Behind Knorr's Gaming Campaign To Promote Veggie Consumption

It’s perhaps ironic that one of the earliest major gaming platforms starred an Italian plumber who embarks on an adventure, eating mushrooms that make him bigger and stronger. Over 40 years later and there are very few examples of other vegetables or healthy foods that are featured in a positive light to the gaming community; the opposite, in fact having become the norm.

Step forward food and beverage brand Knorr, which has become, perhaps surprisingly, Unilever’s second biggest brand, having hit the €5 billion milestone after three years of growth.

The producer of dehydrated soup and meal mixes, bouillon cubes and condiments was looking to challenge the imbalance of fast food and snacks being advertised to gamers on their favourite titles, to promote a healthier diet and lifestyle and develop a more positive response to vegetables.

This mission is ongoing for Knorr but it is rare for the brand to have a global campaign, with the consumption of veggies varying between territories prompting the need for bespoke messaging. But when it came to the gaming community and the foods they are promoted, it found a widespread truth.

“The strategy that they have right now worldwide, is to appeal to younger generations,” explains Carlos Rodriguez, global creative director for MullenLowe. “The routine of home cooking is getting lost a little bit through generations, so now they're up for easy and more convenient fast food and all that stuff. So as part of the strategy, we thought that gaming should be a space where we needed to be.”

With gaming no longer a niche audience, food brands such as Doritos, Wendy’s, Pringles, Oreos, Prime and Chipotle have all penetrated the environments of major gaming titles such as World of Warcraft, Fortnite and Minecraft to tap younger consumers.

Niek de Rooij, Knorr’s global masterbrand director, added: “We had no idea this was so widespread and bet that gaming publishers haven’t noticed either! This campaign is about getting veg super-charged as much in the virtual world as they are in the real world.”

From a germ of an idea

Following a workshop session, where all involved wanted to develop something targeting gamers, a trend was recognised that within some of the most popular games, players whose avatars consumed meat and unhealthy foods could improve their core strength.

This led to the resulting campaign that launched in March, titled '#ModTheVeg'. That saw the gaming community modify (mod) these elements in favour of vegetables instead to promote a positive message about their consumption.

The trend to mod or hack each game involves players trying to make a point or be funny, in this case with weapons such as missile launchers modified to resemble large carrots in Fortnite and power up by eating broccoli in Grand Theft Auto.

On the Western-themes survival game Red Dead Redemption, players would hunt for food and instead of finding buffalo, they would discover vegetables. In total, 14 mods were developed and promoted through an online film and social media activity.

This was a collaborative effort between the integrated agency team led by MullenLowe with insights and mods developed by The Invaders, influencer partnerships with Ninja and other global streamers by ITB, PR handled by Weber Shandwick and media by Mindshare.

And because it was set to run across 22 markets, Rodriguez found himself presenting the idea to each team around the world before gaining their buy-in.

“The good thing is that they all loved it. They all embraced it. Of course, they always gave us input but the insight, again, was so powerful, plus the execution was so funny that they said, ‘Yes, let's do it,” Rodriguez said.   

Influencing gamers

The campaign would also involve major gaming influencers, none more so than streamer Richard Tyler Blevins, (better known as Ninja), who has almost 24 million followers on YouTube and 19 million followers on Twitch. He had already recognised the issue and wanted to get involved. The partnership would see the streamers play games and discuss the campaign with their audiences to share the message and drive further involvement.

Unilever also insisted that the campaign come with a mission to drive change and so included a petition where publishers would better amplify the benefits of eating vegetables through their titles. At the time of writing that had reached 21,315 signatures.

And while there was no official response to the petition from publishers it did reach their attention, although not quite as desired with some of the mods having to be reverted once they became aware of the unofficial changes.

Several local events, where gamers played with the mods, were also held in Mexico and Pakistan to engage with audiences in person.

To date '#modtheveg' has driven 19 million views of the hero film featuring Ninja and his live streams, over 850 press articles, driving a 90 per cent increase in unaided brand awareness and a 22 per cent increase in brand association with gaming. Furthermore, 26,000 hours of content was watched in two days, with 10,000 players engaging with the Fortnite mods for an average of 19 minutes.