Great to meet you all. So thanks as ever to our partners at Contagious for selecting this week's ads. The winning ad was actually probably the first brand I've worked on, which is Marmite. So I'm going to play that right now, and then we'll start talking after.
So on your hands, if you can vote out of five and, three, two, one... Saira, could you give us a bit of an overview of what you thought was going on?
Saira Rahman 2:56
What I thought was going on was they're introducing Marmite to new moms, new parents at the hospital. And the concept is around you... are either, born loving it or you grow into loving it, or you just hate it. From what I've read online, also, Marmite has done some studies around genetic expression, so it could be in your genes and they might be tapping into that. But at the end of the day, it's just babies, you know, youngest consumers. Do they love it or are they born into it? Do they grow into it? Do they hate it?
Colin Chow 3:26
It's a very smart and self-aware strategy for a polarizing product, and I think that's why it's been a successful campaign for quite some time. And I think the thing that I liked, too, it was inspired by relevant new data you know, the recent research about babies in the womb being able to taste what their mothers had eaten via the amniotic fluid, I thought that was smart because it gives a evergreen nature to the campaign where you can take whatever is happening in culture in the world and then bring that and refresh the campaign over and over again.
Adam Conley 3:56
Yeah, I mean, I was entertained and that's not often the case when you're talking about advertising. I thought the humour worked. I think they landed that really well to make this actually entertaining content that threaded Marmite into that storytelling. So you talk about humour, you talk about storytelling. I think they did both well to land a story that made sense and integrated the brand in based on that insight. So I'm just like, not always easy, but it felt natural, didn't feel forced, and that's a thumbs up from me.
Colin Chow 4:25
I did appreciate the humour in it. It was something I noted as a positive. It's a very gentle humour. It made me think of something, the difference between a polarizing product and a polarizing brand. And I think Marmite has a polarizing product, but the way that the brand shows up is actually not polarizing because of the humour. And I again, not being in the U.K., I'm not as aware, but it strikes me as a brand that actually is somewhat beloved, even if you don't like the product. And that's very different in North America, for example, probably in other parts of the world, where there's more polarizing brands like Tesla, for example, which isn't very polarizing as a product, but as a brand, incredibly polarizing. Disney, incredibly polarizing. Amazon... So it was interesting just thinking about the difference when you have a polarizing product versus brand in the way that humour can make the brand approachable and warm, even though the product itself can be one that creates very divided reactions.
Saira Rahman 5:20
I feel like if I was a North American audience, they could have done more with the humour. I feel like we have a habit of more directness. So that was a bit softer in the ad. I think that would have been a difference in what I'd do, you know, keeping the audience in mind.
Dan Moseley 5:33
Yeah, that's a really interesting thing to keep going on, actually. So I think we've spoken a bit about on some previous episodes where there's kind of brands that can be brave and they know what they stand for, and that gives them the space to jump in on things. Do you have any thoughts on how brands can cultivate that kind of relationship, whether it's within their marketing team, their partners, their agencies? How are you kind of giving people that space to spot an idea and then activate it?
Saira Rahman 5:58
Knowing yourself but also knowing what areas you don't want to go into. And some of it is like having trust in the agency, you know, having a really open brief versus a very closed brief. I think that really plays into it. It's hard cultivating that kind of trust. I feel nowadays with brand safety, you have so many guardrails, but you know, in this case, like they've really just... Even the babies, I'm sorry, but they looked a bit creepy to me. But I think that's the emotion they wanted to evoke, like is... Are you going to feel repulsed by it or are you going to look at the humour in it and accept it for what it is?
Colin Chow 6:28
The other thing just to throw in there as well, is a clear goal of what you're trying to accomplish through a campaign and ad. And I think if you kind of peel back the layer, it's not actually to convince any haters to cross over. They've just accepted that there's going to be people who just don't like the product, but it's really to provoke trial. It's curiosity. For someone like myself, American, not that familiar with the product itself, it made me curious. I want to know which side I stand on. Do I love it? Do I hate it?
Adam Conley 6:53
Really understanding your consumer and being authentic to the behavior of your consumer and realizing that you're not actually there for everyone at all times with this type of product, but also understanding human behavior. You're going to get people to go in and put themselves out there and say, "Am I going to be a lover or am I going to be a hater?" And, you know, having them lean into what you've already put out there and owned authentically is really compelling to that narrative. So I think that that's a nice thread that starts from that. Knowing your consumer and being authentic to their experience.
Saira Rahman 7:23
This ad campaign, this concept, the love it or hate it for Marmite has been going on for a long time, and they've done very different creative versions of it. And I almost wonder if like for somebody that's seen the concept run for so long, is this passive? Like this does even break through? I mean, to us, it's new. You know, we're not as used to the brand, but I do wonder, would this break through?
Adam Conley 7:45
We're in a world of purpose, purpose driven brands, purpose driven campaigns, particularly when you're in the industry, you start to even eyeroll at yourself. But consumers are certainly doing that, too, particularly if it feels forced. On this one, I felt like there was an opportunity to connect to a purpose linked to something in the delivery space. If it was even premature deliveries, something where you were contributing back to that space. I felt like there was an opportunity in an authentic way to make that connection, and then you can get that interesting balance of like you have a very comedic delivery, but you actually land in like a purpose that is very much the opposite. And I like that duality. So I was almost hopeful that it was going to land there. I think that that's where I was trying to bring it to myself. So I was a little disappointed that what felt like an opportunity in a world that's constantly trying to connect to purpose and doesn't always land it right. This one felt like it could have.
Colin Chow 8:41
I do applaud the brand for trying to include some diverse representation in terms of different types of couples in a way that didn't seem too forced, it felt very natural, and I really like that. But I did notice the health care practitioners were not as diverse and leaned into traditional stereotypes. A white male doctor, a female nurse. I think that was a missed opportunity as well to really bring forward and challenge some of our, our preconceptions of those societal roles, especially for a brand that's trying to be polarizing and provocative. It could have just been one more thing that added a layer of intrigue to that ad.
Dan Moseley 9:14
That's a really good point. If you had to sign this off in its current guise, would you sign off as it is? Not a sign off? Kind of, kind of... or maybe with a bit of change? And go now... Oh, okay. A lot of feedback and changes from this group. Well, thank you so much for joining us. We'll be back next week with more ads. And, yeah... Stay tuned.
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