By Callum Macrae, Marketing Director
Let’s talk about the sandwich that blew up my LinkedIn last week.
Strawberries… and cream… in a sandwich.
Packaged like a humble lunch item, nestled innocently next to egg mayo and ham & cheese in the chilled aisle at Marks & Spencer.
Yes, I bought it and yes, I posted about it.
For those who missed it, here it is.
I wasn’t ready for the reaction – thousands of impressions, dozens of comments and a healthy debate about the legality of dessert posing as lunch.
But somewhere between the whipped cheese, the crusts (controversial), and the philosophical debate on whether this is lunch or pudding… was a pretty decent marketing reminder.
Standing out starts with subverting the expected
The sandwich worked because it played with format.
It said: “You know the shape. You know the packaging. But guess what? You don’t know me.”
The key is that it made you pause, tilt your head, maybe even question the integrity of British lunchtime.
That, right there, is effective branding.
We live in a marketplace of same-ness whether you scroll any feed, browse any aisle, sit through any pitch.
It’s a blur of best practices and safe bets which makes the brands that throw a little strawberry into the mix instantly more memorable.
The sweet spot of disruption
You don’t need to reinvent the entire sandwich – the format can stay, the packaging can still say “ready to eat” – but inside, give us something that sparks a double-take.
Disruption without context is just chaos but disruption within a familiar frame is clever marketing that often sticks in the mind of your audience.
Next time you’re being briefed on a campaign, launching a new service or product, or writing a LinkedIn post that could really do with some legs, ask yourself:
- Are we playing it safe here?
- Are we just blending into the buffet?
- Or is there room to be the strawberries?
You don’t need to shock or go full gimmick. Just enough originality to pause the scroll.
Like a strange little sandwich that made thousands of marketers nod and laugh and say, “Huh. That’s clever.”
Well played, M&S.
P.S. Was it lunch or pudding? No idea. Would I eat it again? Absolutely.
P.P.S. If you want to disrupt your market with a little strawberry magic of your own, you know where we are – get in touch with JE Consulting!
