Stunt of the Week: It’s only a Vegan sausage roll…
Amidst rising popularity of the vegan diet, Greggs has kicked off 2019 with the release of its new #VeganSausageRoll, comically advertised in the style of a new iPhone. The cult sausage roll, loved by many got a much-demanded makeover and now sits in bakeries across the UK. But it all got very heated on social media…
The launch prompted an abundance of twitter replies, including from Piers Morgan demanding a revolt against Vegans and the lack of necessity for the new product. This skyrocketed the conversation into the national spotlight and #GreggsVeganSausageRoll and Piers Morgan became the top two UK trending phrases respectively.
Oh hello Piers, we’ve been expecting you
— Greggs (@GreggsOfficial) January 2, 2019
It was the simple yet witty replies from Greggs that really set the wheels of virality into motion. With a short retort, a verbal war began between those in favour of a vegan diet, and those who supported the view of Piers Morgan – increasing the reach of the new #VeganSauageRoll by thousands.
This is a perfect example of how when handled correctly, brands can turn negative tweets into brilliant brand awareness, and in this case, it was through the encouragement of strong views and debate, which Greggs fuelled with smartly manufactured replies to a range of tweets. In fact, the reaction has already been praised by PR pros.
In this case, there definitely is no such thing as bad publicity!
