Marketing Communications

CASE 1 31

task when the average lunch break is only 27 minutes,

and people’s decision process seems to be limited to

their choice of sandwich, making it very easy to forget

about crisps. It was clear that two things stood in the

way: mental availability (saliency – they were not thinking

of the two together at the crucial moment); and physical

availability (crisps were not sitting near enough to sand-

wiches in-store).

AMVBBDO’s communications objective was to help

Walkers meet its ‘singles’ segment revenue growth target of

15%. A campaign was developed with two main objectives:

1. Take the favourable but latent association between crisps
   and sandwiches and make it top of mind, prompting
   consumers to think about the two at lunchtime.


2. Encourage retailers to site Walkers next to their sand-
   wiches in store.
   Success would mean capturing the imagination of four key
   audiences:
   z The Great British public, including sub-groups who
   required differing depths of engagement.
   z Journalists, who needed to be attracted by a story they
   could not resist writing about, in order to get a greater
   return from the campaign budget.
   z The Walkers sales force, who needed emboldening in
   their crucial task of securing incremental merchandising
   near to sandwich chillers.
   z The people responsible for buying at the UK’s biggest
   supermarkets.
   The key business challenge is summarised in Figure 1.6.

The creative idea

To ensure the message was registered, Walkers and AMVBBDO

felt it required a different style of approach. Their ambition

was to surprise: to get consumers saying ‘ Walkers did what?!?! ’

The basic idea behind the campaign was to prove Walkers

can make any sandwich more exciting, even the town of

Sandwich, Kent. Through a series of surprise events over three

days, Walkers and AMVBBDO turned the sleepy town of

Sandwich into the most exciting town in the UK. Each event

featured a celebrity fulfilling a typical community role: JLS

(a British band who won second place in the fifth season of

the British talent show The X Factor ) took the sixth-form college

assembly; Frank Lampard, a famous football player, coached

the college football team; Jenson Button, the Formula one driver,

got behind the wheel of a black cab; Marco Pierre White,

a British celebrity chef and TV personality, sold gourmet

sandwiches from a market stall; Pamela Anderson, the movie

star, pulled pints at the local pub; while the British comedian

Al Murray hosted the quiz. There was something for everyone.

The idea was to capture the genuine surprise and

excitement of the locals on film, and to produce TV com-

mercials and online video content. To ensure reactions were

genuine, a great deal of effort went into keeping the plans

under wraps, and the events were filmed unscripted and

unrehearsed. Regional media were engaged before and

during the campaign to ensure they were taken on the

journey with Walkers and felt part of the proceedings. To

build on the natural spread of news that would occur once

the events started happening, Walkers and AMVBBDO set

up to prepare and distribute content in near real time. This

was made possible by having journalists embedded, and video

editing and social media activation teams on site, along

with all key decision-makers. Walkers also invited along the

buyers from the UK’s biggest supermarkets to enjoy the event.

Capturing their imaginations would be key to persuading

them to site Walkers next to sandwiches in-store.

At its basic level, the communications model was this:

the events would generate content, which would then be

released through a focused set of channels, according to a

phasing plan designed to maximise the campaign’s buzz

creation and longevity.

Teamwork in action

The nature of this campaign, the need for rapid distribution

of event coverage and total synchronicity between TV,

online and PR channels, meant that tight collaboration was

a fundamental requirement for success. The various parties

involved – PepsiCo, AMVBBDO (core idea and creative

direction), Freud (PR), OMD (Media planning and buying),

Jigsaw (website production) and TRA (video seeding and

social media activation) worked as a true team, characterised

by a fluid exchange of information, ideas and decisions.

Figure 1.6 The 2010 key business challenge The boundaries between disciplines were often blurred. To

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