In 2021, our first attempt to launch block noodles (instant noodles in a block, not a pot) was a failure for one simple reason. The product tasted rubbish.  

We’d alienated Pot Noodle fans who’d given us a shot, wasted sampling budgets and promo on driving trial.

One year and some NPD later, we had a delicious product – with a tiny communications budget to make it a success. And we had to appeal to the exact same people we’d alienated some months previously.  

We celebrated the fact that our product was ‘No longer crap’ in a digital only campaign targeted at our category buyers and Pot Noodle afficionados. 

Flavourology™: Pot Noodle’s genius business strategy of adding flavour to food.  

Our social soap opera campaign kicked off with a leaked email from the CEO about the previous failed launch, used the real and blistering customer reviews, useless research graphs and pen portraits, motivational HR posters and not to mention job ad for a new Head of Flavour role which resulted in hilarious User Generated Content.

We even reached out to other brands to discuss how they approached their biggest failures too.  

The whole campaign was designed to look like something from a very terrible corporate PowerPoint presentation.

And we moved the tone of voice on from dad jokes and puns to satirical, self-depreciating and irreverent.  

When defining our strategy we had a number of significant constraints.

The failure of and significant investment in the 2021 product gave us legacy challenges; 

- We couldn’t re-brand – this would not be cost-effective and we did not have the budget.

- We couldn’t rely on paid investment to buy reach – our A&P budget was slim, reflecting the ‘last chance’ nature of our initiative.

- We could not change our audience – to avoid delisting we needed to appeal to the same groups we’d already alienated.

So we did the only thing we could – own our mistake. Embrace it. Completely revel in it actually. With a ‘genius’ marketing strategy of adding flavour to food. And proudly celebrating the fact that our product was ‘No longer crap’ in a social only campaign targeted at our category buyers and Pot Noodle afficionados. 

Flavourology™: Pot Noodle’s genius business strategy of adding flavour to food.  

Our social soap opera campaign kicked off with a leaked email from the CEO about the previous failed launch, used the real and blistering customer reviews, useless research graphs and pen portraits, motivational HR posters and not to mention a job ad for a new Head of Flavour role which resulted in hilarious User Generated Content.

We even reached out to other brands to discuss how they approached their biggest failures too.  

The whole campaign was designed to look like something from very terrible corporate PowerPoint presentation.

And we moved the tone of voice on from dad jokes and puns to satirical, self-depreciating and irreverent.  

It really, really resonated with fans and noodle lovers.  

In 8 weeks, we had 256k engagement.  

We had an organic reach of 1.5M and organic ER of 22.7%. 

We flipped social sentiment into a positive, even seeing our rejectors return in their droves.

Sales uplifted by 20% in store.  

And we had a 38% increase of market share.