Hellmann’s has announced a new recipe and updated packaging across its mayonnaise range, supported by a new campaign that moves away from gender segmentation with a renewed focus on tastes and food culture.
New pack designs include a “more contemporary, deli-inspired colour palette”, while a new Light Mayonnaise will join the portfolio, free from artificial flavours, colours and preservatives.
Hannah Webb, senior brand manager for Hellmann’s at Unilever, said: “Our re-launch is not just about a new packaging design or campaign, it is a new positioning which will permeate across everything we do moving forward.
“Consumers are increasingly looking for authentic and natural offerings when it comes to their food choices. This is just the start of another exciting year of real transformation for Hellmann’s.”
As part of the £7m “On the side of food” marketing campaign Hellmann’s has ditched gender segmentation in its marketing in favour of celebrating food culture.
The Unilever-owned mayonnaise brand is being revamped across 24 international markets to focus on “great taste and food culture”.
It follows brand research which found that consumers are addicted to “food porn” – meals that look good – but that there is currently less focus on great-tasting food.
The move by Hellmann’s to drop gender as a way to segment consumers follows Unilever’s aim, announced last year, to eradicate stereotyping from all its advertising.
Hellmann’s has historically used gender as a core demographic category but wants to move beyond that.
Along with ditching the “rudimentary ways of segmenting”, the new Hellmann’s campaign focuses on how people experience food and its taste.
Unilever found that 30% of US millennials and 24% of Brazilian millennials post “food porn” images on social media at least once a day. And, in the UK, 22% of millennials allow their food to go cold in order to get the perfect Instagram photo.
The global Hellmann’s campaign will roll out in phases over the year. The first markets to go live include the UK, the US, Canada and Brazil.
The bulk of the brand’s investment will be on social media for a three-episode miniseries that launches in late April on Vice-owned food channel Munchies. It will highlight the importance of what food tastes like compared with what food looks like.