Chris Norton: 0:52

Hi everybody, welcome back to Embracing Marketing Mistakes. But this week it's a campaign crunch and I have got our second newest recruit with me today. Welcome to the show, caitlin Wharmby.

Caitlin Wharmby: 1:02

Thank you.

Chris Norton: 1:03

Now, caitlin is, for those of you that don't know, the little sister of one of the Prohibition's original members of staff. So when there was originally about five of us, there was a lovely lady called Rebecca Wharmby who worked here for three years and basically Caitlin's followed her. How many years later is that Ten? Ten years later, caitlin turns up and we thought, well, rebecca was great, she now works at Lego Hello Lego, if you're listening. Thought, well, rebecca was great, she's now. She now works at Lego hello Lego, if you're listening. We are available for bar mitzvahs. Um, and so, kate, yeah, so Caitlin's joined us. How long you've been here, caitlin? I've been here three months now three months yeah enjoying it, loving it.

Chris Norton: 1:43

I mean, you can't say you're not because you're recorded. Um so campaign crunch, then, is all about looking at a campaign that has inspired us or that we think is interesting.

Caitlin Wharmby: 1:55

So what have you got for us today? So today I've got the Nando's and Bakayo Saka sauce campaign. So originally Saka did a campaign with Nando's back in 2023, and they kind of reconnected to do this sauce campaign, which I thought is quite tying with Euros and everything at the minute.

Chris Norton: 2:15

Yeah. So, as we record, England have just played their third and final game, and, as a proper football pundit, I'm going to say it was absolutely crap, but better than the second game against Denmark. So I don't know when you're listening to this, but we thought it'd be topical to discuss how Pekayo Saka has created sort of the partnership and how it's worked. First question is, though what did he do before this one? What was the relationship they had before?

Caitlin Wharmby: 2:43

They had a campaign about where, like Nando's, being the place to eat. So, it was around the fact that Saka's, one of Saka's favorite restaurants is Nando's. He goes there for his dad's birthday. It was kind of more of like a this is the place to be campaign yeah, cool, I mean, we've all had a Nando's, yeah, yeah. I mean you've taken two of the most famous things.

Chris Norton: 3:05

Yeah, he's got you know, very obviously very marketable at the moment so let's go through what. What's happened in the partnership? How have Nando's used saka?

Caitlin Wharmby: 3:14

yeah, so obviously, saka being a big fan of nando's, he's been very vocal about it and always talking about how he goes there for his dad's birthdays, like I've said, and they kind of brought it together and brought him in as head chef they like to call it, which is what the campaign videos called. It's called, yes, chef, and it's him creating his own sauce with his face on it and everyone went mental over it, basically for those of you not on YouTube.

Chris Norton: 3:42

Basically, saka's face has been amalgamated with it with a chili yeah, yes, it looks pretty cool actually yeah looks cool.

Caitlin Wharmby: 3:51

They got an artist in to do it specifically, so they could have got a school competition yeah, loads of mileage on the.

Chris Norton: 3:59

PR side of things. Okay, so um what let? Rather than go through the campaign, let's look at the creative and let's watch the video yeah and we'll share this. We'll share the audio as well on the pod now to see what you think.

Speaker 3: 4:14

Let's do this.

Chris Norton: 4:20

Yes, please Come on, chefs, behind, behind, behind. More garlic yes, chef. More tomatoes. Yes, chef, more lemon. Yes, chef. Thank you, chef. Four, eight and seven yes, chef, it needs a little kick. Thank you, chef. Four leading seven yes, chef, needs a little kick Nice.

Caitlin Wharmby: 4:54

And the muscles is good.

Chris Norton: 4:57

The bottles do look really cool. I'm intrigued to see what it tastes like. So the creative looks good as well. I think that using him as a chef there's something cool about chefs, isn't there? I don't know, like in the last 20 years, gordon Ramsay, all the cool sort of celebrity chefs and I'm not sure Saka is a celebrity chef, but Gordon Ramsay, all the cool celebrity chefs, I'm not sure.

Caitlin Wharmby: 5:19

Saka is a celebrity chef. No, have you tried this yourself? I haven't, unfortunately. We did try and run out of the office the other week to get some, but they were all gone If you go to Nando's, which is your source of choice Medium garlic.

Chris Norton: 5:32

Yeah, same, here same.

Speaker 3: 5:35

Andrew, what's yours If I'm at?

Chris Norton: 5:37

home extra, extra hot, Extra, extra hot.

Speaker 3: 5:38

If I'm in Nando's itself just hot.

Chris Norton: 5:41

Wow, Hang on a minute. So you're at home extra, extra hot, but in Nando's just hot.

Speaker 3: 5:47

Explain that theory for us, I don't want any trouble time in Tommy.

Chris Norton: 5:52

Town. Okay, so it's just being careful not to rush to the toilet in case it's too extra hot. Okay, right, okay, so brilliant, right, that's a highlight of the podcast right there uh, heard it. You heard it here first. Okay, so what's been the response to the initial video?

Caitlin Wharmby: 6:07

so everyone kind of went crazy over the source. Everyone was going to nando's straight away, um. It got coverage in loads of national media. It got over 30 000 views on um youtube and then obviously a lot on tiktok as well. So a lot of people have been going to do like trying the soccer sauce with me videos and things like that and a few like footballers, I think you said ella toon.

Chris Norton: 6:33

Yeah, and she said check out, I'll be doing Toon Sauce soon. Saka Sauce sounds cool Toon Sauce, but she dips her chips and she said she doesn't like chilli. And then she dips it. We'll put that video in here right, we're at Nando's.

Speaker 3: 6:46

The Saka Sauce was actually released today, so I'm going to have a little try of it. I'm not the best with spice, but the bottle looks amazing. Look at that. Peri peri saco Sweet and fiery sauce. Want you For that sort?

Chris Norton: 7:13

Hey, really nice, peri peri tune coming soon and then there's also yeah, I've also seen a TikTok from Declan Rice which is like 14 seconds.

Speaker 3: 7:24

We'll play that now here we go, peri, peri, sack of time. Is it nice Sax? It was unbelievable. Are you sure? Man's been cooking. You've been cooking, man's been cooking. Can't wait to try it, my guy.

Chris Norton: 7:40

Yeah, I mean the Declan Rice thing. He's just sat in Nando's. You know they're just having dinner and I'm like do footballers eat Nando's? I don't know why I always imagine like footballers and athletes to eat better than I don't imagine.

Caitlin Wharmby: 7:52

Nando's is unhealthy, though, even though it is.

Chris Norton: 7:54

Peri-Peri's chips.

Caitlin Wharmby: 7:55

Oh, love them.

Chris Norton: 7:58

Macho Pete, what do you go for?

Caitlin Wharmby: 8:00

Either thighs medium thighs peri chips and the coleslaw is banging. The coleslaw's a good choice.

Chris Norton: 8:08

Yeah, the butterfly chicken's good. Is it a sunset burger? That's still available, with a bit of halloumi on? Very nice. Yeah, I am here for free Nando's. If Nando's are listening, send us some free Nando's and we'll review your sauce. So okay, no more. Back to the reality of what happened. So could you buy Saka sauce, or could you only get it in the restaurants?

Caitlin Wharmby: 8:31

you could buy it in the restaurant, right? Okay, so they had it behind the shelves, but people start. They had the bottles obviously to use in the restaurants, and then they also had them to buy behind the counter, right?

Chris Norton: 8:41

but how?

Caitlin Wharmby: 8:42

But how much is a bottle of Saka sauce? I honestly wouldn't have a clue.

Chris Norton: 8:46

We'd have to have a look on eBay. Should we have a look? Yeah, sure, yeah, let's go. £55?. £55? No, but listen, £55?. But you can save up to 20% of what you want. Okay, so if we buy more than one, we save 20. But how much is a standard bottle of nando's? Yeah, how much is a nando's sauce? You can buy them in sainsbury's right.

Caitlin Wharmby: 9:08

So a normal bottle is three pound 80. I feel like they would have upmarked that. The sacca one, though, if they were selling it behind.

Chris Norton: 9:13

They have to have sacca sauce nando puri puri, medium bottle number seven one of one, 1200 pounds. That is crazy. Okay, that is demand right there. Okay, keep going. This is interesting. There's a whole new market £45, £39, £35. So people have blatantly got it and then they're just selling it for who's going to pay £1,200? Saka, if you're listening. £1,200 for a bottle of your sauce, but £1,200 is ridiculous. Okay, so the campaign then?

Chris Norton: 9:46

so the source is we can see that there's been massive demand in the source which, at the end of the day, any marketer listening to this is wanting to sell, product. The association with euros soccer. It's what it feels like a good partnership yeah, so what did they what? What brand awareness have they got from it?

Caitlin Wharmby: 10:01

well, they've obviously combined one of the most famous footballers at the minute. I would say, especially for, like the young audience, I feel like very gen z relatable. Yeah, very gen z very relatable um. So they got a lot of kind of bad press. But I mean, no press is bad press um about people stealing it.

Chris Norton: 10:21

So people were going into this, into the restaurants and stealing the bottles off the tables because it was in, and then I saw it on my eBay and I looked at it.

Caitlin Wharmby: 10:29

So they kind of like issued a warning to the feasts, like we are going to get rid of it in the half now, right, okay? I?

Chris Norton: 10:35

wonder if it will come back if it's so popular.

Caitlin Wharmby: 10:38

As of last week.

Chris Norton: 10:38

It feels very prime to me. Me like scarcity has worked here. There's scarce product.

Caitlin Wharmby: 10:43

Everybody wants some, you know, a bit like the prime it literally feels like a pr campaign, like it's worked, though. Yeah, it's a partnership.

Chris Norton: 10:49

Brand partnerships work really well. Um interesting campaign. Portugal are hopefully still in there, as are some of the other teams that other people are supporting, no matter where you are. That's good. Now, caitlin, tell me this show is all about fuck. Now, I am aware that you've only been here for three months and you know we don't make many mistakes here, but you have worked at Disney before, haven't you?

Caitlin Wharmby: 11:14

Yeah, I did a year-long internship at Disney.

Chris Norton: 11:16

And how did?

Caitlin Wharmby: 11:16

that go. I loved it. Yeah, However, there was one fuck-up.

Chris Norton: 11:20

Okay, that's why people are listening, so they want to hear. What did you do?

Caitlin Wharmby: 11:25

up. Okay, that's why people are listening, so they want to hear. What did you do? And so I was in charge of sending out invites to a pretty big premiere and, oh yeah, I put the wrong date, the wrong location and influencers turned up so it wasn't. So what happened then?

Chris Norton: 11:41

and did you get a phone call?

Caitlin Wharmby: 11:43

yeah, I got a phone call from some influencers. Where were you when you get a phone call? Yeah, I got a phone call from some influencers.

Chris Norton: 11:46

Where were you when you got the phone call? In the office. Oh so you were, it was daytime, not nighttime. Yeah, yeah.

Caitlin Wharmby: 11:51

It was a daytime event, but it was the day after, not the day, that they turned up, so it was the day after.

Chris Norton: 11:57

So they were there early not late. Which would have been worse, by the way, if they missed it. And then it was.

Caitlin Wharmby: 12:03

Yeah, no, it was a day early at least, so they did still come after some grovelling.

Chris Norton: 12:07

Okay, and then Did you have to take them out again, or was it okay?

Caitlin Wharmby: 12:10

It was all right. I went and met them. I took them to a hotel it. It was fixed quite easily, but it was embarrassing, to say the least. How did you get the wrong venue, though? I don't know.

Chris Norton: 12:22

I honestly don't know.

Caitlin Wharmby: 12:23

It was like literally the tiniest spelling mistake and it just.

Chris Norton: 12:27

I mean, I can't talk. I had a webinar For those of you that come to the webinar thanks very much.

Chris Norton: 12:32

But we had a webinar and for some reason, our webinar and I only noticed this the day before had defaulted to 7 pm. So Will and I had been here ready at work and then looked at the time and on the webinar platform that we use, it was set for 7 pm and so I had 200 people turning up to a webinar for 7 pm, which meant we had to work till. Well, it was my fault, so I had to take it on the trip. I couldn't cancel an hour on the same day and say, oh, it's now at 10.30am, you know, but anyway there you go, so did you still get positive coverage?

Chris Norton: 13:03

They wrote about the event.

Caitlin Wharmby: 13:04

Yeah, yeah, and I mean I was doing multiple events at the time so I scatterbrained.

Chris Norton: 13:12

I blame it on that.

Caitlin Wharmby: 13:13

Okay, but I got what I like about Disney is you?

Chris Norton: 13:15

are you following your sister's career path? Because your sister?

Caitlin Wharmby: 13:17

works at Disney. It's mental, isn't it Well?

Chris Norton: 13:19

I Are you listening, Lego? Because she's coming for you.

Caitlin Wharmby: 13:24

I wanted to do PR originally and then I swiftly changed to marketing because I didn't want to copy her.

Chris Norton: 13:31

And it's just ended up, you've ended up coming here.

Caitlin Wharmby: 13:33

Literally the exact same.

Chris Norton: 13:34

We're the benefactors of that. We're the benefactors of that. Well, thanks everybody for listening to Campaign Crunch. Hope you enjoyed it. Make sure you subscribe to the YouTube channel, which is flying at the moment. We've made it all podcast specific and we're up to just over 500 subscribers now. So thanks everybody for subscribing. If you haven't, shame on you, Click subscribe Subscribe you get to see my face. What could be? Oh, actually, yeah, you're probably right, you. You get to see my face. What could be? Oh, actually, yeah, you're probably right.

Caitlin Wharmby: 14:02

You're probably better just listening to the audio version. Okay, and we'll see you next week. Thanks very much.