Swizzels
Celebrating 70 years of Refreshers with a feel-good, community-focused campaign
The Brief
We were tasked with creating a campaign to celebrate 70 years of British sweet maker Swizzels’ iconic Refreshers chew bars, which have been loved for generations. Swizzels wanted an integrated, feel-good campaign which would encapsulate the joy and fun of the Refreshers brand.
Activity
In response to the brief, we created The Great Community Refresh, a nationwide initiative dedicated to brightening up communities and bringing people together. The competition invited local groups, organisations and charities from across the UK to enter a space or project in need of a refresh in their area to be in with a chance of winning one of seven £1,000 grants – one for each decade of Refreshers – to make their refresh a reality.
We created the branding for The Great Community Refresh, ensuring it was in keeping with the Refreshers look and feel, drafted compelling landing page copy to encourage people to enter, and determined the judging criteria and T&Cs. We also supported with photography to launch the campaign and created and pitched nine releases in total, as well as supporting with social post ideation and planning. Once the competition had closed, we shortlisted the entries against the judging criteria, ready for the judging panel to select the winners.
In addition, our in-house videographer created a film featuring two of the winning projects, MCR HQ CIC and Tameside & Glossop NHS Charity, as well as Nici Matlow, director at Swizzels. The video highlighted why the campaign was launched and how the grants have been used to refresh their spaces – an inclusive, accessible dance studio for MCR HQ CIC and a garden transformation at Tameside Macmillan Unit to create a calming space for patients undergoing cancer treatment and their loved ones.
Success
The launch media outreach, along with a series of social posts on Swizzels’ own channels, raised awareness of the initiative and resulted in over 1,500 entries pouring in from every corner of the UK, via the dedicated landing page on the Swizzels website. The uplifting and inspiring entries included everything from painting murals and planting flowers to upgraded equipment for sports teams and the creation of new spaces.
Through an extensive PR plan including a campaign launch, a winner’s announcement and regional releases for each of the projects, we secured 136 pieces of high-quality coverage in 103 different national, regional, marketing and trade publications, as well as on TV and radio.
This resulted in 2.94m estimated views and 1,630 engagements, with a potential audience reach of over 1.13bn. Coverage highlights included BBC East Midlands, BBC Radio Midlands and BBC Radio Cambridgeshire, The Sun and Daily Express, alongside over 60 local publications and top-tier trade titles like Marketing Week.
As a business rooted in its own community for nearly 100 years, the campaign highlighted Swizzels’ commitment to supporting not just those in its local area, but people and places across the UK. The Great Community Refresh aligned with the Refreshers brand, spreading joy and giving back to the communities that have supported Swizzels for decades, as well as genuinely making a difference to the projects and people that it supported.
