• Brand values specific to the chosen goal

Upfield is completely committed to sustainable food production. The focus of their sustainability pillar is to build a better, plant-based future, which they do by encouraging plant-based consumption,helping people live well and contributing to making a better planet.

• Brief

We set out to convince butter lovers to try Flora Plant B+tter instead of cow butter

• Objectives

Make people rethink their habitual butter-buying behaviour by challenging their perception of butter as ‘the norm’ and positioning Flora Plant B+tter as the better option (all the things you love about dairy butter but more sustainable).

People think that plant b+tter seems weird. Those 2 words together ‘plant’ and ‘butter’ seem incongruous.

But butter has always been made from plants, cows eat grass after all. When you think about it, isn't the really strange thing the fact that dairy butter is made from plants that have been through a cow’s digestive system?!

We decided to make plant butter seem less weird by pointing out just how weird dairy butter actually is. The creative idea reframed perceptions of butter by humorously surfacing its cow-y strangeness.

We knew we would raise a few hackles by challenging butter-lovers and confronting them with a contentious view of their beloved dairy-butter but we delivered our point of view in a tone of voice that was engaging and humorous.

Achieving that balance, we managed to land a campaign with sustainability at its heart that felt bold and purposeful but, crucially, non-preachy.

Research data demonstrated that the sustainability benefit isn’t enough to change behaviour. People were primarily concerned with taste and naturalness.

People also reacted negatively to the concept of plant butter. It sounds odd & butter lovers believed it would taste unpleasant. But we knew from testing that people loved the taste of Flora Plant once tried.

We needed to help people understand that Flora Plant was just like dairy butter, but without the weird cow bit.

Butter lovers aged 25-45 are open to alternatives. They might try meat or milk alternatives but don’t consider it necessary to switch from butter, or associate it with health or ethical concerns.

We challenged dairy as the norm by using its own truth against it. Squaring up to dairy butter placed us on its’ turf, cueing a set of expectations around taste and usage. Importantly we needed to get people thinking, without preaching.

We had a smaller spend than big dairy competitors for both production and media. We developed the campaign with a distinctive look and feel and unique point of view for the category.

We launched in January 2023 with an outdoor campaign, supported by digital. We then had a larger roll out from April – May with a final burst in October.

Total 2023/24 UK spend was £5.5m across high-impact OOH media, online video, social media and commuter/ roadside OOH. The success of the campaign in these channels opened investment for an AV campaign, launching in March 2024.

The campaign led to growth across the Flora brand portfolio for the first time in 10 years, re-acquiring millions of UK households and actively encouraging dairy butter buyers to trial Flora Plant B+tter.

Awareness and Consideration

Brand Awareness increased from 12 to 24%

Consideration increased from 32 to 40%

Purchase Behaviour

Sales volume +52% in the last 52 weeks

Sales value +39.5% in the last 52 weeks

Household penetration increased by 38%

Source: Kantar Brand Health Quarterly Tracking up to Q4 2023

And the parent brand has seen a significant uplift in sales & household penetration too (all Flora products are dairy and palm-oil free.)