Sanitarium: A BEAUTIFUL STRUGGLE

Credits & Description:

Advertiser: SANITAIRUM HEALTH FOOD COMPANY
Agency: SAATCHI & SAATCHI , SPARK PHD
Category: Corporate Responsibility
Digital Designer: David Hunter (Saatchi & Saatchi)
Agency Producer: Emma Taylor-Warne (Saatchi & Saatchi)
Creative Group Head: Anne Boothroyd (Saatchi & Saatchi)
Account Executive: Ashley Zaragoza (Saatchi & Saatchi)
Photographer: Chris Sisarich (Chris Sisarich)
Art Director: Cory Bellringer (Saatchi & Saatchi)
Studio Manager: Paul Gibson (Saatchi & Saatchi)
Lead Developer: Matt Skinner (Saatchi & Saatchi)
Agency Producer: Natasha Gill (Saatchi & Saatchi)
Digital Producer: Nick Pengelly (Saatchi & Saatchi)
NZ Director of Operations: Heath Davy (Saatchi & Saatchi)
Account Manager: Jenna Edwards (Spark Activate)
Digital Creative Director: Nathan Cooper (Saatchi & Saatchi)
Executive Creative Director: Antonio Navas (Saatchi & Saatchi )
Copywriter: Matt Sellars (Saatchi & Saatchi)
Flash Developer: Mike McMillian (Saatchi & Saatchi)
Account Director: Natalie Gibb (Saatchi & Saatchi)
Retoucher: Nick Browne (Saatchi & Saatchi)
Designer: Rob Flynn (Saatchi & Saatchi)
Group Account Director: Shelley Windsor (Saatchi & Saatchi)

Client Brief Or Objective
Sanitarium wanted to support as many Christchurch families as possible using, basically, pieces of rubbish – empty Marmite jars. To capture the attention of New Zealanders right across the nation, with next to no budget, we turned to celebrity Marmite lovers who had held onto their near empty jars. All we asked for was their jar, signed, which a renowned Kiwi photographer captured for our art auction.By researching local support groups, we found and partnered with the Rebuild Christchurch Foundation, who were working closely with struggling Christchurch families, to make sure we were helping the families who really needed it.

Relevancy
Sanitarium is a New Zealand-owned company which makes Marmite, New Zealand’s favourite spread, from its one and only Christchurch factory. When the city was struck by a 6.3 magnitude earthquake, the factory was destroyed along with the city centre and over 100,000 homes and buildings.Two years on, the factory and city were still being rebuilt. While Sanitarium were dealing with their own manufacturing problems, they also wanted to get behind their city and support local communities, because there were many families still struggling from the disaster.

Strategy
With limited budget and advertising, we relied heavily on PR to promote the campaign. This dictated how we developed the campaign from the conceptual stages. We chose to ask celebrity Marmite eaters for their empty Marmite jars, as they could help generate national interest and share the campaign with their own high-profile networks. The same reason we also asked one of the country’s top photographers to shoot the empty jars. The popularity of Marmite in New Zealand along with the high-profile support we received, was a perfect combination for an intense PR presence across national news and social networks, in such a short period of time.

Execution
We launched the campaign to the nation on 20 November 2012 with an exclusive on New Zealand’s premier morning news show ‘Breakfast’.The campaign microsite launched the same day which directed visitors to the individual art auctions which were hosted on New Zealand’s largest auction site, ‘TradeMe.co.nz’. Here, individual art auctions were set up for each of the celebrity artists which people could bid on.During the 2 weeks the campaign was live, the campaign was also supported by:• ‘Campbell Live’, New Zealand’s most-viewed current affairs TV show• Online banner advertising on heavy traffic sites – Yahoo, MSN, TradeMe, NZ Herald• Social media, through Facebook and Twitter, initially shared by our celebrity artists to their own huge social followings – one of the main reasons for selecting who our artists would be.

Effectiveness
At a crucial time for Marmite, we saw a dramatic response from the campaign which re-invigorated the brand when its product wasn’t even available!• 15,797 people interacted with the campaign via Facebook, culturally resonating with 309,000 New Zealanders• 27,000+ views of the microsite and art auctions over 2-week campaign period• 306 struggling Christchurch families received food & gift hampers from donations raised from the art auctions via the ‘Rebuild Christchurch Foundation’• Extensive national and local media coverage:TV: Breakfast, Campbell Live – 2 of NZ’s most-viewed current affairs showsPress: NZ Herald, The Press, Otago Daily Times, The Star, Ashburton GuardianRadio: MoreFM, Newstalk ZB, Radio Rema

Campaign Description
Christchurch, one of New Zealand’s largest cities, was devastated by a major earthquake. 185 people lost their lives, the town centre was completely destroyed and over 100,000 homes and buildings were severely damaged. One of these buildings was the Marmite factory, wiping out the only production of New Zealand’s favourite spread.Nearly 2 years on, Marmite was scarce. The factory was slowly being rebuilt. Many Christchurch families were still struggling from the disaster. Sanitarium wanted to help out, despite their own manufacturing challenges, so we turned to an unlikely victim of the quake – empty jars of Marmite.We asked the country’s most famous Marmite lovers to part ways with their near empty jars of Marmite, which contained unique markings from scraping and rationing the last of their Marmite during the shortage.The unsuspecting artwork within each jar was beautifully captured by renowned Kiwi photographer, Chris Sisarich, for an online art auction. People could buy their favourite prints, with all the profits going to struggling Christchurch families.With limited funds and advertising, we relied heavily on PR to help promote the campaign. Over the two week auction period, stories about the ‘A Beautiful Struggle’ art auction appeared in national news, social networks and online articles. Our celebrity artists also helped share the campaign with their networks. The interest generated from PR helped raise enough money to help more than 300 struggling Christchurch families in time for Christmas, one of the toughest times of the year for them.