Partner Content: 'Love it or Hate it?' Where genetics meet brand DNA

Craft (Film Craft)

Silver Lion: Marmite Gene Project ‘Gene Project 90’

Agency: adam&eveDDB, London

Client: Unilever

 

Sticky brown sludge on your toast anyone? No. Then you're a Marmite hater. Yes, it’s yeasty brown goodness? Then you're probably both a Brit and genetically inclined to love Marmite. At least that's what UK creative agency adam&eveDDB and global FMCG giant Unilever would have you believe, with their campaign mixing science, silliness, family breakdown and a distinctive spread.

 

This is a campaign that started with a piece of genuine scientific research (no, really). It found that Marmite-loving adults have 15 genetic markers that distinguish them from 'haters'.

 

adam&eveDDB and Unilever leapt at the opportunity, launching a £3m ($4m) multi-platform ‘Marmite Gene Project’ campaign, creating gene testing kits that consumers could get their hands on and a TasteFace app (created by AnalogFolk) that could tell a lover or a hater just by photographing their face.

 

But the creative highlight of the campaign is a 90-second TV commercial that perfectly juggles domestic dysfunction, irrelevance and silliness. One of the film’s scenes features a pregnant mom opening a letter. "Please find enclosed the results of your family's first Marmite gene tests," she reads out, as her husband sits cringing. "What does it say?" he asks. "You're a Marmite hater," she says, with disgust.

 

Another scene shows a boy apparently about to come out as gay to his dad. "I'm a Marmite lover," he says as his dad looks on disapprovingly. The on-screen action soon descends into chaos, with the families arguing, or not in a minority of instances. 

 

But for all its tantrums, the ad never comes over as insensitive or even jarring. Just beautifully pitched drama, comedy and perfect on-brand messaging.

 

The campaign won two Silvers and one Bronze Cannes Craft (Film Craft) Lion, for script, casting and direction respectively.

 

Be as mighty as Marmite and partner with UK creatives.

 

 

 

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