Pasty manufacturer Ginsters is celebrating its quality ingredients in a humorous campaign with TBWA\London, marking a new brand platform.
With the film beginning with the statistic that ‘74% of people do not know the vegetables in Ginsters are grown in Cornwall’, the £4 million campaign aims to tap into the brand’s Cornish heritage.
Showcased across social and TV screens, the campaign will be supported by social, PR, out-of-home (OOH) and shopper marketing activity.
The 80-second mockumentary follows the story of a vegetable-obsessed farmer, a new brand character Merryn, who takes her role as a Cornish grower seriously.
From strapping herself – and others – in as a scarecrow to protect her crops to singing to each onion crop through their personal baby monitor, ‘Taste the Effort’ depicts the increasingly inventive ways the farmer goes through to protect her vegetables
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One scene features Merryn interviewing individual worms to work out just how much enrichment they’ll be planning to give to contribute to the soil, much to the bemusement of her fellow farm staff.
Yet, all the effort is worth it when Merryn sends away her crops – albeit with a slight tear in her eyes – to be returned as Ginster’s Cornish pasties.
The film aims to tackle the misconception that it is a low-quality cold snack to be eaten on the go and highlight how the ingredients are sourced from local and British suppliers.
“This is our biggest campaign and spend to date. The ‘Taste the Effort’ brand platform will pack a heavyweight punch across several national touchpoints,” Ginsters marketing director, Emma Stowers.
“We hope Merryn will become a highly distinctive long-term brand asset who will not only drive an emotional connection with the brand but drive cut-through versus other generic farm-to-fork stories.”
TBWA\London executive creative director, Andy Jex, said: “A farmer is the perfect way to tell a quality ingredient story.
“We just needed to do it in a more stand-out way with a voice that felt authentically Cornish and Ginsters. We were lucky we found Merryn, a seriously funny farmer with a serious vegetable obsession.”
The advert follows the pasty brand’s £1.3m TV spot last year, its first campaign with creative agency TBWA\London.