Hellmann's Real Food Movement

Institute of Communication Agencies Grand Prix, Canadian Advertising Success Stories, 2011

Title: Source: Issue:

Hellmann's Real Food Movement Institute of Communication Agencies Grand Prix, Canadian Advertising Success Stories, 2011

Hellmann's Real Food Movement

A. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Business Results Period (Consecutive Months): January 2007 December 2009. Start of Advertising/Communication Effort: April, 2007 Base Period as a Benchmark: Calendar 2006 a) Synopsis of the Case Hellmanns mayonnaise has been a staple for generations. However, for the past several years, it has battled an unhealthy perception that it is "junk in a jar." Today Moms want fresher, more authentic, better tasting, more nutritious food. In order for Hellmanns to grow, we had to tackle this negative perception. Hellmanns is in fact made primarily with real, simple ingredients eggs, oil, and vinegar. By tapping into the trend away from pre-packaged, chemical laden foods towards those made with unadulterated, easily recognized ingredients, Hellmanns could champion a Real Food Movement. This could facilitate Canadians eating more real food and bring Hellmanns mayonnaise along for the journey. The campaign began in 2007 with Hellmanns sponsoring "Urban Gardens," then developing a partnership with Evergreen, a not-for-profit, in 2008, and further expanding with the "Eat Real. Eat Local" integrated campaign in 2009. We will show how Hellmanns has grown its business from 2007-2009, and overtaken key competitor Kraft Miracle Whip along the way. b) Summary of Business Results Using 2006 as a base, Hellmanns REAL dollar volume was ahead 5% in 2007, 7% in 2008 and 14% in 2009. Total Hellmanns REAL market share grew from the 25% level in 2006 to 29.3% in 2009. These results are the highest the brand has ever achieved.

B. SITUATION ANALYSIS
a) Overall Assessment

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Hellmanns has been enjoyed by Canadians since 1955. Whether it was used on sandwiches or in salads, it was loved for transforming good foods into deliciously yummy foods because of its versatility. The brand prided itself on providing the best quality mayonnaise with real, wholesome ingredients and great taste. Around the beginning of 2005, however, the versatility platform was no longer differentiating enough as consumers moved into the new millennium with a more complex and vigilant view on what they were eating. A study conducted by the brand found that 75% of consumers perceived mayonnaise to be "junk in a jar." The complexity started with the myriad of confusing food issues and choices:
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an over-reliance on cheaper, convenience foods with poor nutritional values fad diets like Atkins and South Beach food safety and provenance concerns

It has then built with the broadening of Canadianspalates and food experiences, with the growth of out-of-home eating, and exposure to endless food varietyconsider Japanese, Thai, and Asian. Perhaps most importantly, and as a partial antidote to this complexity, consumers are also craving simplicity. Trend analyses and our research shows that consumers are pushing back against food that is artificial, seeking the real and the natural. We had an opportunity to leverage Hellmanns ingredients: eggs, oil and vinegar. This became the sweet spot for the repositioning: "Its time for real." b) Resulting Business Objectives
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Grow Hellmanns market share versus the previous year Grow Hellmanns sales (dollar and tonnage volume) versus the previous year Convert Kraft Miracle Whip users to Hellmanns Improve tracking ratings for "Is made from real simple ingredients" and "Is real eating at its best"

c) Annual Media Budget $3 $4 million. d) Geographic Area National.

C. STRATEGY
a) Analysis and Insight As noted, Hellmanns is made with real ingredients eggs, oil and vinegar. But we reasoned that an ingredient story alone would not provide the persuasion we knew would be needed to increase purchase consideration. We turned our attention to the societal longing for a return to the authentic and saw the opportunity for Hellmanns to put a stake in the ground for everything real to elevate the idea to a social mission by championing a Real Food Movement.

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b) Communication Strategy We targeted principal grocery shoppers: females 18-50 years of age. We encouraged them to join the Real Food Movement through participating in three "Real" pillars:
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Eating & Cooking Real Discussing Real Growing Real

Our sales and brand perception goals would be served through a powerful social marketing plan executed across many channels.

D. CREATIVE EXECUTION
With the help of Hellmanns Inter-Agency Partners (Media-PHD; PR- Harbinger; Digital- Dashboard; Promotions-Segal), we developed a series of activation programs and ran them in Canada from 2007 through 2009: 2007: URBAN GARDENS Our program kicked off with the Hellmanns Community Gardens project in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, Montreal and Halifax. We created areas of workable land, divided into 12 plots, where selected consumers could plant fruit/vegetable gardens and grow their own real foods. Plots were given free of charge to worthy applicants, such as a single mother of three who lives in a downtown high-rise, individuals from a nearby retirement home, a recent immigrant from Croatia and a Girl Guide chapter.

The Invitation: Consumers were invited to apply for a plot in three different ways: via a newspaper ad, online banners and a direct mail door hanger. The DM was targeted to apartment dwellers near the garden plot sites and included a seed pack to motivate them. We got over 500 applications for 60 plots.

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In-store: We got consumers excited about the project by including an on-pack coupon and contest with a chance to "Win Free Groceries for a Year." It was the most successful contest of all Unilever properties in 2007, with 300,000 entries. Online: We created a toolkit for urban gardeners, the highlight being a desktop garden widget where you could monitor your virtual green space as it blossomed over the season. We included resources on gardening, planting, farmers markets etc. The website had twice as many average monthly unique visitors who spent twice as long on it compared to the typical Unilever website.

TV: We wrapped up by telling consumers about our initiative, driving them to our website to learn more.

2008: EVERGREEN PARTNERSHIP

Hellmanns established a national partnership with Evergreen, a not-for-profit organization whose mission is to make cities more liveable by creating sustainable outdoor spaces. The partnership allowed us to leverage Evergreens network of gardens across Canada. Once again, we gave Canadians a chance to win a plot in one of 5 major cities and doubled the number of plots available. TV: A :30 TVC produced by Ogilvy NY for global use was tagged to tell consumers about our commitment to real food and drive them online to sign up for the Real Food Movement.

Newspapers invited consumers online for a chance to secure a garden plot through Evergreens community gardens as well as encouraging them to sign the pledge for the Real Food Movement. Media partnership with CanWest allowed us to broaden our message by creating four additional :15 spots with celebrity Chef Chuck Hughes, owner of "Garde Manger" in Montreal. His commitment to using only real and local foods was a perfect complement to the brand. Our message also gained valuable exposure on the Food Network through Foodtv.ca. Online: This continued to act as a resource for gardeners, locavores and foodies. We bolstered our tools on urban gardening, our tips for finding locally grown food, and our recipe offerings. We held online forums with Chef Chuck Hughes engaging in a dialogue with consumers about real food, encouraging them to take the Pledge to Eat Real. In-store: We distributed 300,000 pairs of gardening gloves on pack nationally, along with a recipe book.

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PR: helped generate 57% more media stories than the year previous, and 28% more consumer impressions (12.2 million consumer impressions). 2009: EAT REAL. EAT LOCAL. In 2009 we drove a deeper stake in the ground for Hellmanns "real" platform. We looked at barriers to Canadians eating the most flavourful, healthiest real foods and learned unsettling truths. With prime farmland being paved over and cheaper imports soaring, Canadians are losing the ability to eat Canadian. Hellmanns could step up and be a voice heard by the masses not just the much smaller, affluent group already eating local Canadian food. The products real, Canadian ingredients could be underscored in the process, giving the brand credibility as a leader of the real food movement. Mini-documentary: This shone a light on food facts and galvanized Canadians around a new reason to eat real, Canadian foods. The emotional core of the campaign was a three minute film, "Family Dinner," which lived on eatrealeatlocal.ca. It told the alarming truths of the Canadian food system, and came out of extensive research.

TV: This served as a preview of the "Family Dinner" film and drove to eatrealeatlocal.ca. Eatrealeatlocal.ca: This was a repository of real Canadian food knowledge. It included pledges, petitions and a charity component through Twitter to fund Evergreen. Every action pledged translated into a donation towards supporting local food resources run by Evergreen. The site used blogs, Twitter feeds and Facebook Connect to encourage dialogue supporting local food.

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Social media program: Hellmanns enlisted digital influencers to spread positive word-of-mouth on the progress of Eat Real. Eat Local, in the digital space. Digital: This encouraged consumers to watch "Family Dinner," drove pledges on the site, included homepage placement, eblasts, targeted ad units and integrated sponsorships. In-store: We helped Canadians get more real, local foods onto their plates through discounts on Canadian fresh produce. Onpack, we offered a free, reusable grocery bag.

Partnership with Canadian Living: A seasonal double-page spreadhighlighting how to eat more real food and with more local optionsdeployed in the magazine and online.

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PR: This educated consumers with the most credible source of all: the news. Partnering with CanWest News, we created eight national editorial broadcast news pieces.

E. MEDIA EXECUTION
We used a multi-channel approach over the entire campaign. Conventional and Specialty TV drove awareness, with media partnerships, whether TV or print, to deepen message delivery. Newspaper and Direct Mail ran in the first year inviting consumers to apply for an urban garden. Since all messaging and activities drove consumers to the Hellmanns web-hub, digital media has been an important channel, with homepage placement, e-blasts, targeted ad units and integrated sponsorships. The 2009 "Eat Real. Eat Local" program used an extensive Social Media program, enlisting pre-screened and qualified digital
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influencers to spread positive word-of-mouth. This was one of Unilever Canadas the first social media programs, paving the way for a new ways of engaging with consumers and learning best practice in this channel.

F. BUSINESS RESULTS
Against 2006 as a base, Hellmanns REAL volume ($s) was ahead 5% in 2007, 7% in 2008 and 14% in 2009, as seen below in AC Nielsen data.

Hellmanns REAL market share ($s) grew from the 25% level in 2006, reaching 26.8 % in 2007, 28.1% in 2008 and 29.4% in 2009, as seen below in AC Nielsen data.

The response to the "Eat Real. Eat Local" activation is particularly noteworthy:
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After 10 days the on-line film "Family Dinner" had about 50,000 hits through YouTube. It was in the top six on The Best of YouTube w/o June 22, and Fast Companys blog (July 29/09) said: "Theyve produced a doozy of a commercial."

The 2009 activation campaign achieved over 18 million consumer impressions.

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Share of social media voice went up from 17% to 51%. Online chatter was 85% positive: blogs from Canada to Germany sent links to the film and website. Some cynicism was expected, but negatives were few.

Many groups voiced appreciation, including the Federation of Agriculture who invited the Brand Manager to be their keynote speaker at a farming event.

The campaign was Strategys 2009 Bronze BIG award winner.

G. CAUSE & EFFECT BETWEEN ADVERTISING AND RESULTS

Brand Image Millward Brown tracking shows Hellmanns real food messaging is helping drive perception and behaviour. Consumers are strongly associating Hellmanns with "Made with real and simple ingredients" and "Fits with the way I want to eat."

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Purchase Consideration Top 2 Box and "Would be my first choice" showed significant increases at the 95% confidence level.

Pricing and Promotion Pricing and promotional efforts have been consistent year over year; distribution is broad, and unchanged. Digital Dialogue While there has been tons of chatter in the blogosphere, this blogger sums it up neatly: "At first I was a little annoyedseems everyone wants to profit off the better choices we are making for food and the earth in general. But this seems to actually pass off as authentic. It will be large corporate companies like this that really help to make change. Its rather unfortunate but thats the way we roll as a society. So keep rollin!" Results versus Competition Most gratifying of all, when combining HellmannsREALandFatproducts,TotalHellmanns overtook its number 1 competitor Kraft Miracle Whip in both dollar and tonnage market share over the duration of the campaign.

Brand/Case: Hellmanns Real Food Movement Winner: The Grand Prix Best IntegratedGold. Sustained SuccessGold. Client Credits: Unilever Canada Christopher Luxon General Manager

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Mark Olney VP Marketing Geoff Craig VP Marketing Sharon Macleod Marketing Director Jon Affleck Marketing Director Juanita Pelaez & Ian Busch Brand Managers Monica Palit Assistant Brand Manager Agency Credits: Ogilvy Janet Kestin & Nancy Vonk Co Chief Creative Officers Ivan Pols Art Director Chris Dacyshyn, Siobhan Dempsey & Jane Murray Copywriters Laurie Young Managing Director Aviva Groll Group Account Director Sarah Kostecki & Stasha Poznan Account Supervisors Coby Shuman Account Executive Inter-Agency Partners Media: PHD PR: Harbinger Digital: Dashboard Promotions: Segal

Copyright Institute of Communication Agencies 2011 Institute of Communication Agencies 2300 Yonge St., Box 2350, Suite 3002, Toronto, Ont., M4P 1E4, Canada Tel: (416) 482-1396, Fax: (416) 482-1856 www.warc.com All rights reserved including database rights. This electronic file is for the personal use of authorised users based at the subscribing company's office location. It may not be reproduced, posted on intranets, extranets or the internet, e-mailed, archived or shared electronically either within the purchasers organisation or externally without express written permission from Warc.

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