Sainsbury’s are having a Giraffe

Social media is exciting and is an instant way for people (and brands) to connect and share new content. Also, news travels fast in the world of social media and acts as a fantastic catalyst for getting the talk out there.

This story about Sainsbury’s renaming their Tiger Bread to Giraffe Bread after receiving a letter from a inquisitive child is a great example of a brand interacting properly with people through Social Media and recognising when something has ignited the imaginations (and hearts) in this case of the public.

Back in May 2011, three-and-a-half-year-old Lily Robinson wrote to Sainsbury’s, asking why its Tiger Bread was called that when it actually looks much more like a giraffe.

Chris King who worked in the Sainsbury’s customer service team at the time wrote this great response which went viral and trended all over social networking sites after Lily’s mum posted the letters on her blog

“Renaming tiger bread giraffe bread is a brilliant idea – it looks much more like the blotches on a giraffe than the stripes on a tiger, doesn’t it? It is called tiger bread because the first baker who made it a looong time ago thought it looked stripey like a tiger. Maybe they were a bit silly.”

He also included a £3 gift card to thank Lily for taking the time to respond.

In response to the feedback Sainsbury’s has received following this the supermarket announced today that it’s actually changing the name of its bread to giraffe.

It’s a great example of how the power of social media can work to a brands advantage when done effectively and this is something we advocate to all the brands we work with at 20:20 Agency.

Back in the summer of 2011 we launched a Street Art app on Facebook with Mountain Dew Energy to encourage fans to create their own graffiti online with a cash prize of £5k and the winner seeing their graffiti being blown up and showcased in “the real world” by The Graffiti Kings from East London. As the campaign was embedded in Facebook, the functionality meant that fans could easily share their art online, in turn creating more online chat about Mountain Dew Energy.

Alongside the Street Art app campaign, we did sampling in the major cities across the UK which in turn was helping drive consumers to the Facebook app.

The ‘Street Art App’ caused quite a stir online with buzz and engagement creating over 200,000 likes and is just another example of how exciting offline activity makes a social media campaign alive and fresh in the real world.