The brief:

Marmite wanted to fight back against own label ‘copycats’ and steal consumers' attention.

Our solution:

Creatively, the solution came through social listening when three years ago, one of our eagle-eyed team spotted an array of Marmite jars in the background of one of Elton John’s Instagram posts. What followed was a multi-year partnership, brokered by W, that would see the beloved spread donate $1,000,000 to the Elton John AIDS Foundation. The partnership also features category-defying NPD centred around some of Elton’s most iconic moments. From the sell-out success of the ‘Rocketman’ jar in 2022 to celebrating the 50th anniversary of Goodbye Yellow Brick Road in 2023, the latest iteration commemorates one of Elton’s favourite shows at  the LA Dodgers Stadium in 1975.

Creative execution:

W conceptualised, designed, and promoted the limited-edition Marmite jars, alongside the creation of captivating video content with the Rocketman himself and in-store point-of-sale. All art direction was led by W Studio including the limited-edition jars, which are fast becoming coveted collector's items.

Results:

After just one month on supermarket shelves, the first NPD delivered +£690k sales. Heading into 2023, the Goodbye Yellow Brick Road jar made an undeniable commercial impact: shelf space was up 400 per cent across 1,484 Sainsbury’s stores; the limited-edition jars rocketed off the shelves, and sales of Marmite have more than doubled across Sainsbury’s stores nationwide.

Going even bigger in 2024, the desired limited-edition jar has unlocked three additional retail listings for the brand, commanding shelf space in Sainsbury’s, Morrison’s and Tesco stores nationwide. In the first week of announcing the latest jar, W secured over 40 pieces of coverage with a growing reach of over 3 million to date.