From a rise in vegan sausage rolls and 147,000 tins of beans sold in 24 hours, to wordless Dairy Milk bars and a roundup in music, we’re looking back at our top five marketing campaigns of 2019.
Greggs – Vegan sausage roll
Greggs hit the headlines back in January with the launch of its vegan sausage roll. Looking to own Veganuary, Greggs unveiled its latest product – the vegan sausage roll – through an Apple parody product launch.
The launch campaign was so successful that the vegan sausage roll sold out across Greggs stores nationally. In addition, it quickly become Greggs’ fastest selling new product in the last five years.
Tesco – Celebrating 100 Years
To celebrate its 100th year anniversary Tesco launched a nostalgic campaign which featured cultural references from the last century. As well as including Mr Blobby, Wolf from Gladiators, 70s roller girls and Mr Motivator, the campaign rolled back the prices of a number of branded products.
Debuting in January, a time when sales are generally lower in the food market, the campaign saw a surge in sales for items featured in the campaign. In just 24 hours the supermarket sold 147,000 tins of beans, as well as seeing a 35% rise in fish finger sales.
Gillette – The Best Men Can Be
Earlier this year Gillette debuted its “We Believe” film which looked to tackle toxic masculinity in media, marketing and society. The campaign quickly went viral receiving mixed messages and even a threatening call from a shareholder. However, the brand remained undaunted and continued with the campaign.
In just one week the campaign generated 110 million video views and 18 billion media impressions. Later this year, Gillette reported that the brand’s sentiment was mostly positive sitting at 59%. Reported figures also showed that 84% of women and 76% men aged under 35 would be more likely to purchase Gillette products.
Cadbury and Age UK – Donate your Words
In September, Cadbury joined forces with Age UK in a bid to fight loneliness among older generations. The campaign ‘Donate your Words’ saw Cadbury remove the words from its Dairy Milk bars. Plus, 30p from each bar sold was donated to Age UK.
The campaign came on the back of research, which revealed that an average of 225,000 older people can often go a whole week without speaking to anyone. Alongside the donation, Cadbury also encouraged people to donate their words and speak to older people in their communities.
Spotify – A Decade Wrapped
This month Spotify returned with its award winning ‘Wrapped’ campaign. The campaign features a series of hilarious banners to unveil listener data, trends and playlists from over the last decade.
A Decade Wrapped shows that Rebecca Black’s ‘Friday’ still remains a popular play on Fridays, plus Mariah Carey’s ‘All I Want For Christmas Is You’ gets played all year round on the streaming app…391,255 plays in June to be precise.
A second part of the campaign allows users to celebrate their most played songs of the decade, and the result saw the internet flooded with hilarious memes and subtle digs at Apple Music users.
Contact us
Looking for help with your own marketing campaign? Get in touch with us today.