The Sauce – 19/06/2024

Welcome to ‘The Sauce’ – your weekly dollop of marketing news.

By Ashleigh Morris, our Content and Comms Lead.

Welcome to ‘The Sauce’ – your dollop of marketing news from the past week.

This week we’re looking at Kellogg’s Special K’s latest collaboration, BHF’s Euros-themed fundraising campaign, and McDonald’s latest ad aimed at Gen Z.

Check out the Awesomesauce Marketing LinkedIn page to get The Sauce straight to your inbox every week.

Kudos to Kellogg’s on New Special K Ad

Have you seen the photo of influencer Molly Baz on the latest Kellogg’s Special K cereal box? Unbelievably, it’s the first time a pregnant woman has ever featured on a cereal box!

But there’s more to it than that… Influencer, food writer and cook Molly first featured on a Times Square billboard which showed her heavily pregnant and holding cookies over her breasts, featuring the words ‘Just Add Milk’. The billboard was an ad for breastfeeding company Swehl, and was banned after just three days for being ‘too racy’.

Baz commented publicly on her Instagram feed, claiming to be ‘extremely disappointed and yet not at all surprised’ and referring to the decision as ‘ironic’ in the context of the other billboards in Times Square.

After many complaints about the decision, and Seed Health giving up their ad space to run the original ad, it was eventually reinstated on billboards across NYC, Philadelphia and New Jersey.

Kellogg’s has now seized the chance to capitalise on the controversy and feature Baz on their aforementioned Special K box, which she shot at 39 weeks’ pregnant. The collaboration aims to celebrate pregnancy and give pregnant women more representation.

Kudos to Kellogg’s for spotting this opportunity to make a difference and also appeal to their target demographic which for Special K is predominantly female.

To mark the collaboration, Kellogg’s is also donating $25,000 to United Way. The company said it was ‘inspired by their efforts, especially in support of women and girls’.

We hope adland is taking note and we look forward to seeing further representation of pregnant women in marketing.

Kudos to Kellogg’s for spotting this opportunity to make a difference and also appeal to their target demographic.

BHF Makes an Impact With ‘Til I Died Campaign

The British Heart Foundation (BHF) has launched a new out-of-home campaign, ‘Til I Died, created by Saatchi & Saatchi.

It consists of 12 hand-painted murals, each featuring a young football fan who lost their life due to a heart condition.

Each mural features the words ‘Til I Died preceded by the person’s country, such as ‘ENGLAND ‘TIL I DIED’, followed by their name, age, hard-hitting stats around cardiac death, and a plea to donate to the BHF.

Talk about impactful.

The campaign launched last week, just ahead of EURO 2024 kicking off, and is based on the shocking stat that sudden cardiac death kills 12 people under 35 every week in the UK.

The moving campaign packs a punch and certainly made us stop and think. By linking to the Euros, the timely ads are sure to catch the eye of football fans across the nation.

We’re big fans of charities using impactful OOH campaigns to raise awareness of their cause. In case you missed it, last year we worked with Sarcoma UK for Sarcoma Awareness Month, creating the ‘Does Size Matter?’ campaign which featured in service station toilets nationally. You can check it out here.

Sarcoma is a cause close to our hearts at Awesomesauce – watch this space for this year’s Sarcoma Awareness Month campaign, coming soon in July.

The moving campaign packs a punch and certainly made us stop and think. We’re big fans of charities using impactful OOH campaigns to raise awareness of their cause.

Fancy a Maccy D’s?

Maccy D’s? Maccas? Maccies? McD’s? Donnies?

Chances are, you know which brand we’re referring to, such is the power of the McDonald’s brand and its infamous golden arches.

Its latest ad ‘Make It Yours’ is a 1-minute TVC aimed at 16 to 24-year-olds and celebrating the role McDonald’s plays in their lives. It was created by Leo Burnett UK and features groups of young people asking each other if they fancy a ‘Macca D’s’, a ‘Macca’s’ or a ‘McDizzles’ in realistic situations from finishing up at school, or avoiding conflict at home, to celebrating a team sports win, or just looking to hang out with friends.

It gets a big thumbs up from us – it’s an ad which knows who its target audience is and how to appeal to them on their level. It’s also done its research to find out how real customers are referring to the brand in order to talk to them in an authentic way.

It’s a brave move for any brand to refer to itself by nicknames, but McDonald’s knows the strength of its brand and knows its customer base. Now… time for a Maccy D’s.

————————————————————–

Contact us on hello@awesomesaucemarketing.co.uk to find out how we can support your business with a client-centred marketing approach – building trust and loyalty.

You can check out previous editions of ‘The Sauce’ here.

Brought to you by Awesomesauce Marketing – a full-service marketing agency serving UK and international clients.