In 2020, food poverty finally made the political agenda.

But the UK government failed to rectify the situation. In fact, they made it worse, removing free school meal holiday vouchers. For some children, their only proper meal.

Opposition was to come from an unlikely form: England footballer Marcus Rashford, once a beneficiary of the school meal scheme himself.

Rashford launched a Task Force – a coalition of charities and businesses, including Aldi – to call on the Government to implement change.

Many businesses offered support and initiatives, but no-one had really stood out.

Aldi proposed to make an impact in two ways.

The first was incredibly generous but pretty simple: They pledged 10 million meals to be distributed to those who needed them most through their partnership with Neighbourly over the course of 2021.

The second would be more difficult: getting people to understand the impact of hunger.

Aldi wanted the UK public to realise what it meant to live with hunger.

For the sufferer, hunger is a feeling; sometimes you see its effects, but you can’t touch it.

Our creative idea to personify it made it easier to realise, to understand and less scary.

Hence the story of a ‘Hunger’ who lived alongside a young boy.

But ‘Hunger’ was definitely not an imaginary friend; it was annoying, ever present and nagging, never leaving the boy alone.

Animated by children’s illustrator Lisa Stickley and award-winning poet Giles Andreae, Aldi exposed the stark realities of food poverty.

As the authentic voice in the fight against childhood hunger, Aldi was keen to leverage their relationship with Rashford to drive awareness of the campaign. This ambition came to life quite literally, when Marcus agreed to narrate the poem: “Reading the script…I felt like I was talking about myself 10 years ago.”

To inspire people to act, we needed new, hard-hitting stats to prove the problem was even more pervasive than people might imagine.

Understanding that general research wasn’t appropriate for such a nuanced issue, we asked Neighbourly to commission research with local charities who tackle the crisis daily.

With these stats giving ‘new evidence’ of the problem, we positioned Aldi’s 10million meal pledge as a solution, using the highly shareable animation to call on consumers to drive awareness and donate to the cause.

On top of the hero animation created for press and edits for social channels, we filmed a behind-the-scenes video that gave further insight into the inspiration behind ‘Hunger.’ All these assets were sold into media across sectors, creating a cohesive, impactful story.

Additionally, we aimed to execute a strategic 100% organic influencer programme, tapping into talent and influencers known to be passionate about this cause.

To inspire people to act, we needed new, hard-hitting stats to prove the problem was even more pervasive than people might imagine. Understanding that general research wasn’t appropriate for such a nuanced issue, we asked Neighbourly to commission research with local charities who tackle the crisis daily.

With these stats giving ‘new evidence’ of the problem, we positioned Aldi’s 10million meal pledge as a solution, using the highly shareable animation to call on consumers to drive awareness and donate to the cause.

On top of the hero animation created for press and edits for social channels, we filmed a behind-the-scenes video that gave further insight into the inspiration behind ‘Hunger.’ All these assets were sold into media across sectors, creating a cohesive, impactful story.

Additionally, we aimed to execute a strategic 100% organic influencer programme, tapping into talent and influencers known to be passionate about this cause.

With this campaign, we moved the UK public to act. Not only by sharing the animation – amounting to a social reach of 10.1million – but by encouraging them to play an active role and donate just shy of £34,000 in less than three weeks.

The Aldi Hunger Monster campaign achieved over 630+ pieces of earned online, broadcast, social and print coverage, including key segments on national television such as Sky News and Good Morning Britain, as well as national press. Through earned PR alone, the campaign reached 1.5billion people, on top of the 2.1million video views across social channels.

But most importantly, the results enabled Aldi to enact real change and start to make a dent in the UK’s Hunger epidemic, donating 2,385,667 meals to date.

Finally, the Aldi Hunger Monster changed consumers’ perceptions of Aldi. By measuring reactions both before and after having watched the animation, we were able to show how this campaign positively impacted brand sentiment:

• 73% felt positive about Aldi after watching the animation

• After watching the animation, there was a 124% increase in those that felt Aldi was doing its part to counteract child food poverty

• 60% of consumers said they would be more likely to support Aldi’s food poverty initiatives after watching the video

All of which helped many more UK children say goodbye to Hunger.