Marmite Cheekily Targets a New Demographic: Unborn Babies

Are Marmite lovers born or made? It’s the latter, if an unconventional campaign from the adored/reviled yeasty spread can be belived.

Developed by adam&eveDDB, the work riffs on research suggesting that babies can respond to different flavors while still in the womb. Science, people!

So, let’s visit a hospital’s ultrasound department, courtesy of director James Rouse, for some exceedingly cheeky baba-branding:

“The brief was to get younger people to try Marmite for the first time,” agency creative director Frances Leach tells Muse. “They say ‘get them while they’re young,’ so we thought, why not get them really young—like not-even-born young?”

“For years Marmite had been asking whether people loved or hated it, but we had totally ignored the unborn babies,” Leach says. “After all, they’ll grow up to be our next generation of consumers. What if we could make them really early adopters?”

“We stumbled across some scientific research that proved what we already suspected: babies in the womb can taste what their mums eat. [Art director] Chris Bowsher and I are parents ourselves, so we were familiar with 4D scans. And it was then that the idea was born.”

Moving forward, the Unilever brand will partner with U.K. baby-scan clinic Window to the Womb, inviting expectant parents to take part in a trial that could reveal whether their baby is a Marmite lover or hater. (“Could” being the key word, natch.)

“We’ll be providing mums-to-be with some toast and Marmite before they are scanned,” Leach says. “We can see how their babies react, and finally answer that age old question: ‘Am I having a Marmite Lover or a Hater?’ Hopefully our babies will behave on the day, but they do say never work with animals or children.”

Marmite worked a somewhat similar angle a few years back with a none-too-serious (yet science-y) DNA-focused campaign. Other recent efforts for the polarizing stuff involved facial recognition, hypnosis and acting all posh to introduce truffle spread.

CREDITS

CLIENT: MARMITE 
Georgina Bradford, Marketing Director
Shannon Lennon-Smith, Marketing Manager
Annabelle Terry, Brand Manager

CREATIVE AGENCY: adam&eveDDB 
Chief Creative Officer: Richard Brim
Creative Directors: Ant Nelson & Mike Sutherland
Copywriter: Frances Leach
Art Director: Christopher Bowsher
Joint Head of Integrated Production: Nikki Cramphorn
Senior Planner: Liora Ingram
Junior Planner: Lucy Wilson 
CEO: Tammy Einav
Managing Partner: Tom White
Account Director: Max Sullivan
Account Manager: Lydia Barber
Project Managers: Ian Hughes, Amy Waldman, Linda-Aileen Macfarlane

MEDIA AGENCY: Mindshare
Business Director: Tess Domenet
Account Manager: Anna Mason
PR AGENCY: W Communications
Campaigns Director – Grace Jackson
Associate Director – Jess O’Donohoe
Account Director: Paige Hartley
Account Manager: Ella Bull

FILM CREDITS

PRODUCTION COMPANY & CITY: Biscuit Filmworks UK
DIRECTOR: James Rouse
PRODUCER: Benji Howell
MD & EP: Rupert Reynolds-MacLean
HEAD OF PRODUCTION: Polly Du Plessis
PRODUCTION MANAGER: Tim Steele
DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: Alex Melman
CASTING DIRECTOR: Thom Hammond
PRODUCTION DESIGNER: Niamh Coulter
WARDROBE STYLIST: Selina Wong
HAIR AND MAKEUP ARTIST: Michele Baylis
EDITING COMPANY: Work Editorial
EDITOR: Neil Smith
POST PRODUCTION: Absolute Post
EP: Chris Batten / Sally Heath
Producer Maddie Godsill
Colourist: Matt Turner
Look Dev/ R&D – Gustavo Ribeiro
VFX Supervisor and Flame Lead – Ben Robards
Flame & Nuke Lead – Chris Tobin
Nuke – Harvey David
Nuke – Tommy Coulter-Lister
Flame – Rich Greenwood and James Corden
CG – Keith Rogers, Rebekah King-Britton, Patrick Keogh, Ollie Grant, Megan McLean 

AUDIO POST PRODUCTION: Jon Clarke at Factory
Audio Producer: Deborah Whitfield

Print, DOOH & Static Social:
Design Studio: King Henry Studios
Founder/Partner: Carolyn Henry 
Design Director: Scott Silvey
Lead Retoucher: Charlie Townsend
Studio Project Manager: Dan Sandalls 
Artworker: Dave Callow
Integrated Producer: Jaki Jo Hannan

Merchandise PR Photography:
Photographers Agent: Boutique Artists
Photographer: Charlie Surbey
Integrated Producer: Jaki Jo Hannan

Merchandise:
Design Studio: King Henry Studios
Design Director: Scott Silvey
Senior Integrated Producer, C&A: Gareth Evans 
Studio Support, C&A: Gary Halfacre 
PA/Team Assistant: Phoebe Jebb