1/3 of the food we buy goes to waste, enough to feed 2 billion people.

As part of the brand’s creative platform “We’re on the side of food”, Hellmann’s needed to inspire consumers to place more value on food, by changing their behaviour. The objective was to also showcase a wider range of product uses our consumers had no idea were possible. So, we identified a common problem Hellmann’s could tackle, when you look into a full fridge and think “nothing to eat”, which leads to you closing the fridge door, letting all that food go to waste. We needed to prove to consumers and the public that Hellmann’s can combine almost anything, showing them delicious possibilities they had no idea were in their fridge.

We created an unconventional brand experience - a gourmet restaurant in São Paulo, Brazil. The twist? It had no food. Instead, we invited people to bring whatever’s left in their fridge. Our celebrity chefs then transformed their forgotten ingredients, serving it back to them as five-star restaurant meals, proving how Hellmann’s can combine almost anything in the fridge. And instead of the bill, we surprised people again with a recipe of the meal they just enjoyed, allowing them to recreate it at home. Every dish became a recipe video, showing a wider range of uses for Hellmann’s, and giving us an entire year’s worth of social content that lived across multiple platforms, inspiring even more people to see the possibilities in their fridge.

Based on our strange yet relatable insight of people thinking there’s “nothing to eat” in their full fridges, our PR strategy was to disrupt people’s perceptions of their fridge ingredients as worthless, with the aim of putting the value back in them by giving people a taste of what they’re throwing away. This led to our disruptive idea of opening a restaurant with no food, with the intention of showing people the amazing possibilities that’s already in their fridges at home. We invited consumers and the public to take part in our experience, but also generated hype by opening our restaurant exclusively on Day 1 to food influencers and journalists, sparking social and mass media coverage. Much more than a single event, the restaurant generated an entire year of social assets and recipes, even inspiring Masterchef and Tastemade to create assets based on our restaurant, further expanding our PR campaign.

The Restaurant With No Food was an immersive experience launched in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

We announced our restaurant to the public through our social channels and influencer outreach, sparking awareness and driving people to reserve on our website. With every reservation, we sent people carrier bags to facilitate the transport of their fridge ingredients to our restaurant, also including event details.

On opening day, we exclusively hosted Brazil’s top food influencers and journalists, generating mass PR before opening our doors to the public from day 2 onwards.

And instead of the bill, we served people a recipe of their meal. Every dish turned into a recipe video for social content, with even MasterChef, Tastemade and Google Creators producing content based on our restaurant. Based on our activation’s success, Hellmann’s has decided to roll it out to several other key markets across Europe this year.

The restaurant generated 200+ news reports and 50 million impressions in two days alone. It sparked an 8% sales increase, while saving over 2,700 fridge ingredients from fridges all over São Paulo. Our restaurant made quite an impactful statement, garnering an official endorsement by the UN World Food Programme, with even MasterChef and Tastemade airing episodes based entirely on our restaurant mission. But much more than an immersive brand experience that created an entirely new media channel for the brand to reach consumers, our restaurant ignited a national debate on food waste and our fridge habits as a society in Brazil, inspiring people to see the food in their fridge in a whole new light, as well as raising awareness on a wider range of uses for Hellmann’s people never considered before. Based on our success, Hellmann’s is rolling out this media event across major European markets this year.