Heineken’s apple cider Inch’s, and food and drink social media publication Twisted by Jungle Creations recently launched Local Gems, a tasty new campaign seeing leading UK foodie creators Big Has, Alfie Cooks & Hey Renu and chefs from the Twisted Kitchen rustle up scrumptious fusion-dishes, using local ingredients from across the UK.
To transport the world of the Inch’s social feed to the physical plate, the final apple cider-infused dishes will be made available to enjoy in local Twisted restaurants, including locations like The GPO Food market in Liverpool (largest food market in Liverpool) and local pubs like The Royal Standard in Deptford.
To learn more, we spoke to Tom Jackson, Co-Creator of Twisted and Director of Brand & Creative at Jungle Creations.
What was the brief?
Jungle was briefed by Heineken Inch’s to encourage new audiences to try the cider by highlighting its delicious taste. The brief also wanted to emphasise Inch’s sustainability credentials by raising awareness of how locally sourced ingredients can enhance the cider's flavour.
How did the initial pitch/brainstorming phase go?
We used insights from YouGov and data from our own platform to explore the link between taste and sustainability. The findings boiled down to a simple campaign message that resonated with Twisted’s own beliefs – local tastes better.
Since Inch’s cider only uses apples sourced within a 40-mile radius of its mill, we thought, ‘Why not apply the same principle to our recipe series and exclusively use ingredients that are local to our chefs?’
A unique part of Jungle’s offering is that we have a network of 50 restaurants under the Twisted brand meaning we have the ability to take audiences from URL engagement; viewing content in their social feed, served to them via Twisted accounts, to an actual in-real life experience.
This perfectly aligned with Inch’s secondary objective to drive trial and experimentation and meant we could elevate our content to create recipes and place sampling opportunities at restaurants across the UK.
As Inch’s only launched around three years ago, creating hype around the taste of the product was crucial. That’s why creating a seamless user journey – taking users from a video of a recipe on Inch’s social feed to a Deliveroo or Uber Eats landing page, where they can order the Inch’s inspired dish, or even choose to taste the dish at a local Twisted restaurant – was a primary consideration during brainstorming and pitching.
What was the process behind ideating the concept?
We wanted to evolve the role Inch’s can play in championing sustainability and local businesses through what we termed ‘local gems’. This reflects a surging trend across social media, where influencers discover secret spots and encourage their audience to visit those places.
We used the fact that Inch’s only source apples within a 40-mile radius of its Brewery as our creative concept, and sent Twisted chefs and creators on culinary adventures within the same 40-mile limit of their location.
This simple concept won for us on several fronts. It gave us our point of difference from other content creators who seek out tips and places to visit and gave us a nationwide footprint as we based each creator's video in eight different locations across the UK.
This made each one accessible to audience members from that region as we champion what’s local to them. At the centre of this is great cooking too, which married the themes that we’d defined in our strategy - local tastes better!
As a publisher, our ideation process typically begins with identifying the target audience and the most suitable media brand. Since we wanted to convey the taste message, we chose Twisted. The idea came naturally when we considered how well the brand aligned with the concept of using local produce.
What was the production process like?
The production spanned the UK, with episodes shot in different cities including London, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Brighton, Manchester and Birmingham. This allowed us to showcase the diversity of local produce and flavours across the country, emphasising seasonality.
What kit/tools/software were used to create the project?
The entire campaign was shot using iPhones to achieve an authentic, social-first look and to capture genuine reactions of our Twisted chefs and talents. We also used a fish-eye lens to capture more fun shots, such as the point-of-view of the local ingredients as they were being gathered and placed into the basket.
What’s the main message of this project and why does it matter?
‘Local tastes better.’ It matters because not only is this the key quality that drives the unique offering of Inch’s but because we’re already really invested in this principle - we care about it. Quality ingredients retain quality the closer they are to home.
Secondly, we know that this is not an educational piece. We’re holding a mirror to what our target audience values and we’re living by it in the creative and in the messaging.
How long did it take from inception to delivery?
It took around six months, from the sign-off in January, with the first episode going live in May and the last one in July.
Can you describe the creative spark or inspiration behind the initial concept? Was there a specific moment or insight that ignited the idea?
Once we landed on ‘Local Gems’ as a campaign framework, we were able to create a campaign that encompassed both local ingredients and experience. This resonated with Inch’s brand qualities and the insights we’d ascertained were important to determining the target audience.
How did you ensure that the concept aligned with the brand's values, goals, and target audience?
Building on Heineken’s extensive research on their target audience, we used brand choice preference data from YouGov and our own research, as well as key data from on-platform analytics, which showed us how the Twisted audience engages with sustainable messaging and taste exploration.
Based on the results, we were able to incorporate Inch’s main message of ‘local tastes better’ into our strategy of cooking with local produce on Twisted.
Were there any alternative concepts or ideas considered during the ideation phase? If so, what led to the selection of the final concept?
While the concept’s ambitions evolved, we were always exploring different types of ingredients and locations across the UK.
Can you discuss any collaborative or interdisciplinary aspects of the ideation process, such as working with other departments or external partners?
We collaborated with food creators outside of Twisted, such as Big Has, Hey Renu, and Alfie Cooks, who came up with their own locally sourced recipes for the campaign.
We wanted to partner with creators known for quality cooking, who allowed us to have regional representation while reflecting the “cool” younger, progressive audience Inch’s outlined in its targeting.
What role did consumer research or market analysis play in shaping the concept and its execution?
Routing ideas and execution in research and analysis was paramount throughout our creative development.
Can you discuss any unique or unconventional production techniques or approaches used to bring the idea to life?
We used our proprietary content analytics tool, Jungle IQ, to analyse real-time behavioural insight. These helped us analyse trending recipes and ingredients on social media, so we were able to choose the right recipes for this campaign.
How did you ensure that the concept remained innovative and stood out in a crowded marketplace?
All of our locations were chosen because of their urban, captivating aesthetics. We then married this with the dishes we’d chosen to help push the boundaries of fusion and creator content - drawing in audiences from native communities while building loyalty to the brand as well as Twisted.
What do you hope it achieves for the brand?
We hope this campaign helps establish Inch’s as an innovative brand with taste, community and sustainability at its core.
Of course, we also want more people to try the cider and love Inch’s.
Credit list for the work?
Alice Davies - Lead Creative Producer
Jason Campion - Production Lead
Joseph Watts - Partnerships Director
Isabel Boardman - Senior Project Manager
Victoria Nazarova - Senior Creative
Molly Tappin - Associate Creative Director
Tom Jackson - Co-Creator Twisted, Director of Brand & Creative
Anna-Lee Bridgstock - Executive Director of Data and Product
Adam Foster - Partnerships Lead, Heineken - Inch’s
Tara Phillips - Brand Manager, Inch’s
Zoe Roborgh - Senior Brand Manager, Inch’s
Murielle Boelen - Marketing Manager, Inch’s
