Supporting the campaign in schools - Be Wigan

Supporting the campaign in schools
80% of our kids are not eating enough vegetables. Veg Power is on a mission to inspire kids from
early years through primary school and into their teens to veggie-loving habits they will keep for life
and in turn share with their children.

Eat Them to Defeat Them 2019
We formed a partnership with ITV and together created the Eat Them to Defeat Them campaign
aimed at primary school kids, it ran in Q1 2019. Click to watch the ad

    ●   ITV donated £2m of TV advertising
    ●   Every major national grocer supported with funds and in-store support
    ●   Outdoor poster companies, cinemas and newspapers donated another £3m of advertising
    ●   We distributed 300,000 veggie reward charts in school bags
    ●   Our network of social influencers engaged with over 3m people on social media
    ●   Support from celebrities including Ant & Dec, Jamie Oliver, Will.i.am and Team GB

For many years we have been telling kids that eating veg was good for their health, and although
awareness of 5-a-day style messages is high, they failed to change behaviour. We wanted to do
something new and ambitious which went right to the core of how kids really think and how they
learn through play - to capture their imaginations we needed to break the rules.

All in all, our Eat Them Defeat Them campaign reached into the homes of 40m people. 69% of kids
liked our campaign, 57% said it makes vegetables more fun and 46% of kids who have seen the
advert said they recently tried more vegetables. Sales data confirms a 2.3% positive impact on veg
sales and 1.7% increase in veg consumptions by kids. We’re particularly delighted to have achieved
positive results across the whole socio-economic spectrum. A great start.

A detail impact analysis will be published in November.

Eat Them to Defeat Them 2020
In February 2020 ITV and Veg Power will launch another, even bigger, Eat Them to Defeat Them
campaign focused once again at primary school age kids.

    ●   ITV have committed to the same level of advertising and editorial support
    ●   Channel 4 and Sky Media have committed to support the campaign with even more ads
    ●   Adam & Eve have once again offered their creative skills pro-bono
    ●   Our creatively acclaimed Eat Them to Defeat Them ad will once again engage the kids. This
        year it will supported by six 10 second ads challenging them to eat that week’s featured veg
    ●   Supermarkets across the UK will be supporting the campaign at point of purchase
    ●   Our new programme for schools will reach 500,000 children in 2,000 schools

Veg of the Week
Each week of the campaign will feature a rally cry around one of Britain’s favourites vegetables:

    •   A specific 10 second TV ad calling the kids to defeat that veg
    •   Many of Britain’s favourite chefs inspiring social media with recipes
    •   Supermarkets supporting with placement and promotions
    •   Schools and caterers across the UK using play, learning and taste
    •   Kids at home ticking that veg off their reward charts as they take them down

The Essential Role of Schools & Caterers
Primary schools and school caterers have a critical role to play. The TV coverage, celebrities and
advertising create a huge amount of awareness and excitement. The role of the schools through
learning, play and school food is to turn that buzz into kids tasting vegetables – then to project that
experience back to parents and carers.

At the same time our supermarket partners will be supporting parents and carers with promotions,
our celebrity chefs will inspire them with ideas, and social media will create a sense of momentum.
Together these will encourage parents to repeat the veg kids try in schools, reward them and form
lasting habits.

Our schools programme is being developed by a unique partnership between our creative team, and
a team of expert volunteers including school caterers, public health offices and teachers.

Each participating school will receive an Eat Them to Defeat Them Power Pack. These will include:

    •   Rewards charts and sticker packs for every kid to take home
    •   Posters, cut outs, and wall charts for the kids to decorate schools
    •   Stickers for kids who eat veg in school
    •   Veggie lesson and assembly plans and inspiration packs full of ideas for schools
    •   A national kids’ poster competition as well as much need cash prizes for schools

Making it Work
We know kids love this, our partners in schools report that teachers and caterers love it too. So, we
want to be in as many schools as possible, particularly in those communities who most need our
help. However, we’re all tight on budget.

We have the funds to create and design excellent assets and competition prizes, but we have very
limited funds for production and distribution, and we prefer to use them for match funding and
special needs schools.

So how did we get it into 1,000 schools this year? And target 2,000 next year? The hard truth is we
must be creative and flexible.

    •   This year, 400 schools in Lincolnshire, Northern Ireland, Edinburgh, Glasgow and elsewhere
        received packs funded by our very carefully vetted corporate sponsors – we are currently
        recruiting local corporate partners, ideally from our many friends in the horticulture
        community – we might find one in your area.
    •   Another 200 schools were fully or partly funded by school caterers. We’ve just won the 2019
        Outstanding Contribution Award from LACA and are working with the industry to recruit
        more caterers. We want their support on the ground, access to their logistics infrastructure
        to deliver packs and ideally their funding too.
    •   We found a mix of local authorities, local action groups, charities and trusts who funded or
        part-funded schools in Durham, Portsmouth, Hull, Middlesbrough, Bournemouth,
        Greenwich, Lambeth and Wales
    •   Finally, when a little extra funding came in late, we used it to get packs inti some of the
        schools where between us and the local authority we simply had not been able to find
        funding.

We work hard to make modest means go a long way, and we look for partners who want to work
with us to deliver maximum benefit to their schools.

Next Steps
If you’d like to know more let’s have a chat and see if we can find a way to make it work.

Please help, contact: Dan Parker, dan.parker@vegpower.org.uk

It was an amazing experience working with such a creative and dedicated organisation as Veg
Power. It was wonderful seeing how the activities of the Eat Them To Defeat Them campaign
brought so much excitement, interest and fun to our children in Lambeth. The vibe, energy and yet
simple but important message around vegetables caught not just the imagination of the children, but

also that of our schools, libraries, GPs, market traders, community groups as well as senior council
leaders and councillors, who were all really engaged. All of us in Lambeth are now eagerly awaiting
opportunities to continue to work with Veg Power!

Bimpe Oki, Consultant in Public Health, London Borough of Lambeth