case studies

Unilever’s sandwich magazine wins international award

Words by: Print Power

Sir Kensington’s, a Unilever brand of condiments, uses a quarterly magazine, Sandwich, to promote its products. The brand has the ambitious mission to reimagine ordinary and overlooked food with fearless integrity and charm. Knowing that it’s food that makes the biggest impact on our lives and our planet. During the recent International CMA Awards it won Gold in the Best Use of Print category.

The condiments industry hasn’t had a shake up in a while, so when Sir Kensington’s entered the market they wanted to do everything they could to disrupt it with style. For too long accepted bland sauces have been accepted on the shelves and equally bland communications to accompany them.

Sir Kensington’s didn’t want to stand for that. They wanted to cut through the supermarket clutter and build a brand platform that people could personally connect with for life, not just for dinner.

Sandwich is written as a celebration of the often overlooked, but universally beloved culinary creation, the sandwich. It uses the humble sandwich as a springboard to explore the wider world of foodie culture – and the communities it brings together.

Each issue features a specific sandwich along with cultural reporting, photo essays, and interviews on the most surprising and creative corners of the food world at large. The first issue pays homage to the BLT, possibly the greatest sandwich of all time. It explores a new trend of female butchers, documents lettuce’s role in the race to colonise Mars, and looks at the – sometimes terrifying – role the tomato plays in movies. It also features a stunning photo essay on the community who cleans up after the annual La Tomatina food fight festival in Spain.

These stories remind us of the power of food while giving a platform to a new wave of journalists, photographers and illustrators who bring an alternative perspective to food journalism. The style replaces conventional ‘foodie’ content with unexpected narratives that challenge the mundane and champions Sir Kensington’s ethos of celebrating food as a connector.

The vision for Sandwich is that it adds an important new voice to the media landscape, applying a premium journalistic lens to food culture. Which is also why it’s not given away for free: it retails at $15 at boutique newsstands and online.

The sandwich is so simple, so ubiquitous and so often underrated. And yet when we started telling friends we were making a magazine about the sandwich, every person beamed

Matthew Lloyd

CMO Sir Kensington’s

Sandwich, created by London-based agency TCO, is distributed to influencers, consumers and stockists; available in 15+ countries including New York, LA, London, Stockholm, Berlin, Lisbon, Amsterdam, Zurich, China, Taiwan, Tokyo and Singapore, with placement in premium locations Tate Modern, Import News, Barbican, MAGMA, Ace Hotel, The Standard, Wythe Hotel, Soho House, Neuehouse, Beverly Hills Hotel, Chateau Marmont and also sold online.