Challenge: by 2012, the Great British Breakfast had changed beyond recognition - and understanding this change was vital to Warburtons, the UK’s #1 Bakery brand and a family owned business with long-standing commitment to meeting families’ needs; the challenge was to associate Warburtons with Breakfast, as part of a nationwide PR campaign.

Objectives: demonstrate understanding of the needs of the modern British family and associate the brand with Breakfast.

Strategy: commission independent research to understand the Great British Breakfast occasion - and identify PR opportunities to position Warburtons as a forward thinking breakfast brand.

Execution to outcome: the report covered all aspects of breakfast - media consumption, preferred foods, regional nuances and challenges consumers face in relation to breakfast. One key finding was that Brits find spreading cold butter straight from the fridge onto toast one of their biggest breakfast frustrations.

And as baker of the UK’s number one selling loaf, 'Toastie', Warburtons felt compelled to help solve this frustration by creating Warburtons Toastie Knife, a one-off branded prototype butter knife with heated, battery-powered element operating at 48ºC, the optimum temperature to soften butter - and launched it via traditional and social media, with supporting infographic, YouTube video and ‘#toastieknife’ hashtag.

The result: the nation talking about Warburtons in relation to breakfast, through national print, online and broadcast coverage, in-depth online and social media conversation, and global interest.

Warburtons senior brand manager: "Toastie Knife achieved the PR Holy Grail: getting people talking about our brand and products in general conversation."

Independent research of 2,753 adults was conducted in March 2012, which was collated with insight from Kantar, Nielson and Him! data. This research was then used to create The Warburtons Great British Breakfast Report, an eight-page hardcopy report.

The big idea: Warburtons Toastie Knife - the world’s first heated butter knife, with battery-operated element. The name itself was picked to provide product association, as ‘Toastie Loaf’ is the UK’s number one selling bread.

A specialist agency was selected to produce a branded prototype, while supporting media collateral was created including press release, lifestyle photography, infographic, ‘#toastieknife’ hashtag and 90-second ‘How to spread the perfect slice of toast’ video.

The news story, with supporting collateral, was sold into national print, broadcast and online media - while the video was placed on YouTube and announced via Warburtons Facebook and Twitter accounts, to generate social media buzz.

Results: 88 x branded news/feature items (100% positive) across all UK media; estimated 10,000 Twitter reach, 31,000 Facebook reach, estimated 20,000 Google+ reach; 100,000+ YouTube Views in seven days: www.youtube.com/watch?v=9E_DDsZ8bEM

Campaign = 8:1 ROI (187m reach).

Subsequent independent research: 59% of respondents agreed more that Warburtons "is an innovative brand", 57% agreed more that Warburtons "responds to customers' needs".

Warburtons contacted by Madridfusion International Gastronomy summit organisers to announce it had won ‘design and technical innovation’ award.

Warburtons senior brand manager: "Toastie Knife achieved the PR Holy Grail: getting people talking about our brand and products in general conversation."

Marketing magazine published its iProspect Engagement Index (how much consumers interact with brands on Facebook) for the activity period: Warburtons scored 9.1%, indicating around one in 10 actively responded in previous week - making Warburtons THIRD most engaged-with brand among UK Facebook users.

Warburtons is considering taking Toastie Knife to market.