We owned Veganuary with the Greggs Vegan Steak Bake launch, by out-thinking the competition and continuing to surprise the nation.
Ambition
Recapture the nation’s attention for the launch of the next vegan creation – the Vegan Steak Bake – owning the conversation as they had in 2019.
Ambition
For 2020 we realised that the new product alone wasn’t going to cut it – a whole nation was waiting to see what Greggs was going to do.
Our strategy capitalised on the heightened expectation as we tapped into the ‘drop culture’ of iconic lifestyle brands to build excitement. We reimagined the product-launch playbook, utilised the scarcity-effect, and hyped the Vegan Steak Bake as ‘this season’s must-have’ item.
SOLUTION
It started with a tease; as all good drops do, acknowledging that all eyes were on Greggs again and cued up to the nation that something big was about to happen.
A flagship shop in the Newcastle heartland was wrapped in Greggs X Vegan graphics and used to announce an exclusive preview event. Each day counted down to the in-store event on January 1st – the day before ‘The Drop’. Guests literally queued around the block to catch a glimpse of the new product and be amongst the first to try the new Vegan Steak Bake.
The Vegan Steak Bake launched to the rest of the nation the following day. We marked this momentous occasion with a dramatic launch video on Greggs’ social channels. And to secure massive nationwide coverage on the day of the launch, we delivered the Vegan Steak Bake in stylised trainer boxes to key media contacts.
RESULTS
Greggs owned Veganuary. Again. They did this with less than 1% of the total Veganuary media spend from competitors, and in a crowded category, with over 650 new veganuary products launching that month. [Source: Nielsen AdDynamix, Jan 2020].
On launch day, the Greggs Vegan Steak bake was featured on Good Morning Britain, Lorraine and a host of other daytime TV and radio shows, as well as every national newspaper – everyone wanted to get their hands on it.
Greggs ended the month with all-time high brand metrics against competitors.
This campaign won the Gold award for Best Integrated Campaign at The Drum Roses in May 2020.
