Kraft Peanut Butter is running a promotion which allows Canadians separated from their loved ones this holiday season to send them hugs via internet-connected teddy bears. Canadians who use “#KraftBearHugs” on social to share who they would like to give a bear hug to will be entered into a competition to win a pair of Wi-Fi enabled bears.

To launch the promotion, Kraft Canada created 10 foot tall versions of Crunchy and Smoothie, the teddy bears which have been Kraft Peanut Butter’s brand characters in Canada for more than 50 years, and placed them in public spaces in Vancouver and Toronto, so people could send their loved ones virtual hugs from one city to another.

For Canadians who don’t live in Vancouver and Toronto, the also launched smaller plush Crunchy and Smoothie bears with Wi-Fi connectivity, which people can use to share ‘hugs’ over the internet – the bears have bowties which light up when people send virtual hugs.

There are 100 pairs of bears available to be won; the approximate retail value of the prizes is Canadian $40,000. More information about the campaign can be found at kraftbearhugs.com. There is no purchase necessary. To enter, consumers have to create an original social media post consisting of a maximum of 500 characters addressing the question of who they would want to send a bear hug to and why the hug would bring them closer together. Entrants can, depending on what the social media site they are using allows, include pictures and videos.

Entries will be judged on uniqueness, creativity, togetherness and distance, in descending order of importance.

To coincide with the promotion, Kraft Canada released to results of a new survey which found that more than one in three Canadians (37%) will be apart from their family during the holidays. Distance is the main reason many will be separated from their families this holiday season (59%), followed by finances (23%).

Nina Patel, Marketing Director of Brand Build for Kraft Heinz Canada, says: “Kraft Peanut Butter wants to help Canadians stick together – even when they’re physically apart – and there’s no better way to do that, than with the power of a bear hug. Our iconic Crunchy and Smoothie bears have been beloved for generations by Canadians and represent togetherness and that familiar sense of comfort that our loved ones bring.”

Crunchy and Smoothie have been symbols of the Kraft Peanut Butter brand in Canada for over 50 years. Originally, the brand’s glass jars were shaped like teddy bears, and now they appear on the packaging of the jars. In 2014, Kraft Peanut Butter introduced new-look bears (with some controversy from brand fans) and released limited-edition plush teddy bears as part of its ‘Stick Together’ campaign. This campaign was massively successful, and the brand says it is taking it to the next level with the new Wi-Fi-enabled BearHug Bears.

The strategy behind the campaign aims to imbue Kraft Peanut Butter with an emotional value above and beyond pure product benefits.

Kraft worked with marketing agency Rethink, PR agency Edelman and media agency Starcom to create the campaign.

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Whole Earth, the UK’s market-leading peanut butter brand, has created the first-ever peanut butter fondue bar in Shoreditch, London, which will be open to the public on November 24^th to 25^th.

Over the two days, the Whole Earth Nut Butter Bar will offer peanut butter fans a unique dining experience including the opportunity to experiment with different dipping combinations, enjoyed in a cosy, plush interior.

Showcasing the flexibility of the spread, the event – designed and managed by experiential agency, Mad River – highlights the different ways that fans can enjoy the natural goodness of Whole Earth nut butters.

Taking visitors on an all-you-can-eat dipping and dunking adventure, Whole Earth will be bringing out favourite winter warmers but with a unique twist, offering both sweet and savoury fondues like Original Peanut Butter and Chocolate Peanut Butter.

At the end of the two-hour long event, diners will be able to take away recipe cards and information to recreate the delicious fondues at home.

To drive ticket sales the event is being supported by dedicated consumer PR and social media activity.

Katrina Farmer, Whole Earth Senior Brand Manager at Wessanen UK, which owns the brand, says: “Peanut butter is not just for spreading on toast. It can be enjoyed in a variety of ways from spooning on to cereal to adding a nutty twist to your favourite curry or as a tasty dip. This is what we wanted to celebrate with our unique Peanut Butter Fondue Bar; the wonder and diversity of our peanut butter. Packed full of protein and fibre, peanut butter fondue offers consumers an indulgent experience but with a healthier dip.”

Whole Earth is known for its innovative marketing campaigns that illustrate the healthy credentials of its nutritious spreads and the different ways they can be enjoyed. Last month, the brand organised a Pumpkin Pilates session to show how peanut butter can fuel consumers through their exercise and encourage them to keep active outdoors during the colder months.

The end of year activity follows a very successful year of fast growth for Whole Earth in the spreads category, which has seen Whole Earth remain the UK’s peanut butter market leader.

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Flora has teamed up with 20 influencers, including the ‘Topless Baker’ Matt Adlard and The Great British Bake Off’s Benjamina, for the launch of its new flavoured dairy-free spreads range.

The campaign sees food and lifestyle influencers creating arresting free video content showcasing ingenious and compelling recipes and ideas for how to use Flora’s new range of spreads, including easy-to-follow tips and hacks. The spreads consist of: Flora Dairy Free Walnut Spread; Flora Dairy Free Avocado & Lime Spread; and Flora Dairy Free Coconut & Almond Spread.

As part of the campaign, created by TMW Unlimited, the Unilever brand is also working with other influential foodie personalities to develop original recipes and usage suggestions to promote the new range.

Full recipes from the influencers will be available on Flora’s social channels and its website. These include Cheesy Tear & Share Bread and chocolate brownies made using the Flora Dairy Free Avocado & Lime Spread and choux pastry made with the Flora Dairy Free Walnut Spread.

Sian Jenkins, Brand Manager, Flora, Unilever, says: “Working with influencers has showcased just how versatile our new Flora dairy free flavours range is within cooking & baking, bringing the great flavours of walnut, coconut & almond and avocado to a wide range of great tasting recipes”.

Elaine Farrell, Influencer & Partnerships Manager at TMW Unlimited, adds: “It has been a great experience working with these impressive influencers to bring out another side to the Flora brand as it launches these innovative new products.”

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A series of ‘Pipnic’ pop-ups has been taking place at high footfall locations across the UK capital during July to promote nut butter brand, Pip & Nut.

The dedicated ‘Pipnic’ sampling spaces will showcase and serve up a range of nut butter and nut milk breakfast, lunch and snack ideas, plus they will play host to a series of yoga and exercise classes run by leading fitness studio Frame.

Pip & Nut has partnered with experiential specialists, Sense, to create the activations and execute the summer-themed campaign, which brings to life both the nut butter occasion and the playful nature of the lifestyle brand. It represents Pip & Nut’s biggest sampling exercise to date, with 50,000 samples to be handed out across the six-day campaign.

Running throughout the day, the Pipnic Pop-Up will target commuters and office works during the week and hit high footfall parks and events at the weekend. Highlighting the versatility of nut butters, granola pots with almond milk and a drizzle of almond butter will be served at breakfast, along with a selection of open sandwich tasters from lunchtime onwards with toppings, including almond butter with avocado and chilli and coconut almond butter with mixed berries. In addition, the brand’s nut butter squeeze packs, a perfectly portioned on-the-go snack, will be handed out, with roaming carts also heading to nearby tube station and high footfall areas.

Pip Murray, Pip & Nut founder, says: “Pipnics really captures the fun, playful nature of the Pip & Nut brand both in terms of the menu, activities on offer and also the design of the space, which includes lots of brand notes with a picnic chillout area and a bright coloured bar. As well as building brand awareness and encouraging trial, we wanted to use the campaign as an opportunity to educate on usage occasions and create a Pip & Nut ‘moment’, a time in the day to both enjoy a nut butter treat and take some time to pause.”

Sense Senior Account Manager Joanna Wharton adds: “We’re very excited to be working with such an innovative brand during a key growth period. Our brand ambassadors will be taking Pip & Nut’s great sense of fun and its message about the importance of a healthy lifestyle to Londoners over the summer months.”

Samples are provided without charge.  Frame classes are £5 for a 25 minute session.

The Pipnic campaign follows a period of significant growth for the Pip & Nut brand and the recent addition of four new nut butter variants to its range. The brand is on-track to hit a retail sales value in excess of £9m in 2017, an increase of over 100% year on year, as consumers embrace its innovative range of healthier, all-natural products.

Sense specialises in helping brands do exciting things in the real world to create authentic communications across the marketing spectrum. It manages campaigns from strategy to evaluation.

Founded by entrepreneur, Pippa Murray, now 28, Pip & Nut launched to the market in January 2015 and has been shaking up the nut butter category ever since.  Now two and a half years old, Pip & Nut can now be found in over 3000 stores around the UK and Ireland, including Sainsbury’s, Holland & Barrett, Boots, Selfridges, Fortnum & Mason and Whole Foods, and is the fastest growing nut butter brand in the country.

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Sun-Pat, the UK peanut butter brand, has launched a campaign aimed at encouraging children to get active this summer in partnership with Olympic gold medallist swimmer Adam Peaty and TV presenter Kirsty Gallacher.

The “Fuelling Families” campaign involves a downloadable Fuelling Families guide featuring 42 different ways to keep children active during the summer holidays. The guide is available for free from the campaign section of the Sun-Pat website (www.sunpat.co.uk/fuellingfamilies/).

Additionally, Sun-Pat is running an on-pack promotion offering families the chance to win outdoor sports kits, including an inflatable football, plastic cricket set and a skipping rope. The promotional period kicks off at the end of July and will close September 4 2017. Ten winners a day will be chosen from July 24 2017, for a total of 420 winners.

Entry is via the promotional microsite or via Sun-Pat’s official Facebook channel, www.facebook.com/SunPatOfficial/

David Atkinson, managing director for grocery at brand owner company The Hain Daniels Group, says: “We know how hard it can be for parents to find fun activities for children during the summer holidays, and our Fuelling Families Guide is here to give families inspiration. We’re giving away 420 sports kits to families all over the UK to encourage fun-filled family summers.”

Sun-Pat was first launched in 1946 and today is the UK’s favourite peanut butter brand, according to sales figures. Current owners The Hain Daniels Group acquired it in 2012 as part of its acquisition of the spreads and jellies business of Premier Foods. Premier had itself acquired the brands in 2002 after it bought Nestle’s ambient foods business; Nestle had gained ownership of Sun-Pat when it bought Rowntree’s.

Sun-Pat’s previous promotional campaign, ‘Fuel Your Dreams’, saw the peanut butter brand also teaming up with Adam Peat, along with TV and Olympic presenter Helen Skelton (see www.promomarketing.info, October 31 2016). That campaign, launched in October 2016, offered two winners the chance to share their dream experience with Adam or Helen, plus a year’s supply of Sun-Pat Peanut Butter. The winners and eight further runners up also received a £1,000 donation to a local group of their choice. To enter, consumers just had to tell Sun-Pat what they have always dreamed of doing.

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On March 8th 2017, International Women’s Day, Rotarians across Britain and Ireland will host simultaneous IWD Purple4Polio Tea Parties to raise money for the campaign to rid the world of polio once and for all.

The tea parties will all begin at the quintessentially British tea-time of 4pm.

The Purple4Polio campaign dates back to 1985 and an ambitious promise Rotarians made to the mothers of the world that polio would be eradicated and their children would no longer suffer from the life threatening and crippling disease. That promise is on the brink of being fulfilled, with just 37 polio cases in three countries in 2016. There are real hopes that 2017 will see the last case of polio worldwide.

The Rotary polio campaign resonates with the International Women’s Day 2017 objectives ‘Be Bold For Change’. The IWD Purple4Polio Tea Parties will be kicked off with a media launch at the Rotary London headquarters in Regent’s Park. It will be opened by TV Presenter Konnie Huq with celebrity guest speakers including Jane Garvey of BBC Radio 4’s ‘Woman’s Hour’ and Purple4Polio Ambassador and broadcaster, Julia Roberts.

To support the tea parties and Rotary’s campaign to end polio forever, both Tiptree Jam and Typhoo Tea have donated free product.

Wilkin & Sons Ltd. (Tiptree Jam) has given 52,000 specially branded jars of plum and greengage Purple4Polio jam to Rotarians across Britain and Ireland. They will be encouraged to use the jam to raise awareness of the Purple4Polio campaign and to fill the empty jars with coins. The aim is to raise up to £1 million; with matching funding through Rotary, this £1 million will become £3 million.
Typhoo Tea, the second largest tea manufacturer in the UK is organising a tea-tasting at the launch, and donating tea and branded disposable mugs.

Somnath Saha, CEO, of Typhoo Tea, says: “Uniting communities to help eradicate polio is essential and we’re proud to be a part of helping achieve this. Working closely with Purple4Polio nationwide, we’re hoping our charitable tea parties will bring people together to cross the finishing line and end polio now.”

Polio eradication has become a personal mission for Eve Conway, the President of Rotary International in Great Britain and Ireland. She has recently returned from India where she joined British Rotarians on the frontline in the fight against the disease. India was declared polio free in 2014 but there are still vital ongoing national immunisation campaigns giving polio drops to every single child under five years old in order to keep the country free of the disease.

Outside London, there are plans for Rotary Districts and Clubs to host their own Purple4Polio tea parties with local celebrities.

Rotary International in Great Britain and Ireland is a volunteer organisation whose 50,000 members use their skills and time to improve the lives of others both locally and globally, while building friendships and having fun in the process. There are nearly 1,800 Rotary clubs across Great Britain and Ireland.

Rotary International was founded in 1905 in Chicago and is now the world’s largest international service organisation with over 1.25 million professional men and women as members. There are 34,000 clubs in more than 200 countries and geographical areas.

Rotary’s partners in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative – the World Health Organisation, Unicef, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation – are all confident that 2017 could see the last case of polio. If three years pass with not a single new case anywhere, then the whole world will be declared polio-free.

Rotary International in Great Britain and Ireland’s campaign is called Purple4Polio as purple is the colour of the dye put on the little finger of millions of children during mass immunisation campaigns.
Rotary International in Great Britain and Ireland will be posting on the day about the events via twitter.com/RotaryGBI using #IWD2017 and #Purple4Polio, also on facebook.com/RotaryinGBI.

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Sun-Pat peanut butter has teamed up with Olympic gold medal winning swimmer Adam Peaty and TV and Olympic presenter Helen Skelton for a new Fuel Your Dreams campaign, offering two winners the chance to share their dream experience with Adam or Helen, plus a year’s supply of Sun-Pat Peanut Butter

The winners and eight further runners up will also receive a £1,000 donation to a local group of their choice.

To enter, consumers just have to tell Sun-Pat what they have always dreamed of doing. It could be anything from becoming a pilot to winning their own gold medal. They can include photos to support their entries.

Entries must be made on the promotion webpage, www.sunpat.co.uk/fuelyourdreams, using the entry form, or via Sun-Pat’s official social media feeds. Entries made via Facebook must be posted on the Sun-Pat Facebook wall, while entries via Twitter or Instagram must include #SunPatDreams

Two main prize winners will receive funding from Sun-Pat to help them experience their dreams, to a value no higher than £5,000. This experience will take place in the UK and either be arranged by the Promoter and either Adam Peaty or Helen Skelton will be present (subject to availability).

The competition runs until 11.59pm on Friday 16th November 2016, and entrants must be over 18, although they can be entering on behalf of someone under 18.

Prize package will include winner travel within the UK. Winners will also receive a £1,000 donation to make to a local group of their choice and a year’s supply of Sun-Pat Peanut Butter (48 jars). Winners must be available on the 13^th or 14^th February 2017 to participate in their ‘Dream Day’ experience.

David Atkinson, Managing Director, Grocery at the Hain Daniels Group, which owns Sun-Pat, says: “The category continues to explode with the biggest growth in the whole of spreads, and the Fuel Your Dreams campaign will help raise brand awareness amongst consumers new and old. At Sun-Pat we’re passionate about making great peanut butter and encouraging people to have an active lifestyle, balanced diet and to pursue what they dream to be.”

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