IPM Case Studies 2016

Win with Chiquita and the Minions!

Campaign: Win with Chiquita and the Minions! Brand: Chiquita Agency: ATOM Marketing Brand Owner: Chiquita Brands International Inc. Sector: Food

Background

Chiquita bananas key markets in Europe are Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden, Finland, Switzerland, Greece, Italy. Chiquita promotions must be multi-market campaigns as the fruit is grown in Costa Rica and supplied across the complete European region. Promotion product labels must be language free, but still highly attractive. A single campaign idea needs to work with retailers across multiple markets, some allowing POS and others who demand a clean-store policy.

These markets have completely different fresh fruit category dynamics to the UK. In these markets branded bananas are sold at a premium price alongside private-label. The target consumer is families with children and mums are the main shopper. Chiquita has decades of heritage with strong brand value and awareness through its brand building activity. Chiquita positions the brand as fun and playful. The recent Just Smile ‘Above The Line’ equity campaign means the unique brand attributes of blue sticker, Miss Chiquita and the jingle are well recognised. The European markets all have different retail structures but share similar competitive pressures. Chiquita is usually sold at a premium price alongside private-label bananas and/or fair-trade. In the Summer months Chiquita faces competition from other fruit for instore space. The “berry attack” means more shelf space is allocated to berries during this season. Chiquita needs to own the fixture space in advance of the “attack” and gain off-shelf displays to retain consumer demand. This competitive pressure has meant that brand health (measured by brand health tracker) and sales have declined in recent years. What behaviours is the campaign looking to change? Shoppers to pick up Chiquita bananas because only Chiquita offers added value competitions and gifts in the category.

Target audience

Mums in Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden, Finland, Switzerland, Greece, Italy.

Objectives

The Minions campaign was designed to engage with as many consumers as possible and increase brand health metrics. Sales uplift was a secondary objective.

Halt the decline of brand commitment which has been in decline since 2011 (Decreasing from 50.1% 2011 to 41.1% in early 2015 - measured by Chiquita’s brand health tracker).

Increase the ‘fun and playful image’ of the brand to 58% of consumers.

Achieve 80 million impressions with paid media, delivering 100,000 promotion entries.

To receive over 260,000 entries into the online promotion.

To achieve a sales uplift of 15%.

Campaign

Bananas are a staple, commodity purchase in all markets. To encourage consumers to pay the price premium, Chiquita needs to offer added value gifts and incentives. With no packaging on bananas, Chiquita uses the product label to attract consumers. Promotional activity communicated through the labels and large POS displays in store is the opportunity for Chiquita to excite consumers and influence their buying behaviour. Associating Chiquita with the insanely popular Minions characters generated excitement around this fruit purchase. The ideal partnership! The Campaign saw 32 unique Minions character labels applied to over 480 million bananas communicating the brand website. Consumers could collect the set via an online collector sheet. A promotion-themed POS suite was created, featuring a key campaign visual – which was language free – created by overlaying a Chiquita banana as a smile on Minion Bob, so integrating the two Intellectual Property portfolios. The campaign received TV, outdoor and digital media support including an MSN homepage takeover and social media activity. The promotion mechanic allowed consumers to enter the online competition every day, reflecting the frequent purchase of bananas across the 8-12 week promotional window. A single purchase mechanic was used to reflect the fact

that product in the fresh fruit category gets bought often but in small quantities due to limited product shelf life. ‘Win With Chiquita and The Minions’ themed impactful POS and Minions labels meant shoppers were attracted and choose Chiquita bananas when stood at the fixture. Impactful POS displays in store directed consumers online, where they had the chance to win Chiquita Minions prizes every day and play with Chiquita using exclusive Minions content and games hosted at the website. Consumers received a reward at every phase of the activity. Prizes to be won every day included water bottles, cinema tickets and beach towels. Everyone who entered the daily draws was automatically entered into the grand prize to Win a Holiday to New York or London. Beneficial terms were negotiated with Universal for Chiquita to use the Minions IP:

No royalty fee to use the film assets.

Bespoke scenes featuring bananas were created for the film trailers and placed in the movie.

$20,000 prizing funded by Universal.

30-second TV advert created by Universal. In return the Chiquita campaign was valued at over $10million in incremental marketing investment to launch the film and drive box office sales. Consumers entered the promotion online for a chance to win. A ‘No Purchase Necessary’ mechanic was chosen to drive the highest number of entries with the objective of increasing the brand commitment with core consumers. A common promotion model was created for use across all eight markets. The promotion core was consistent but flexed to accommodate local market regulations and needs.

Results

The Minions campaign was designed to engage with as many consumers as possible and increase brand health metrics. Sales uplift was a secondary objective.

Chiquita’s brand health tracker recorded a decline in consumer brand commitment since 2011 (down from 50.1% in 2011 to 41.1% in early). Following

the Minions campaign, brand commitment rose from 41.1% to 43.4%. This result not only halted the decline, but restored the brand to growth.

61.3% of consumers consider Chiquita a fun and playful brand following the Minions campaign.

A total of over 95 million impressions with paid media were made (15 million more than targeted) resulting in over 120,000 competition entries, 20% more than target.

Over 990,000 entries were received across eight markets, against the target of 260,000.

Campaign KPIs were massively exceeded. Entry figures beat the target in every individual market to demonstrate the promotion engagement. POS displays in thousands of stores across Europe meant that the promotion reached a huge retail audience of over 45 million shoppers.

Chiquita set a target of 15% Sales uplift, which was ambitious as the promotional mechanic didn’t require any link to purchase. The campaign deliver 17% sales increase, showing a clear change in consumer behaviour with them picking up a Chiquita banana.

Conclusion

A single promotional platform across eight European markets overcame the unique barriers to running multi-market campaigns.

The campaign reversed an eight-year decline in brand health by a positive association with the Minions… the adorable yellow characters who love bananas!

The campaign offered a fantastic creative fit for both Chiquita’s Just Smile brand equity message and Universal’s Minions characters. The perfect partnership!

A 17% sales uplift in participating markets.

Massive shopper engagement meant 990,000 people entered the promotion across Europe.

The promotion model and creative was exported to North America, China and Japan.

Awards

IPM Awards 2016 Gold, Partnership Marketing Campaign IPM Awards 2016 Gold, Multi-Territory Promotions

Images