Unilever – The Vegetarian Butcher

“Vegetarian Ohne-Hick-Hack Bällchen”, “Vegetarische Lass-die-Sau-Raus-Würstchen” or “Veganes 1001 Geschnetzeltes”: the cult brand The Vegetarian Butcher set itself the goal of conquering the German market. For the launch in 2020, we started a nationwide large-scale out-of-home campaign for the food company Unilever in the summer months of June and July.

THE MEDIA STRATEGY

To raise awareness of The Vegetarian Butcher, the vegetarian/vegan motifs played with a charming reference to their meaty “role models”. The campaign period was the summer months of June and July 2020, focusing on the top 15 territories. In addition, the campaign area was extended to include national advertising.

The Playout

Billboards at the point-of-sale (POS) as well as in trendy areas ensured a high reach in the public space. This was further increased with the use of city light posters and general locations. In addition to the POS billboards, shopping centres in the target areas were covered by mall video and mall TV. In order to reach the mobile target groups and especially commuters, info screens were used at railway stations.

The digital screens of the campaign were mostly played out programmatically and thus effectively played out the campaign at the times relevant to the campaign objectives.

Due to the strong presence in public spaces and near the markets where the products could be bought, as well as at important public transport points, the campaign was able to achieve a good reach in the set target group. Freecards with appropriate slogans for the products were created for additional efficient addressing of the target group.

THE RESULTS

The desired “conquest of the German market” succeeded: the unaided and industry-aided awareness of The Vegetarian Butcher almost doubled. Supported brand awareness was increased by 14 per cent compared to the zero wave. The willingness and likelihood that a respondent would buy a vegetarian meat substitute product from The Vegetarian Butcher was 13 percent higher after the campaign than before.

The campaign shows that out-of-home is ideally suited for a market launch and to achieve high coverage quickly and in a targeted manner.