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Take one England footballer, add one Michelin-starred chef, infuse with a socially-conscious high-street supermarket brand and season with the multi-layered capabilities of Facebook and Instagram. The end result is a campaign that combines lightness of touch with serious cut-through to hard-to-reach audiences.
Full Time Meals is a collaboration between Marcus Rashford, Tom Kerridge and exclusive brand partner for the campaign, Co-op. The collaboration forms part of Rashford’s Food Poverty Task Force which is fighting to combat child poverty in the UK. More than 4.2m children live in poverty in the UK but only 50% of eligible families were claiming the Government’s Healthy Start Vouchers at the end of last year.
Each Sunday morning, Kerridge launches a recipe on Instagram and Facebook (having previewed the ingredients a day or two earlier). And there are follow-up posts from a diverse range of celebrities attempting to cook the meals themselves. “We want families to cook these affordable meals so no child goes to bed hungry,” explains Rashford.
“It’s not just about reaching or inspiring kids on free school meals but getting all kids into cooking and eating well,” explains Kerridge, who says that he and Rashford connected over their similar single-parent upbringings. “We wanted to make these recipes exciting and fun – colourful, imaginative, creative.”
Kerridge believes one of the key elements to the success of the campaign is the sense of fun and enjoyment conveyed by him and the celebrities and creators who showcase the recipes. “We didn't want it to feel campaign-y,” he says. “We wanted it to feel good and be fun and interactive for people. It isn’t preachy in any way. And one thing about cooking that I’ve always loved is the reward system – you get to eat something in the end!”
He describes Meta apps Facebook and Instagram as “instrumental in the success of the whole project”. Cat Storey, lead social media manager for Co-op, adds: “It’s the perfect platform for advocating change: people coming together, making connections and discovering each other. The peer-to-peer element makes it so perfect and helps make strong communities.”
Storey cites the collaboration between all parties as another key factor. “It was a case of how do we each bring our strengths together with the one goal to reach more people,” she says. Kerridge praises the support and engagement of supermarket brands and also the mainstream media whose interest has layered additional credibility beyond the digital engagement.
For the wider Co-op business, the Full Time Meals campaign has been a great source of pride. “Co-operating for a fairer world is something that we're very passionate for and it's why we exist as a business,” Storey says. “Food poverty and access to food has been on our agenda for some time and we have a long-term partnership with FareShare.
“Turning Full Time Meals into something that is so engaging, tangible and fun has been amazing. It’s taken that campaigning aspect and turned it into entertainment and education. It’s inspiring people of all ages. Our colleagues are so proud of it and so engaged with it. They often share the content themselves and consume it as well.”
Storey highlights the AR game filter as a particularly successful element of this campaign and also the personalisation and regional targeting, which gives diverse audiences that sense of being spoken to directly. “You can bring in different people [celebrities] to connect with different audiences,” adds Kerridge.
Kerridge concludes: “The beautiful thing about social media is it connects on so many different levels. It’s been the most important part of the connectivity of this campaign because it can create much wider interest – it can create a global community.”
Full Time Meals saw a 28% increase in the uptake of Healthy Start vouchers since this time last year with 308,835 families claiming to date.
Cat Storey's key to a successful media partnership
A killer brief with internal buy-in is the first thing you need. Then mutual trust between you and your partners. Have ambition to break the mould and be passionate about what you’re trying to achieve. Then be innovative and creative – don’t rest on your laurels.
The focus of this year's second annual Purpose Summit is how brands and media owners can build purpose into their business strategy and media planning to ensure they stay relevant and competitive in 2021 and beyond.
Learn more about how Meta Social Good for Business can help brands build purpose driven campaigns on Facebook and Instagram.
