Impossible competitor Beyond Meat recently introduced the fourth generation of its “core beef platform” under the tech-forward name “Beyond IV.” The product, hyped in a short documentary-style film, trims the ingredient list from 18 to 17, cuts saturated fat by 60% and amps the veggie content with red lentils and faba beans. But with a higher price tag, consumer adoption is to yet be determined.
Meanwhile, Canadian company Daiya has taken a simple but groundbreaking approach of mixing real beef burgers with its plant-based cheese in a campaign called “Not So Controversial.” The work, from longtime agency TDA Boulder, could be considered blasphemous by both vegans and carnivores, but continues the brand’s open-arms message under the tagline, “100% Plant-Based, Even If You’re Not.”
Anti-woke approach
As a private company, Impossible does not release sales figures, but it says it continues to increase market share, “outpacing the growth rate of the rest of the U.S. plant-based meat category in both dollar sales and unit sales.”
Impossible is evolving “from a position of strength” and catering to the crossover audience—90% of Impossible consumers say they also eat conventional meat, per McGuinness, noting that the brand is “the fastest-growing plant-based company in America.”
The brand’s faux beef, chicken and pork products are available in 30,000 retailers and via 45,000 foodservice partners like Burger King, Starbucks, Red Robin, Cheesecake Factory and White Castle.
McGuinness, speaking at ADWEEK X in December, had promised a brand makeover, admitting that the industry as a whole suffers from an image problem. “Climate warriors” who founded some of the brands and zeroed in on sustainability as a key selling point “made the category smaller than it needs to be,” McGuinness said during the event.
“There was a wokeness to it, there was a bicoastalness to it, there was an academia to it … and there was an elitism to it,” McGuiness said of the category’s marketing, “and that pissed most of America off.”
