Birds Eye Announces ‘The Birds Eye Butties 2020’ Winner

Birds Eye, the frozen food brand, has announced the winner of ‘The Birds Eye Butties 2020’, a campaign to recognise Britain’s favourite fish finger sandwich, based on a public vote.The initiative was developed in partnership with creative agency ELVIS.

After inviting people to submit their own unique recipes, Birds Eye put four radical revamps of the classic fish finger sandwich to a vote on Facebook and Instagram, and the 'MumbaiLievable Butty' was chosen by the people of Britain as the overall winner. Its creator will now receive the grand prize of a year’s supply of fish fingers.

The winning recipe, created by Neha Gandesha from Barnet, is a brioche bun filled with three Birds Eye Fish Fingers, tandoori masala spiced Greek yoghurt, grated cucumber and red apple, all topped with red onion, fresh mint, coriander and green chillies. Other finalists in the competition included the 'WonderWaffle Butty', the 'HallouPeas Butty' and the 'Eggocado Butty'.

‘The Birds EyeButties 2020’ is a new take on Birds Eye’s Fish Finger Sandwich Awards, which originally launched in 2017, and aims to create buzz and engagement as well as driving sales of Birds Eye Fish Fingers. The campaign invited people to make their own fish finger sandwich and upload a recipe to social channels, using the #BirdsEyeButties hashtag. 

ELVIS andBirds Eye have developed a social push to announce the winning sandwich onFacebook and Instagram, with posts featuring none other than Captain Birds Eye himself revealing the lucky winner.

‘The Birds EyeButties 2020’ was conceived and launched before lockdown started in the UK, and the campaign has evolved to reflect the huge changes people are experiencing asa result of the Covid-19 outbreak, with a focus on inspiring people to be creative with the food they have available at home. Birds Eye and ELVIS amended social posts with new branding and copy in order to ensure they dovetailed with the launch of the new ‘What’s for tea’ brand platform, created by McCann London as a response to the outbreak.

In line with this strategy, if consumers are missing one or more ingredients, but wish to make the winning sandwich, Birds Eye has suggested that they tweak the recipe or create a new version based on what they’ve got at home, and share their creation on the brand’s Facebook page. Media planning and buying for the campaign is by Zenith, with PR by Cirkle.

Sarah Koppens, marketing director at Birds Eye, said: “The people have spoken, and the 'MumbaiLievable Butty' has been crowned Britain’s favourite fish finger sandwich! This is the finale of a very successful campaign, which has achieved high levels of engagement and some fantastically creative butty ideas.” Neale Horrigan, executive creative director at ELVIS, added: “We’re delighted to announce the winner of ‘The Birds EyeButties 2020’, with the public choosing its favourite fish finger sandwich for the first time ever. We created this work before lockdown started, but it’s taken on a whole new dimension as people seek out new recipe ideas and food inspiration while they spend more time at home. It’s another great example of the way in which Birds Eye is staying connected to its customers during theCovid-19 outbreak."