Hellmann’s is adding its mayonnaise as the latest ingredient to the locavore movement with a new campaign called ‘Eat Real. Eat Local.’ The Unilever brand is encouraging consumers to take action in the form of pledges on their microsite, EatRealEatLocal.ca, developed by Dashboard, or social media posts (blogs, Twitter, Facebook) with the tag ‘#realfood.’ For every action taken, Hellmann’s will donate 25 cents to non-profit org Evergreen, with the goal of getting 100,000 Canadians to contribute.
‘We want to try and make a positive change in society and spark a debate and dialogue around this important issue,’ Hellmann’s marketing director John Affleck tells MiC. ‘One of the reasons we reached out to the blogging community is because they can be such great advocates of the issue,’ he says.
The campaign is also leveraged by TV spots currently on air, print placements in the July issues of Canadian Living and Coup de Pouce magazines and online banner ads on sites like AllRecipes.com. Ogilvy & Mather developed the creative, while PHD Canada handled the media buy.
In the first two weeks of the campaign, which runs through the summer, Hellmann’s has already encouraged its 25-to-34 target to take action, says Ian Busch, brand-building manager for Hellmann’s. He explains that 20 blog posts have been written by their Real Food blog advisory panel, 251 #realfood tags have been made on Twitter with 737 #realfood tags in the total blogosphere and more than 1,600 actions have been taken on their website.
‘Obviously, we’ve sparked a debate,’ Busch tells MiC. Hellmann’s launched the campaign following a survey commissioned by the brand about Canadians’ eating habits that showed almost 9 out of 10 Canadians prefer to eat locally sourced foods. ‘Our product itself is made from locally sourced ingredients like eggs from Canadian egg farmers and canola oil from Canadian prairies. And it complements fresh-grown produce as well,’ says Busch.
