The “A Better Plant-Based Future” campaign is rooted in the idea that plant-based eating is more accessible than one might think. Instead of focusing on paid marketing targeting product purchase, we leveraged PR to create an ambitious platform to propel the cultural movement toward a plant-based lifestyle–dismantling perceptions of plant-based diets as over-the-top and excessively restrictive. Convening third-party advocates from diverse backgrounds, the campaign is anchored around a documentary series that elevates the voices of typically underrepresented yet relatable plant-based changemakers–going beyond product marketing, to transform societal attitudes and behaviors with authentic stories and inclusive messages across channels.

While 94% of Americans are willing to add more plants to their diet and 54% willing to eat less meat, only a small number identify as vegan or vegetarian (Yale, 2020). Despite mass adoption of plant-based meats by big name restaurants and retailers, many consumers still perceive the category as unrelatable and restrictive.

Seeking to show that a plant-based lifestyle is more accessible than one might think, the brief challenged us to develop a creative platform that would demystify and advocate for plant-based eating, as well as appeal to a broad range of audiences—from meat-eaters, flexitarians, vegetarians, vegans and everything in between.

The campaign’s objective was to shift perceptions around plant-based eating with consumers in the U.S. and U.K. and connect the relatively new and unknown corporate brand of Upfield, the global leader in plant-based foods including plant-based margarines and vegan cheeses, to the plant-based movement.

Source Information: https://foodindustryexecutive.com/2020/02/new-study-reveals-plant-based-food-perceptions-and-their-influences-on-consumer-purchases/

“We’re on a mission to create A Better Plant-Based Future. We want to inspire a generation. Start a movement.” Rooted in authentic storytelling and designed to inspire organic conversation, the “A Better Plant-Based Future” campaign demonstrates what plant-based eating can mean to everyday people from various backgrounds, while inspiring others to join in the movement. By highlighting social impact through diverse perspectives and human-interest stories–from small business owners in Compton, CA and Minneapolis, MN, to a rugby team in the UK, to a Nigerian chef based in London–the campaign’s original documentary series features compelling and intimate first-hand accounts of plant-based changemakers as they overcome societal and generational hurdles to make important contributions to the plant-based movement. These micro-influencers and their stories created a cascade of earned and social engagement across consumer audiences, inspiring them to make small yet impactful shifts to partake in the plant-based movement.

Based on qualitative and quantitative insights, and proprietary digital landscaping, we led with a digital-first strategy. With 82% of consumers highly likely to follow a recommendation made by a micro-influencer (Link: https://medium.com/@lexywright/the-50-user-generated-content-stats-you-need-to-know-8ffbeebf8552), and in view of ubiquitous homogenous depictions of the plant-based lifestyle, we determined plant-based micro-influencers from diverse backgrounds would be the most powerful advocates to drive and amplify the campaign’s ethos. Following scouting across the U.S. and U.K., we identified five plant-based changemakers to partner with to bring our campaign to life through compelling, authentic storytelling.

Our campaign strategy focused on:

•Shifting perceptions around plant-based eating in the U.S. and U.K., showing that it is more accessible than one might think

•Increasing awareness of the Upfield brand and the company’s role in creating a better plant-based future

•Driving advocacy through a compelling call-to-action for consumers and stakeholders to engage with the company, its brands, and a plant-based lifestyle

Leveraging AI-technology to gather performance insights for social media amplification, we stress-tested creative variants to uncover storylines that resonated most with audience segments in the U.S. and U.K. through a pilot launch. The initially scheduled March 2020 launch was paused due to the pandemic–but, with the campaign focusing on elevating diverse voices and an overarching message of inclusion, we decided to launch on June 10, 2020 to deepen existing conversations on racial justice and equity.

The campaign microsite went live after the first of three branded editorials with our media partner were published. The editorials, which profiled our plant-based changemakers, linked to the microsite, which housed full episodes of the documentary series and recipes of select dishes from the films–encouraging audiences to tangibly partake in plant-based eating.

Assets from the campaign were distributed through owned and micro-influencer social media, earned media coverage, and the media partner’s numerous platforms.

The “A Better Plant-Based Future” campaign showcases the value of multi-channel execution:

•Awareness and engagement. The campaign drove 29.3 million impressions, 3.5 million video views (three seconds or more), 153K microsite page views, and a 35% increase of new followers on Upfield’s social channels.

•86% of earned online articles drove to the microsite, all mentioning Upfield and the micro-influencers — with the LA Weekly article shared over 3.4K times.

•Increase in advocacy. Global consumers embraced the campaign, with the #ABetterPlantBasedFuture hashtag reaching 2.7 million (Talkwalker).

•Increase in sales. Covariance analysis examined trended SKU-level sales data of the brand against trended mentions of the campaign across social channels, proving online conversation about the campaign caused retail sales to increase in the U.S. Results indicated a 22% correlation of campaign mentions causing product sales to increase.

•Significant shift in perception of plant-based spreads (margarine), compared to dairy (butter). Collecting time-series data (Google searches, website visits, media coverage trends, online conversation trends, and influencer posts), we ran correlation and covariance matrices, which proved our campaign caused a shift in conversation volume and changed perception associated with various attributes of spreads (e.g. health, taste, and performance). Coverage that mentioned health benefits, “tastes great”, and “good for you” increased online conversation volume around plant-based spreads (margarine) by = 1% compared to before the campaign. The analysis showed the largest increase in perception change related to conversation growth about margarine occurred with below average media impressions–indicating little media coverage was needed to yield growth in perception.