Category: Best Use of Branded Content & Sponsorship
Advertiser: TESCO
Product/Service: TESCO
Media Agency: INITIATIVE, London, UNITED KINGDOM
Business Director: Simon Kennett (Initiative)
Head Of Press And Cinema: Vanessa Doyla (Initiative)
Account Director: Charlotte Mulan (Initiative)
Sales Director: Karin Seymour (News International)
Media placement: Press/Digital Campaign - The Sun - 3rd May 2011
Insights, Strategy & the Idea
With the supermarket titans jousting for a larger share of voice, promotional marketing spend had sky rocketed. National press had been reduced to a deluge of printed comparison-sites as newspaper advertising had now become the consumers ‘go to’ places for the best money saving offers.
Tesco needed to break through the category stalemate and optimise their promotional marketing spend. What we really wanted to do in order to combat this was to strike a chord with Tesco’s target market, the main grocery shoppers (16-64 years); the savvy, recession-struck consumers, who are skilled in their bargain-hunting - playing the market and shopping around for deals.
Our insight suggested that the relationship between newspapers and the consumers was becoming more and more cynical; therefore we had to enable a way for Tesco to establish a positive emotional edge so its target audience could differentiate them from the competition.
Creative Execution
This “edge” was becoming increasingly hard to establish and we knew we needed a partner who could really help us connect with our target demographic. Then we approached The Sun… and the final pieces of the puzzle fell into place. A new unstoppable pound fighting duo had been born!
Through this pioneering partnership we improved the existing Captain Crunch editorial to feature hints, tips and information, plus an independent basket price-checker feature and money-off vouchers. We digitised the “Captain” too extending into The Sun online, where readers could research offers in more detail. Captain Crunch made his presence felt on The Sun’s and Tesco’s Facebook pages, subscriber e-newsletters, in-paper, in-store events and editorial puffs.
To enhance effectiveness of Tesco’s press spend, we diverted budget from existing editorial property into Captain Crunch and switched the release date from Friday to Tuesday allowing readers to plan their spending for the week ahead.
Results and Effectiveness
Success! We extended Tesco’s sales lead whilst simultaneously creating a deep and mutually beneficial brand partnership. Captain Crunch became an essential editorial destination and enabled Tesco to appear on a staggering 45/48 front covers of the Sun, at no extra cost!
A YouGov survey of 353 Sun readers revealed that 24% of people claimed the vouchers persuaded them to go into a supermarket when it wasn’t their main grocery store - recall of Tesco advertising is now 23ppts higher as a result!
• Over 800,000 vouchers redeemed.
• Sales increased by over £12m.