The Marmite brand platform is built on one of the most honest propositions in British advertising: you either love it or you hate it. For decades, that binary has been the campaign, the product truth, and the cultural shorthand that makes Marmite one of the most recognised brands in the UK regardless of whether the person recognising it would eat it voluntarily. By 2023, the challenge was not brand awareness. It was relevance to a generation of young families whose breakfast tables had more options than any previous generation, and whose children’s relationship with Marmite had not yet been established. Adam&eveDDB found the entry point for that conversation in a scientific study, a prenatal clinic, and a jar of Marmite administered twenty minutes before a 4D ultrasound.
The Science That Made It Possible
The campaign’s foundation is a genuine piece of research rather than a manufactured premise. Scientists had established that unborn babies could respond to flavours while still in the womb, experiencing taste through the amniotic fluid. A study at Durham and Lancaster universities had given pregnant women different vegetables and used 4D ultrasound to observe foetal facial expressions in response to different flavours. The foetuses produced measurably different expressions when their mothers consumed different foods, suggesting that taste responses begin before birth.
Adam&eveDDB identified that finding as the brief. Marmite’s flavour is famously divisive. The research suggested that responses to flavour begin in the womb. The campaign question wrote itself: were expectant parents about to have a lover or a hater?
The Activation
Marmite partnered with Window to the Womb, one of the UK’s leading private prenatal scanning clinic chains, to run a nationwide recruitment campaign. Expectant mothers were invited to attend clinics and participate in a Marmite taste trial. Within hours of the recruitment campaign launching, every scanning slot was fully booked.
On the day of each scan, participating mothers were given Marmite twenty minutes before their 4D ultrasound, allowing time for the flavour to reach the amniotic fluid. Sonographers then scanned the foetuses using the latest 4D imaging technology, which produces detailed real-time imagery of foetal facial expressions. The resulting footage showed babies either smiling or grimacing, reacting to the Marmite their mothers had consumed. 560 expectant parents and unborn babies were recruited into the trial in total.
The mockumentary-style film, directed by James Rouse through Biscuit Filmworks UK, documents the scans with couples who are, as the D&AD entry describes it, eager to find out the vital information about their baby. Not whether it is a boy or a girl. Whether it is a Marmite lover or a hater. The documentary register gives each couple’s reaction its own emotional texture: some delighted at a smile, some consoled by the implication that taste buds change with age.
The TV spot premiered on ITV2 at 8:15pm during Bob’s Burgers in April 2023, accompanied by outdoor and print executions using the actual 4D scan printouts showing babies either smiling or pulling disgusted expressions.
The Merch and the Gender Reveal Spoof
Participating families were not sent home empty-handed. Marmite created a range of Lover or Hater merchandise including baby grows, bibs, and engraved butter knives, each corresponding to the scan result the family had received. The social component extended the campaign’s gender reveal mechanic into a format that spoofed the broader cultural phenomenon of gender reveal content, replacing the pink or blue reveal with a Marmite lover or hater reveal.
Shannon Lennon-Smith, Marmite’s marketing manager, described the campaign’s relationship with the science behind it: “While this study could reveal whether you’re born a lover or a hater, other studies support that taste buds change with age. So, while you might be born a hater, there’s still hope you could become a lover.”
Ant Nelson, Executive Creative Director at adam&eveDDB, described what the campaign had identified about expectant parents: “Whether it’s gender, eye colour or personality, all expectant parents wonder what traits their children will have before they’re born. Baby Scan taps into this truth and answers the most pressing question of all: is my child a Marmite lover or a hater?”
The Results
The campaign generated 7 million earned media impressions within the first week. Mainstream press coverage increased 267% and online conversation around the brand increased 37%. An interim sales uplift of 11% was recorded during the campaign period. The brand that had been trying to establish relevance with a new generation of families had produced one of the most discussed pieces of food advertising in the UK that year.
The Recognition
Baby Scan won 2 Gold Lions and 2 Bronze Lions at Cannes Lions 2023. At D&AD 2024, it won a Wood Pencil across five categories: Integrated, Film, Direct, Experiential: Activation and Participation, and Media. At The One Show 2024 and the Clio Awards 2024, it received Gold recognition in the integrated category. The breadth of recognition across categories reflected what the juries identified: a campaign that operated simultaneously as a brand film, a consumer participation event, a social media mechanic, a retail activation, and a media story, and did all five within a single coherent creative idea.
Campaign Name: Marmite Baby Scan
Agency Name: adam&eveDDB, London / Creative: Frances Leach (copywriter), Christopher Bowsher (art director) / Executive Creative Director: Ant Nelson / Director: James Rouse / Production: Biscuit Filmworks UK / Design: King Henry Studios / Media: Mindshare / PR: W Communications / Partner Clinic: Window to the Womb
Brand Name: Marmite / Unilever
Location: United Kingdom (ITV2, OOH, press, social; April 2023)
