Ginsters 'Taste the Effort' by TBWA/London

Ginsters unveils mockumentary-style ad to showcase the quality of its ingredients

The 'Taste the Effort' brand platform was created by TBWA\London

By creative salon

18 September 2023

TBWA\London has created a new brand platform and end line for British savoury pasty brand Ginsters with a focus on using humour to drive its message in a new £4 million campaign.

Called 'Taste the Effort', the new brand platform focuses on highlighting the quality of the ingredients within a Ginsters pasty to tackle the misconception that it is a low-quality cold snack to be eaten on the go. In fact, Ginsters prides itself on the quality of its products as its ingredients are sourced from local and British suppliers with no added artificial colours, flavours or preservatives.

The campaign’s central protagonist is a new brand character called Merryn; a lovable, passionate, earnest, quirky farmer who goes above and beyond with the effort she puts into growing the highest quality vegetables for Ginsters. She grew up around growing - as other kids dreamt of moon adventures, she dreamt of ploughs, polytunnels, and asking questions such as “do onions grow tastier if you sing them to sleep at night?” and “if I’m going to rely on worms to enrich my soil – shouldn’t I be making sure I get the best candidate of worm?”.

Some 74 per cent of people are unaware that vegetables in Ginsters products are grown, not only in Cornwall, but only a stone's throw from the bakery. All the meat is also 100 per cent British.

Once more, Merryn is so devoted to living up to these standards and growing the best possible ingredients on her farm that she will go to extraordinary lengths to do so. These include dressing up and being a scarecrow, to attempting to pull an ancient and exceedingly heavy old-fashioned plough all by herself because it’s better that way.

The ad uses humour and Merryn’s eccentricity to bring the campaign to life in a way that will appeal to a wide cross-section of consumers.

It begins with Merryn, resplendent in full Wurzels-style costume in a field dressed as a scarecrow. As the ad continues, it delves further and further into the increasingly inventive and dedicatedly outlandish ways that Merryn goes above and beyond in growing her vegetables. From getting upset when potatoes leave the farm, to putting baby monitors in the field to say goodnight to her onions, the ad delivers laughs the whole way through.

It was directed by Rosie May Bird-Smith of Biscuit Films. Famous for her short films, such as the recent ‘Herd Immunity’, which won a Gold at the British Short Film Awards, she has won a huge number of awards for comedic directing, including ‘Best Young and Emerging Talent’ at the British Arrows and ‘Best Director’ at the Papaya Films Young Directors Gala. She was brought onto the production to bring that innate talent to bear on bringing the humour in the script and in Merryn to life.

There will be a 30-second version released on 15 September on social media, which will then hit TV screens on 6 October. There will also be an 80-second ‘feature’ launching on YouTube also on 6 October. It will be supported by social, PR, OOH and shopper marketing.

Emma Stowers, Marketing Director at Ginsters, said: “This is an important moment for the Ginsters brand, we want to shine a spotlight on our great quality in a fun and engaging way through Merryn. This is our biggest campaign and spend to date. The ‘Taste the Effort’ brand platform will pack a heavyweight punch across several national touchpoints. We hope Merryn will become a highly distinctive long-term brand asset who will not only drive an emotional connection with the brand but drive cut-through versus other generic farm-to-fork stories.”

Andy Jex, Executive Creative Director at TBWA\London, added: “A farmer is the perfect way to tell a quality ingredient story. We just needed to do it in a more stand-out way with a voice that felt authentically Cornish and Ginsters. We were lucky we found Merryn, a seriously funny farmer with a serious view on veg.”