Held every two years, the IPA Effectiveness Awards are judged by an expert panel to recognise campaigns that have proven their communications activity to be a success.
Evaluation of Eat Them to Defeat Them found 19% of children were more likely to agree that eating vegetables was fun and 54% were more likely to ask parents for vegetables as a result of the campaign.
Dan Parker, chief executive of Veg Power, said: “Every year we have been delighted with the impact that Eat Them to Defeat Them has made in improving children’s diets. Being recognised by the rigorous IPA Effectiveness Awards with gold and the President’s Award for Behaviour Change is further proof that our campaign is working and it is fantastic to receive these accolades.”
Econometric analysis for the period 2019-2021 found that the campaign resulted in vegetable sales nationwide of £92 million which is equivalent to nearly 1 billion children-sized portions of vegetables.
Susie Braun, director of Social Purpose at ITV, added: “We all know vegetables are good for us. Even children know that. But getting them to actually eat them is a different matter. Eat Them to Defeat Them has proven year after year that our counter-intuitive approach works, and we’re delighted to have that recognised in these awards.”
The £3 million 2022 campaign involved adverts appearing in mainstream TV in February and March reaching 61% of households with children aged four to nine. The programme reached more children than ever before with one million children taking part across 3,845 schools.
Sir John Hegarty, Veg Power board member, commented: “These amazing Effectiveness awards recognise the power of creativity to change the mindset of its audience with a daring, distinctive campaign. Getting children to eat more vegetables. A seemingly impossible task. But not so when broadcast TV and creativity is employed.”