VEGANUARY VICTORY FOR FOLLOW YOUR HEART
- Digital-first campaign on highly targeted channels such as TikTok, celebrity endorsement and influencer engagement
- Total campaign reach: over 7 million
- Consumer print-supported campaign with 46 pieces of coverage in key January sales period
Now in its eighth year, Veganuary is an all-important date in any vegan food producer’s calendar, but with its booming success, it has become more competitive than ever when it comes to getting media cut through. So, when Californian plant-based food producer, Follow Your Heart, briefed Storm to create stand-out during January 2021, we knew we had to go above and beyond a traditional press release in order to deliver top quality, meaningful exposure for the brand during this crowded time.
With #Veganuary used 1.5 million times on Instagram alone, it’s clear that the heart of this campaign lives on social, so it was important that Follow Your Heart was part of this online conversation. We launched ‘Veganuary SOS’ kits which were sent to influencers throughout the month, with the team using social-listening to identify those who were vegan-curious or doing Veganuary this year. It included a selection of Follow Your Heart’s tasty cheeses and mayos as well as a digital recipe deck to provide meal inspiration to make Veganuary easy for those not as experienced in going vegan. This generated a steady stream of 28 social posts throughout the month, with a combined reach of just over 1 million.
Alongside the influencer outreach, we ran a celebrity seeding activation approaching those who were flexitarian, flexi-curious or already vegan, sending them a bundle of plant-based goodies to get them through the month. Instagram provides a quick and easy route to DM celebrities, which we took advantage of as well as going the old school route via celebrity agents. The team were able to send Follow Your Heart products out to the likes of Made in Chelsea stars Lucy Watson and Sophie Habboo, as well as MTV’s Jay Gardner and Bad Education’s Layton Williams, generating seven social posts with a combined reach of 1.2 million.
As part of our digital-first approach, we also utilised TikTok, working with two on-brand influencers to create engaging recipe video content. With 29% of those taking part in Veganuary 2021 coming from the 25-34 demographic and 32% of TikTokkers from the same age group, there’s an obvious audience synergy. The platform also continues to deliver reach rates of around four times that of Instagram, providing a strong return on investment.
Print media complemented the digital activity and saw us targeting the taste tests, recipes pages and product round-ups for the all-important January sales period. This resulted in 46 pieces of coverage going live throughout January, including six national newspaper hits, delivering a total reach of over 7 million.
