Unilever wanted to extend its popular Marmite brand and to launch a completely new product in to the consumer market - a Marmite-flavoured savoury cereal bar.

The company tasked agency Iris London with developing the Marmite brand's successful 'love it or hate it' strategy, in order to test consumer reaction to the new Marmite savoury cereal bar and help Unilever with its product development.

A combined direct mail and experiential campaign kicked off in February 2010. Over 250,000 consumers were sent a mail pack containing the cereal bar - disguised as a tube of toothpaste and asking 'Have we gone too far?'The pack also contained money-off vouchers, either for more Marmite bars or Signal toothpaste, depending on whether consumers loved or hated the new product. Plus Iris set up interactive video booths at train stations nationwide where commuters could film their reactions to free samples of the new snacks.

The campaign made Marmite a real talking point, with Google recording 60,000 conversations online about how far the product branding idea could be stretched.

Stretching the limits of a brand is a risky game, but the strength of the 'love it or hate it' strategy, developed 10 years ago by DDB, allowed Marmite to take an unconventional approach to a new product launch.