1. Anna Ablett & Becky Haigh
‘Take A Chance On Marmite’
D&AD – Unilever
Anna Ablett – ablettanna@hotmail.com
Becky Haigh – beckyhaigh@hotmail.co.uk

2. D&AD Student Awards 2013
Open Brief
Brief set by: Unilever Exploit a brand’s power to make the world a
better place
Background
The Unilever Sustainable Living Plan
was set out in November 2010, in which
they committed to a ten-year journey
towards sustainable growth. Within the
Plan, Unilever takes responsibility not
only for direct operations, but for how
their suppliers, distributors and, most
crucially, their customers, use their
brands. Go to
www.unilever.com/sustainable-living/ to
read the plan in full.
Creative Challenge
Create a positive social or environmental
impact utilising the power of a Unilever
brand. Choose from one of the following:
• Lipton
• Marmite
• Persil
• Simple
Develop your idea with a focus on one of
three objectives:
• Improving health and wellbeing
• Reducing environmental impact
• Enhancing livelihoods
You can take any approach to this brief;
whether it be in the form of a product,
service, experience, event, community
group, communication campaign…
Unilever are looking for any vehicle or
channel that can be used to make a
positive difference.
Considerations
• Unilever are looking for something that
could feasibly be developed. You need
to show how the potential would be
realised, ie how it would be taken to
market through materials, production,
branding, advertising, marketing, etc.
• Consider forming an interdisciplinary
collaboration to create a rounded entry,
incorporating design, marketing,
graphics, advertising, craft and
business studies.
• Your idea needs to relate directly to
your chosen brand‟s values and
audiences.
Target Audience
Research your chosen brand‟s target
audience by visiting their website and
other brand touch points.
Deliverables
Main deliverable: Upload a presentation
film of your work (max. 2 mins) or up to
eight images showing your solution.
Optional supporting material for
presentation film: Up to four images;
interactive work (websites, widgets,
apps, HTML, etc.); physical material
(prototypes, mock-ups, etc.); supporting
information (up to 400 characters).
Optional supporting material for images:
Interactive work (websites, widgets,
apps, HTML, etc.); physical material
(prototypes, mock-ups, etc.); supporting
information (up to 400 characters).
Keep any text on images to a minimum;
supporting information can be entered
online.
For full format specs and guidance, see
„Formatting Your Entries‟ on the next
page. Work in formats other than those
outlined will not be accepted.

3. Unilever produces and distributes over 400 products
worldwide.
“People's lives are changing fast. As the way we all live
and work evolves, our needs and tastes change too. At
Unilever we aim to help people in their daily lives. So
we keep developing new products, improving tried and
tested brands and promoting better, more efficient
ways of working.”
“Focusing on performance and productivity, we
encourage our people to develop new ideas and put
fresh approaches into practice. Hand in hand with this
is a strong sense of responsibility to the communities
we serve.”
Unilever prides itself on its positive impact on society
and is continually striving to improve the impact their
brand s have on society and the environment. Their
Sustainability Plan is also a way for them to make sure
their products have a positive impact on the world and
give back to the community.
They also have regular Sustainability Challenges to get
consumers involved in different lifestyle changes e.g.
Change their bathroom habits, make the most of your
freezers, save money on household bills.
The Unilever Foundation was set up to improve
hygiene, sanitation, access to clean drinking water,
basic nutrition and enhancing self-esteem of

4. Background Research Into Unilever
Brands
The question is simple: are you a lover or a hater? Ever since Marmite yeast extract
was first introduced to the UK in 1902, it has caused a great divide in Britain.
Limited edition Guinness Marmite was launched in 2007, followed by Marmite
champagne, especially for Valentine‟s Day in 2008 and 2009 saw a cricket-themed
Marsden‟s Marmite. Extra strength Marmite XO was developed in 2010 and to
celebrate the Queen‟s Diamond Jubilee in June 2012, Marmite decided to pay a fitting
tribute by launching another limited edition, aptly named „Ma‟amite‟.
As a brand, Marmite aren’t afraid to have a little fun, as seen through many of
their advertising campaigns. Some of their adverts refer to pop culture or
political statements, showing they are a brand who likes to relate to ‘the
people’. They have a strong social media presence, with their main website also
being their Facebook page.
Persil is a UK laundry detergent launched in 1909. They work hard to be at
the forefront of the laundry market, to make washing easier and more
convenient for households.
Their current tagline is „Dirt is Good‟, with the message that children should
be allowed to be messy, as there‟s always a Persil product that can remove
the stains.
“With a product to suit every consumer, Persil allows you to continue
exploring and living life to the full, no matter how dirty you get in the
process. Today, you can still trust Persil to provide unbeatable cleaning that
gets the washing clean first time, every time.”
Persil is a light-hearted brand - they often refer to the stains children
create and the fact mum’s have to get rid of them. Their website
features ‘The Stain Gang’ – a set of cartoons that represent common
clothing stains. It also features activities for kids and laundry tips.

5. Lipton is a brands of tea-based drinks including leaf tea,
infusions, ready-to-drink tea and other healthy, refreshing
alternatives to soft drinks. They are best known for their Lipton‟s
Iced Tea.
It is available in over 110 countries and is particularly popular in
Europe, North America, the Middle East and parts of Asia.
“Each pyramid bag provides perfect conditions for fresh, juicy
flavours to combine with other delicious ingredients, ensuring
every cup is brimming with tantalising taste including luscious
raspberries, succulent strawberries, aromatic herbs and natural
spices from around the world.”
Lipton focuses on the natural and refreshing quality of their
drinks, which is reflected throughout their website.
Background Research Into Unilever
Brands
Simple is a brand of skincare products that focus on
vitamin goodness and ingredients that are kind to your
skin. Their products range from the „Spotless Skin‟ range
for teenagers to the Regeneration Range for the older
consumer.
“Our philosophy is simple – no perfume, no colour and no
harsh chemicals in any of our products, as these are the
most common causes of skin irritation.”
Simple, as a brand, likes to focus on how they can
make the public look good, and feel good in
themselves. They use simple designs and branding,
to match their name. They like to focus on what they
can give back to their consumers – be it simply
feeling good about themselves or VIP tickets to

6. Unilever and their Sustainability Plan
Unilever‟s sustainability plan began in 2010,
their aim being to take responsibility for their
operations, suppliers, distributors, and how the
consumers use their brands. Around 60 targets
make up the plan, which all fit into these
categories on the left.
After looking at this, we began to think about
which of the brands we were given could fit
into the categories of the Sustainability Plan.
Health & Hygiene
• Simple – keeping clean using their products
• Lipton – tea is known for it‟s calming effects, particularly in
the UK – if there‟s a stressful situation people put the kettle on.
This could become part of the „well-being‟ section.
• Marmite – well-being – tackle a social issue – such as racism
– with the love it or hate it campaign – „we love marmite but
hate racism
• Simple – against a social issue with „it‟s simple‟
Improving Nutrition
• Marmite – there are a lot of nutritional benefits that people are
unaware of
• Lipton – the healthy benefits if a cup of tea
Greenhouse Gases
• Persil – doing more eco-friendly washes – but they already
have this covered with their „wash at 30‟ campaign
• Marmite- a humorous campaign about how if greenhouse
gases smelt like Marmite you would be doing something about
it
Water
• Simple & Persil – using their products alongside
lower water amounts
Waste
• Persil – recycling clothes scheme – donate the
clothes you don‟t want anymore
• Marmite – don‟t waste food – if you hate marmite
don‟t put it on your food, if you love it – cover your
food in it and eat it all up!
Sustainable Sourcing
• Lipton – where there tea comes from and how it
keeps their economy going
Better Livelihoods
• Marmite – could show farm animals rolling around
in marmite – „they love marmite, and we love to
support local farmers‟

7. Product and Audience Research
Marmite Nutrition
As well as yeast extract, marmite contains vegetable extract, salt, niacin, thiamin, spice extracts, folic acid, riboflavin, celery extract and
vitamin B12. It contains 9 calories in a 4-g serving. Marmite is very low in sugar, low in calories, contains no saturated fat and is completely
vegetarian. To complement marmite spread, the Marmite company also produces marmite cereal bars, bread sticks, rice cakes and cheddar
bites.
Health Benefits
Brewer's yeast (the base ingredient of Marmite) is a good source of B complex vitamins; it also contains pantothenic acid (B5), pyridoxine
(B6), niacin (B3), riboflavin (B2), thiamine (B1), folic acid (B9) and biotin (B7). These vitamins have a number of health benefits, including
helping to break down carbohydrates, proteins and fats to provide your body with energy. They also help to maintain a healthy nervous
system, support your digestive muscles and keep your eyes, hair skin, mouth and liver in good health.
Marmite and Vegetarians
Vegetarians often miss out on key B12 vitamins – something Marmite is full of and it is a veggie-friendly product.
Marmite and Children
Marmite is high in Vitamin B, which is a vitamin children who don’t eat wholegrain foods often miss out on. By having Marmite every now and
again it means children will get a vitamin boost – helping to improve their growth and development.
Marmite and Pregnant Women
Marmite is high in folic acid, which is something pregnant women are advised to get a lot of, as it helps increase chances of conception and
helps with the development of the baby’s spine in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. Rather than taking folic acid tablets, women could have a
slice of Marmite on toast to keep their folic acid levels up – much more fun than taking supplements! Marmite has also been known to help
cure morning sickness.
Marmite and the Elderly
The strong taste of Marmite has been proven to be popular with elderly people who have lost their sense of taste – Marmite being one of the
only things their taste buds can pick up on!

8. Past Advertising Campaigns
The most famous of the Marmite campaigns is probably
the ones that follow the slogan of „Love It or Hate It‟
.Marmite is a spread that divides the nation – some
people absolutely love it, some people think it‟s the worst
taste in the world. The majority of the Marmite adverts
run with this theme, and it has lead the way for some
very unusual and creative interpretations.
The advert on the left features the children‟s cartoon
character Horrid Henry. By using this character is implies
that Marmite is also „horrid‟. The character of „Perfect
Pete‟ has also been used to stick with the „love it or hate it‟
theme, as Peter thinks Marmite is perfect, Henry thinks
it‟s horrid, but does use it to deface his mum‟s magazines,
so it comes in handy.
The advert on the right is a bit more simplistic, it uses a
marmite-filled sandwich to either create a smiley or sad
face, but effectively gets the message across and uses
the bright yellow colour of the Marmite brand.

9. Past Advertising Campaigns
Running with the „love it or hate it‟ theme, these adverts look at what else could apply to
this – the above examples are France, Mr Bean, 4x4s and men with hairy chests. All are
drawn with marmite, making for some very eye-catching print adverts. However, they
could be seen as taking away marmite‟s unique selling point – people love it or hate it –
and replacing it with „look at what else we can disagree over‟.

10. Past Advertising Campaigns
The print campaign on the left is for
marmite-flavoured crisps. It uses a
graphic style to create eye-catching
posters that are also very clever.
Depending on which way you view
them, the person in the image is
either happily munching on a bag of
Marmite crisps, or being force-fed
them. The use of text on the arm
forces viewers to turn the page
around to see the other perspective.
2007 saw Paddington Bear, a bear well-known
for his love of marmalade sandwiches, replacing
them with Marmite, and he loved it. The
characters around him, however, didn‟t. A
controversial move for Marmite as many people
felt Paddington would never change his
sandwich filling – but it got people talking.
Marmite adverts often use popular culture
figures – such as Horrid Henry, Mr Bean and
Paddington.
This sonogram advert shows a
baby who‟s mother has clearly just
eaten marmite, and the baby hates
it! A good way to imply the health
benefits of Marmite – its full of folic
acid which is great for pregnant
women.

11. Television Advertising Campaigns
My Mate Marmite/I Hate Marmite - 1997
This campaign uses a re-vamped version of the retro campaign „My Mate Marmite‟ but has 2 versions of the
advert – one is „My Mate‟ the other is „I Hate‟.
Both adverts use comical situations to show how the nation either adores or detests Marmite. For example, an old
man strokes his marmite on toast before eating it, and a man is seen sticking voodoo pins into a toy marmite jar.
The adverts show that Marmite is a brand that aren‟t afraid to make fun of themselves with the „I hate‟ scenario.

12. Television Advertising Campaigns
„The Blob‟ - 2007
This advert was a parody of the 1958 movie „The Blob‟, and again
shows the nation divided into loving or hating. Some people choose to
run, screaming, from the marmite blob, other run towards it with their
lunches in hand.
Again, another advert that shows Marmite aren‟t afraid to have a little
fun and make fun of their own product.
Sadly, this advert was banned as parents complained their young
children found the big brown blob too scary.

13. Political Party Advertising
Campaigns
This spoof political campaign was Marmite‟s advertising
campaign for 2010. Both sides of Love and Hate were
covered in the Love Party and the Hate Party. Both parties
had political style posters, campaign packs and party
political broadcasts.
Consumers could vote on which party was to win – and as
to whether UK was a country that overall loved or hated
Marmite.
This campaign strategy was clever and got the public
actively involved in both campaigning for their chosen party
and the brand of Marmite.

14. Marmite: Branding
From the brand guidelines sent to us by D&AD, we can see that
Marmite has become established as a healthy, nutritious spread in
the UK. Marmite is a spread that „defies convention‟, which could
apply to their advertising campaigns also.
„People love the brand even if they hate the product‟ – people can
become involved in the campaigns despite the fact they might never
actually eat marmite itself.
„The antidote to bland‟ – Marmite likes to create fun campaigns that
are different to the norm.
The above logo shows the colours that should be
used for branding with Marmite. When creating our
campaign, we will use these colours wherever
possible to stick with a clear brand theme. We
would also use the font below, as it‟s bold and
strong, and relates to the brand.
The tone of voice for marmite is conversational – it
can be quite silly and fun.

15. Combining Marmite with Unilever
To create a successful campaign we knew that we would have to combine the brand
values of both Marmite itself and Unilever as a whole.
The Marmite brand feel would provide humour and a quirky, bold advertising
campaign. The Unilever aspect would include something that contributed towards
their Sustainability Plan – something that showed Marmite in a positive light and
helped changed the environment or society in some way.
Our initial feel towards this was that we wanted to either highlight the nutritional
values of Marmite, or use the Love and Hate theme to tackle a social issue e.g. Love
Marmite, Hate Racism.

16. Initial Ideas
Against racism – person blacked up with marmite
Dating profile for marmite – trying to find love from the people who hate it – showing its favorable qualities such as high
in Vitamin B and folic acid.
People who have never taken a chance to eat marmite – gambling theme
Halloween theme – Trick or treat? Depending on weather the person loves or hate marmite.
Take a chance on marmite – for the people who have never tried it – using songs (particularly „Take A Chance on Me‟
and other memorable songs by Abba) to get people involved
Ideas to go alongside the Abba theme –
• Competition online – make your own songs and post them on YouTube
• Taster sachet – can take the chance without having to commit to buying a large jar
• Taster booth – in supermarkets or unexpected locations – a stall designed for people to try marmite
• Bottom of jar competition – if you make it t the bottom of the marmite jar there‟s a surprise waiting for you
• Timeline of eating marmite from a young age to an old age – show how it benefits all ages

17. Development

18. Development

19. Development
This was an idea to expand the campaign to other iconic songs or
themes events, such as Christmas, valentines day, Halloween.

20. Storyboard
Image: A marmite jar will be in the centre of the screen at eye level camera angle against a large yellow
background matching the Marmite yellow. It will rotate around 3 times within 30 seconds. Throughout the
video cardboard signs will come onto the screen saying “Take a chance” (title of the campaign), “High in
vitamin B”, “Brill!”, “Full of folic acid”, “Great” (to promote the healthy aspects of marmite) and
“marmite.co.uk” (to give further information to the views with the website link).
Sounds: Music will play over this sequence of the Abba song „Take a chance on me‟ with an edited
version that instead of singing „Me‟ a monotone masculine voice says „Marmite‟.
Style: The look and feel of the advert is meant to be home-made, amateur style. (For instead the
cardboard signs will be hand written, the jar may not turn smoothly, the editing of the song with not sounds
like it is a recorded song, it will be an inexpert edited version of the song.

21. Shooting the advert
We wanted the advert to have quite a raw, home-made
look to it, which was great for us as this would be simplistic
and quick to both create and film. In our minds we had both
imagined the marmite to be slowly spinning on a turntable –
almost like a prize on a game show. We decided that a
yellow background would be the most striking and would
associate with the Marmite brand. When it came to the
signs, again we decided that we wanted it to look as
though someone was deliberately putting these signs into
the advert themselves, so it didn‟t matter if the edge of a
hand is visible in the shot. The signs would be made from
cardboard and be written In marker pan to create the
„home made advert‟ look.
Plan
• Date: Monday
– Need to buy:
– Martmite
• Yellow Background
• Need to create:
– Spinning device
– Signs
• To collect and set up on day:
– Camera
– Lighting
– Tripod
– Laptop
– USB pen

22. Final Advert

23. Final Posters

24. Strategy
Take A Chance On Marmite strategy
Introduction-
The Love/Hate campaign is well known for Marmite, however (estimated 30%) of people have never tried it because
they don‟t want to take the chance of loving or hating it. We created the campaign “Take a chance on Marmite” when
thinking of a corresponding song. We instantly thought of Abba – Take a chance on me.
What -
We realised Marmite fits brilliantly with the tunes of ABBA – along with many other great songs. So why not celebrate a
joy or hatred of marmite by singing about it!
• Initial advert – to be posted on YouTube and be shown on TV
• Posters – shown in town centres, in and around supermarkets
• Competition – getting people involved by posting their own marmite music videos online – to show if they love or
hate it after taking the chance! The video MUST include a clip of them tasting marmite. Winner could get a year of
free Marmite.
• Taster sachets – „single portion‟ pots already exist – bringing free single portion sachets onto supermarket shelves
will give people the option to try marmite without committing to buying a large pot.
• Taster stalls – could be set up in supermarkets with bite size toast/crumpet pieces coated in marmite so people
can take the chance. Could also be set up in unexpected places or busy public areas
• Guerilla/ Advertising stunt - car/van with giant marmite jar on the roof travelling around cities providing taster stalls
– like the red bull cars
Why –
Marmite has some great nutritional values that people may not be aware of – this campaign is to raise awareness of
that! It could be extended to other spreads, sauces and condiments as part of a larger healthy eating campaign.
We want to show that if you love marmite – great! Eat in moderation and enjoy the benefits.
If you hate marmite – fair enough! But maybe eat a nibble of it every now and again to boost your vitamin B and folic
acid levels.
Who –
20 – 45 year olds, as they are more likely to take the time to pick up a taster sachet and give marmite a try. However
we would hope marmite fans and enemies of any age would enjoy the musical advert and join in the fun.
The campaign is aimed at the large majority of people that haven‟t tried marmite, increasing the audience of

25. Strategy
Tactics in campaign –
• Humour
• Popular well known song
• „Homemade‟ „amateur‟ „raw‟ feel to the adverts
• Memorable advert
• Audience participation at taster booths & online competition
• Advertising stunt to get people talking about the campaign
• Highlighting the healthy aspect of marmite to appeal to audience‟s rational side
• Possible expansions of campaign into more Abba songs
• Possible expansions of campaign into themed songs such as Christmas, or valentine‟s day
• Possible expansions of campaign into more well know popular songs (links in with
competition)
• Keeping to the brand of marmite
• Creating a twist of the well-known Love/Hate campaign and targeting to all audience that
haven‟t tried the product
• Creating a fun, humour campaign for marmite makes the brand more appealing
Marmite has some great nutritional values that people may not be aware of! The campaign
could be extended to other spreads, sauces and condiments as part of a larger healthy eating
campaign.

26. Presentation video

27. • This folder is accompanied with a USB
pen containing:
– Behind the Scenes video
– Different TV adverts
– Presentation Video
– Sketchbook Presentation
– Steategy