Ploughman & Daughters · Rebrand · 2025
The lid
How Bighead spent fourteen months and £1.2m rebranding a 140-year-old mustard, and changed the lid to a slightly lighter yellow.
- Client
- Ploughman & Daughters
- Sector
- Condiments
- Duration
- 14 months
- Team
- Perry, Dilla, DJ Dan, Malcom
The challenge
Ploughman & Daughters has made English mustard in the same jar since 1884. Sales were flat, the founder's great-granddaughter had just become marketing director, and the brief asked for “a refresh, nothing drastic”. We read that as a challenge.
The idea
Malcom ran a six-week discovery and found the insight in week five: people do not buy mustard, they buy the moment the lid comes off. Everything else on the jar was heritage. The lid was the only thing we were allowed to touch, so the lid became the brand.
What we did
Nine workshops, three offsites (one on the yacht) and fourteen rounds of yellow. DJ Dan pushed for a lid that played the national anthem when opened; legal said no, then said it again in writing. The final lid is one shade lighter than the old one and sits two millimetres higher on the shelf, which Marty described to the trade press as “a bold reawakening”.
Results
2%
of shoppers noticed the change
£1.2m
fee, excluding thinking time
1
lid
Gold, Best Rebrand of a Lid. Bighead Awards 2025, judged by Perry.
The client
“We asked for nothing drastic. They delivered exactly that, for one point two million pounds.”
More work
The launch nobody saw
Bighead launched a new pink gin to the right people. The right people were on Perry's yacht. Attendance was four. Social reach was zero.
Purpose, found
Malcom spent six months finding a purpose for a building society founded to help people save. He found one. It was helping people save.
Saying nothing, beautifully
When a reservoir turned slightly orange, Marty wrote a 400-word statement that contained no information at all. The story ran for one day fewer than expected.
The client, the people and the results in this case study are fictional. Bighead is a parody agency.