British bakery chain Greggs has launched a vegan alternative to its iconic sausage roll. The vegan version is made of Quorn and puff pastry made from vegetable oil, and costs just 5p more than the meat-filled version.
Announcing the launch, Greggs posted a video to its social channels with the tagline: ‘the next generation of sausage roll technology, introducing the Greggs Vegan Sausage Roll’. As the tagline suggests, the brand playfully spoofed flagship technology launches from the likes of Apple, Samsung and Microsoft to promote the new pastry.
In the launch video, the new product is annotated with specifications as one would expect in an advert for a smartphone: ‘pastry layers: 96’, ‘flake resolution: optimal’, ‘length: 147mm’, ‘touch operation’, ‘vegan core’ and ‘10 mega bites’ all contribute to the tongue-in-cheek announcement, as does ‘user interface: into user’s face’.
Particularly canny, is the way that Greggs used an all-white version of its traditionally blue and orange logo for the video, which has the effect of making the logo look much like that of Microsoft.
A number of journalists received a delivery of the vegan sausage roll in a minimalist white box evocative of iPhone packaging.
Launching in this way, beyond the obvious comedy value of comparing a sausage roll launch to a smartphone unveiling, shrewdly positions the product as a feat of invention and craft over and above its vegan-friendly status. In doing so, the sausage roll became something that everyone wanted to try, not just consumers that don’t eat meat or dairy.
The launch comes at a time when veganism is permeating the mainstream after decades of relative obscurity. In January, 250,000 people in the UK took part in Veganuary, while a petition to Greggs asking them to create a vegan sausage roll last year amassed 20,000 signatures.
The vegan sausage roll proved so popular that Greggs has been regularly selling out, and at one point in January posted notes in its bakeries apologising for the shortage starting “Oh Crumbs”.
In addition to an engaging announcement and good timing, the Greggs social media team reacted well to the buzz surrounding the launch on Twitter, which in turn generated more buzz in and of itself. When British TV personality Piers Morgan excoriated the launch by calling Greggs ‘PC-ravaged clowns’, Greggs calmly responded with a tweet that said, ‘Oh hello Piers, we’ve been expecting you’, a response which generated 147,000 likes (Morgan’s original tweet received 26,000).
The vegan sausage roll initially rolled out to 950 of Gregg’s 1,850 locations across the UK. Greggs has since announced it will roll out to all of its locations, but created a ‘Vegan Sausage Roll Finder‘ to help customers find the nearest location selling them in the meantime.
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