Hellmann's

Hellmann’s: Cook Clever, Waste Less

Strategy:  

Hellmann’s is on a mission to help people say no to waste and yes to taste. And Hellmann’s is the perfect ingredient to turn your leftovers into a delicious meal, the task in hand was to raise awareness of how UK households are major contributors to the food waste issue. 

To make Hellmann’s the beacon for food waste and trigger behaviour change, we took this insight and created a prime-time TV programme that put the issue front-and-centre, engaging our audience to affect change. 

 

Planning:  

Mindshare and Hellmann’s co-created a compelling programme treatment – COOK CLEVER WASTE LESS – with BBC Studios to pitch to Channel 4 commissioning. C4’s commitments to sustainability, and BBCS proven sustainability credentials, made them the perfect partners. 

We enlisted Top UK cook and self-proclaimed Queen of Leftovers, Prue Leith, along with NHS GP and food expert Dr Rupy Aujla. With their help, we’d turn four British families from food wasters to waste warriors, by showing them the impact of their food waste and inspiring them to change their cooking and eating behaviours for good. 

Four 30-minute episodes aired in peak on C4 & on All4. We created a bespoke TVC with Dr Rupy Aujla, setting out Hellmann’s commitment to food waste. The show ran first-in-break in each episode and across the C4 network. We also used sponsorship idents to frame the show. To extend reach, we created and promoted a host of digital assets (trailers, show cutdowns & longer recipe videos) across social and online video throughout the campaign period.  

To complete the user journey, we created a downloadable recipe book from Hellmann’s website which meant people had a useful resource for combatting their waste at home. 

 

Results: 

We accelerated the association of reducing food waste with Hellmann’s. As a result of the campaign, there was a 15% uplift in the number of people who agreed that “Hellmann’s helps use food that would otherwise go to waste”. Eight out of ten viewers said they would choose Hellmann’s next time they bought mayo. Traffic to Hellmann’s website increased by 500% and over 40,000 recipe books were downloaded. 

We created a show that engaged food and environment enthusiasts en masse: 3.4m people tuned in to watch Cook Clever Waste Less. The first episode was the top performing show of the day on Channel 4. 

We also changed food-waste behaviour: 32% of show viewers said they would start using leftovers from their meals after watching the show. 

We created an immediate carbon impact: viewers saved 3.1m kg of food waste from landfill, saving 5.9m kg of CO2 emissions – the equivalent of a full year of electricity for 1,450 British households.