Weetabix milked a binary question for PR fame - it worked

Strategy: Eavesdropping on our social channels, the idea stemmed from our community. We realised that indeed, cereal killers walked amongst us – with many declaring they (controversially) put the milk in before their Bix! Delving deeper into insights, we found that 10% of Weetabix eater opt to “pour before they place” and this number is higher for younger Bixers – creating a natural divide between young and old. Those bold enough to declare their Milk First tendencies were met with gasps and comments – were these people ok? Or were they secret geniuses who’d mastered the texture dynamics of a 90-year-old cereal? We knew this debate could kick start some serious Talkability and help take this heritage brand out of its comfort zone to compel conversation. But, like all good things, building the debate took time. It started on National Cereal Day where we released a video asset across TikTok and Twitter (the perfect platforms for trends and debate to catapult). These playful pieces of content invited fans and followers to stake their claim and declare themselves as #BixFirst or #MilkFirst. Cue serious engagement with the community wanting everyone to know how they eat theirs. We continued to play with the debate using trending formats that could translate on TikTok and beyond. A consistent dialogue that helped to make every consumer consider their consumption habits in a way that reminded them how they love to have their Weetabix.

Enter James May… The former Top Gear presenter is no stranger to controversy so when he posted ‘Who, the bloody hell, puts the milk in the bowl first…? Just seen this happen and it disturbed me’ we knew we need to act fast to stir the pot (or bowl) even further. Jumping in, we clapped backed, declaring milk first as the official way to eat Weetabix. James branded us Lunatics and the social pile on began. We knew there was serious Talkability potential in this controversial stance, seeing it ignite conversation on social and instantly divide the nation. So we decided to pour on the drama and watch it explode! Tapping up our media contacts, we got the ball rolling with the Mail Online and LadBible who quickly snapped up the trending social debate. We followed that up by securing the front cover of the Daily Star who asked their readers to pick a side! Knowing we’d hit the front page ahead of time, we hit up broadcast ensuring they saw the debate as the perfect topic to discuss over breakfast as part of their paper round ups. Cue GMB, Lorraine and This Morning running the debate back to back - a hat trick of coverage that ensured we were front of mind at the perfect time of day for those thinking about their first meal of the day. The perfect storm in a bowl, the broadcast coverage and front-page spread helped the debate to leak back into social, with all of the media channels sharing on their channels. A 360 moment, this saw over millions of people reached with thousands sharing their views on the debate.

Results: Serving up some delicious results… • Front page news • The hat-trick of breakfast show broadcast TV coverage – with so much debate about the campaign, it drew complaints from viewers • A social reach of over 2.3 million and a media reach c. 100m • Nearly 5,000 social engagements in 24 hours • Thousands of social posts from consumers wanting to stake their claim • Weetabix trended on Twitter (again!) • Cut through for a heritage brand with nothing new to say So, why should we win? #MilkFirst was a campaign born from insight and leveraged the power of debate to remind our audience why they love Weetabix. By using social media as our canon, we were able to create real time reactions which piqued media interest and allowed us to serve the debate up to a national audience. The campaign showed true talkability by translating across both PR and social channels to become a part of the conversation in offices and homes across the nation. So the question remains… are you #bixfirst or #milkfirst? We think you know the answer!