Oliver Agency

Client: Unilever
Product: Marmite
Title: Pre-Hated Marmite
Media: Social Media
Country: UK
Date Of Campaign: 01.04.2022

Background: Marmite, you either love it or hate it. Our brief was to activate this brand truth on April Fools’ Day by creating a compelling experience that would engage and reward Marmite lovers and create fame for the brand. But with zero media spend and a production budget of under £5,000…

Idea: Introducing Pre-Hated Marmite. A product with a ridiculous USP. Marmite jars that have been opened, tried and discarded in disgust by haters – now available to buy at deliciously discounted prices for lovers. Available on eBay and in an actual real-life shop, but only on April 1st… This deliberately repulsive (and utterly ridiculous USP) tapped into the spirit of April Fools and the love/hate essence of Marmite. With every listing on eBay specifically written to get across the full range of loathing that haters had for Marmite. With headlines including: COMPLETELY AND UTTERLY REPULSIVE RATED R FOR REPELLANT THAT IS R.A.N.K While the accompanying write ups spoofed classic eBay speak with descriptions like: “Only a spread’s worth missing. Slight tear to rear label. Can be used with white and brown bread. Priced for quick sale, I want this gone.” This hate (and nonsense) continued into the real world. We partnered with a shop (second-hand of course) and dedicated it to selling Pre-Hated Marmite, with point-of-sale materials specially designed to get across the disgust. With one jar described as THE DEVIL’S JELLY and available for £6.66.

Results: Incredibly the more we hated Marmite the more our lovers loved it. By tradition April Fools' jokes must end by midday. But in just one morning, and with zero advertising spend, Pre-Hated Marmite had generated: - 17,000 organic engagements - over 1 million social impressions - 4.7 million PR impressions - press coverage in some of the UKs biggest newspapers like The Sun. Plus we’d completely sold out of Pre-Hated Marmite. One jar with a starting price of 1p and described as WHAT IS THIS ?????????!?!? sold for £16. That’s over 6 times the price of a brand-new jar!!! And we got a lot of love from Marmite lovers: “The dedication here is immense, love the eBay listings when you click the link” “@Marmite That’s totally brilliant” “You deffo won April Fools' this year”