Setting up the marketing mishap

Will Ockenden 0:00

So do you want to tell us about some of the campaigns that haven't perhaps worked as well?

Gareth Turner 0:03

You want to go there, do you? We do, we do? Oh, definitely, straight in there. So I left Heineken and I joined Arla and I wanted to make a name for myself. So I was tasked with launching this chocolate milkshake drink and I launched this chocolate milkshake drink. We had a campaign shot. We had uh, outdoor and I need the pr, need the pr campaign here, right and okay, it sticks in my throat, you can see. You see me hesitating to even say it right sticking there.

Chris Norton 0:37

I can't bring myself. This is why everyone's you want to hear this.

The human hair coat campaign

Gareth Turner 0:41

So it was. The stunt was that we created a coat made out of human hair, made out of the sort of sweepings off a barbershop floor, and we got some London fashion students to make this thing and we PR'd that, I repeat, to support the launch of a chocolate milkshake.

Chris Norton 1:05

So okay, okay, let's just go back. We'll just wind back to the strategy.

Will Ockenden 1:09

Well, yeah, there you go. It's all based on insight.

Chris Norton 1:11

So the insight of having human hair onto a coat. Let's just go through the insight.

Analyzing why it failed

Gareth Turner 1:17

And there you go. There's the challenge, right. So the brand was it was a high-protein chocolate milk stream with added protein 25 grams of protein. It was an amazing product. And the campaign idea we were riffing on these ideas of overblown masculinity. So on my Facebook feed today the shoot was 11 years ago today and there's pictures of me. I can say I've never looked cooler than the moment of me in this coat and sort of big, long fur coat.

Chris Norton 1:50

Can we get that picture?

Gareth Turner 1:52

It wasn't in that coat.

Chris Norton 1:52

good Lord Is that picture on the internet. It's not the hair coat. We're going to get that in the video. Oh the hair coat.

Gareth Turner 1:57

I've given you a link to the hair coat.

Chris Norton 1:58

Oh, let's take a look at that.

Gareth Turner 2:00

But it's overblown. Masculinity was the idea, and we had a guy holding a lion looking strong, like they're sort of perfume ads and sort of there's a riff on those sort of things, right, and it's like things like, yeah, we thought that was funny and so we just took it to the next level. So what could be more manly than a coat made of man hair? And so that was the thought progression. But I come back to your point there was no insight there. So why did that not work? Well, I think a number of different reasons. I think it was overly complicated. It was so many layers to that onion that you had to unpick to understand why we'd done that thing.

Gareth Turner 2:43

It wasn't executing an idea, it was a thing that we thought was funny and I've since learned that's not probably good enough to uh, to, to to put out in the real, real world. And finally, a fundamental of marketing is if you're talking about a food, it needs to be talking about taste, or at least not going against taste, and it's not undermining taste credentials. So you put all those things together I I didn't adhere to the fundamentals of marketing and that's why that thing hence the name of the show that you've given us.

CNN Japan calls about the coat

Will Ockenden 3:16

Yeah yeah, so, yeah that. So how has it met? So you know you, you used this as a as a PR hook did you so what? Was it met with indifference or confusion, or no, no, it was.

Chris Norton 3:26

What was the title? That was my question, similar to what we were saying what was the title of the release?

Gareth Turner 3:32

I can't remember. I'm trying to connect the two dots like human hair. I'm just looking here. The news article from 2013 was Manly Milk Company Creates Human Hair Fur Coat.

Will Ockenden 3:44

That's a very functional headline, isn't it? But there was like a guy in this hair coat.

Gareth Turner 3:58

But it got some traction.

Will Ockenden 3:58

So it worked then? Well, not.

Gareth Turner 3:59

But it's so complicated. You're right about the link. It was discussed.

Will Ockenden 4:01

The moment you've got to explain an idea. It's too complicated.

Gareth Turner 4:05

So I'm there the first, however many months six, seven months I'm into my job at Arla and I get a call from the global head of PR. He goes Gareth, I've got CNN from Japan on the line. I go oh my God, what have I done? What have I done? I'm just trying to do good stuff here. And he goes yeah, don't worry, mate, I'll sort this out. They want an interview, cnn want an interview with you. Okay, I can't do this, but yeah, so despite that, I did.

Chris Norton 4:33

All right, did you go on it.

Gareth Turner 4:35

No, no, no, no, no, no. Oh okay, no, no no. That was, I wasn't experienced enough to do that. Live Okay, life okay. Yeah, that it was. Yeah, it was. Thank god pierce morgan didn't get hold of that one, that would have been.

Modern perspective on the campaign

Chris Norton 4:46

Yeah, he wouldn't have liked. The weird thing, the weird thing about this is you're saying that he did get some traction despite the the headline being quite functional. But actually if, in the modern era of social media and tiktok, if you're doing a tiktok video about the campaign, yeah creating a jacket out of human hair, although I have to admit it does sound revolting, doesn't?

Will Ockenden 5:03

it, it, it sounds itchy. It doesn't sound like something I want to wear.

Gareth Turner 5:08

It was awful, but it doesn't link to the product. It doesn't link to the logic flow from your product and your product benefit of it's got high protein. I mean that's quite a leap there. So I mean that's why I didn't.