Marmite is prioritising Gen Z consumers with a new campaign which invites them to try Marmite for the first time.

The love it or hate it spread has created the campaign after YouGov research revealed that almost half (43%) of 18 to 24 year olds in the UK have never tried Marmite. A statistic that underlines the opportunity to connect with a substantial pool of consumers who do not yet know whether they love or hate the strong taste of Marmite.

The spot, entitled ‘First Timers’ launched to coinside with Freshers’ week. A 60-second spot, created by Adam&EveDDB, features two puppets who try Marmite on a slice of toast for the first time.

The puppets are invited to ‘stroke that’, ‘push that’ and ‘lick that’ via a series of suggestive scenarios. The film is set to a specially recorded music track by US music producer, Giraffage, who remixed his electro track ‘Workout’. The end line is: ‘Love it. Hate it. Get it on.’

To extend the ‘First timers’ theme, Marmite is set to give thousands of sampling kits to first-time Marmite tasters at universities across the country.

To build cultural currency the brand is also launching a TikTok challenge called: ‘Are you a Marmite First-Timer?’ While a quiz on Tinder called ‘Sticky Situations’ asks participants to ‘love’ or ‘hate’ different behaviours in a potential partner.

Laura Iliffe, Brand Manager at Marmite, explained: “Marmite is a brand which is embedded in UK culture, and so many of us have grown up with it. We pride ourselves on sparking debate and strong opinions and most consumers are either lovers or haters. However, when we saw the number of young adults who had never even tried it – we knew we had to do something to dare them to take the plunge and try our special spread. This campaign represents a step-change in the way we advertise Marmite – with a clear focus on driving trial and penetration. We want to recruit our next generation of lovers, and show young adults how to approach their first-time with Marmite.”

Ben Tollett, Group Executive Creative Director at adam&eveDDB, added: “The UK has a great tradition of comedy double acts: French and Saunders, Reeves and Mortimer, Mel and Sue, Mitchell and Webb. Unfortunately, they all declined the auditions, so we were stuck with a pair of filthy-minded puppets.”

The campaign also includes Spotify and banner ads, with one Spotify ad featuring a remixed version of the Giraffage track used in the film. While another uses ASMR.

A PR campaign, led by W Communications, will invite university students to ‘pop their Marmite cherry’. The experience will see first-timers taken through a series of specially curated sensory experiments, all designed to help them discover whether they are a lover or a hater of Marmite.

The media for the campaign was planned and bought by Mindshare UK.