Marmite does it again with lovers vs. haters election
on 29th March 2010
It’s no secret that we’re fans of Marmite here at Reputation Online. Just a few months ago we reported on its Marmarati campaign, created to use evangelists of the brand to launch a new extra strong version of the yeast-based spread via social media.
The company’s latest campaign shows similar levels of real understanding of how social media works – by allowing both positive and negative sentiment to be attached to the brand. In true ‘all publicity is good publicity’ style, Marmite is hosting its very own election to determine whether the UK is a nation of Marmite lovers or haters. Accordingly, the idea is to create mini communities around The Love Party and The Hate Party, both of which will be campaigning for votes.
Incorporating elements of the Marmarati campaign (in which superfans were elected to a secret society by taking an oath), each party has its own Marmite-related manifesto and a series of pledges to be implemented if they’re elected into ‘power’. Also in the same vein as Lord Fotherington-Smythe – the character set up to front the Marmarati campaign – the Love Party will be led by Faye Freely and the Hate Party by Steve Heaving.
The parties will begin campaigning on 2 April when their party political broadcasts will be launched on TV and online, as well as in various weekly magazines. Creative and planning agency, DDB UK, has also built an election website – The Marmite News Network – which is already being updated with video content and links to other social media presences. The site will run rolling news coverage of the election campaign, broadcasting party announcements and events.
It’s good to see Marmite learn from the Marmarati campaign, and realise that a similar concept would work well on a larger scale – with the support of big budget ad spots.
Once again, senior management buy-in is key here, and we’re struggling to think of many other brands that would actively court – and invest – in creating negative conversation around its own product. But Marmite knows it’s strength: everyone has an opinon about the spread. Harnessing that power as a conversation starter shows that it’s willing to give up control of what’s said about the brand – and after all, getting people talking is half the battle.
We’d have liked to have seen something more complex from the social media side – other than just building a Facebook page and Twitter feed for each side – but as the real activity hasn’t kicked off yet, we’ll have to wait and see.