Fresh Times – Edition 1, 2019
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Editor’s Note: Promotion all around
In 2019 fresh fruit and vegetable campaigns are back with a bang! Don’t expect any copy-cat campaigns this year with innovation and creativity turned up a notch from all stakeholders across Europe. In this edition we’ve noticed that no one is being left out of fresh produce promotion campaigns with campaigns being targeted at babies, children and adults, and everyone in between! It’s safe to say that industry is ensuring that all demographics are made aware of the importance of fruit and vegetable consumption and that this is acted upon! See you for more promotion inspiration in the next edition of the Fresh Times in April.
Spain: Bouquet dinner
Are you a hard working office worker who enjoys cooking but is short of time in the evening to make a healthy dinner meal? Then Anecoop’s new ‘Bouquet para preparar’ (Ready to prepare bouquet) range is right for you! Anecoop has pre-packed selections of fresh fruits and vegetables to make a large variety of creams, soups, vegetable dishes, salads or smoothies. All you need to do is pick up a pack from the supermarket and follow the quick and easy recipe on the back of the pack – you already have all the ingredients at hand! For the time poor worker this is the perfect healthy solution!
UK: Eat them to defeat them
This January ITV launched a new advertising campaign in collaboration with Veg Power, ‘Eat them to defeat them’, to inspire kids to eat more healthily by consuming more vegetables. The commercial, which has in a first been funded by a large group of UK retailers, aims to engage and entertain children with a memorable and powerful message about the benefits of vegetable consumption rather than using well-worn health messages. Showcasing different tastes, textures and colours, the advert is also supported by posters, stickers and wall charts so kids can help their parents save the world from being overrun by angry vegetables.
The Netherlands: Baby restaurant ready
Have you ever heard of a baby restaurant? The first pop-up Baby Restaurant with fresh fruit and vegetables will be opened at the Nine Months Fair in Amsterdam. Focused on information about healthy food for babies under and over 9 months old, the restaurant features a revolving bar with test snacks for babies and for pregnant women. Parents can also take part in short workshops on healthy food for pregnancy and leave with free fruit and vegetable snacks and recipes. As the future of consumers of fruit and vegetables, we need to ensure that babies aren’t left out of the promotion equation!
Italy: Travel to the Südtirol
Ever wanted to visit the South Tyrol? Now’s your chance! Whether you’re a consumer buying, a wholesaler trading or a store manager showcasing Marlene apples you can participate in Marlene’s second South Tyrol competition organised by the brand’s distributors in the Benelux area. From POS material, to specific retail promotional initiatives to three day stays in South Tyrol where Marlene apples are produced, in this latest competition there’s a prize for everyone across the Marlene supply chain! With dedicated web pages on the Marlene website for supply chain actors and consumers this comprehensive promotion campaign ensures that everyone can participate and join in the Marlene fun.
Germany/Austria: Snack 5!
How many fruit or vegetable snacks are you eating per day? A new European Commission funded campaign Snack 5, jointly run by the German 5 am Tag Association and the Austrian Agricultural Market Austria, intends to remind you of just that. The three year campaign, launched this January, will promote fruit and vegetable consumption as an intermediate snack with online and offline activities. This includes recipe tips, webinars, photo and video stories, and trade and consumer fair stands. Additionally school excursions to growers involving 400 schools and 400 companies in Germany for the ‘Day of the Apple’ are planned to give new momentum to the ‘5 a day’ message.
Belgium: Goodness by nature
Are you worried about your environmental footprint? VBT is doing all the hard work for you, ensuring that their products are sustainable and help achieve the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals with the launch of their renewed sustainability strategy. As part of the strategy VBT has kept their quality label ‘Responsibly Fresh’ to identify fruit and vegetables which have been produced with a concern for sustainability. A new slogan has also been created ‘Goodness by nature’, which serves to emphasise the fact that their Responsibly Fresh products, which are intrinsically healthy by nature, are grown with a minimum impact both on the environment and on people, respecting people and planet.
Europe: Avocado crazy
We’ve all been hit by the avocado craze in recent years, but why? Avocado sales rose by 35% in Europe in 2018, all thanks to the World Avocado Organisation’s (WAO) promotion efforts which have dramatically boosted avocado consumption. Since 2016 the WAO has embarked on a pan-European campaign to stimulate avocado eating. Campaign actions have included an initial first-ever generic branding initiative for an agricultural product ‘Avocado – The Fruit of Life’, and partnerships with retailers and restaurant chains across Europe. This was further disseminated by public relations and social media activities. From recipe books to public transport advertising, there’s nothing the campaign hasn’t covered!
Sweden: Halloween horror
Tying promotion campaigns to annual holidays isn’t always easy, however ICA Gruppen have seemed to have found the trick. Last year ICA Gruppen again ran their successful Halloween fruit and vegetable promotion campaign targeting younger consumers. As well as the eye-catching scary Halloween packaging for a large variety of fresh produce, ICA Gruppen encouraged each store to be actively involved in the campaign with stores creating chambers of horror, spider webs and holding pumpkin carvings. Store personnel were additionally educated about the produce to be able to answer consumer questions in store and were even taken on educational field trips to deepen their produce knowledge.
Spain: Broccoli bonanza
This January +Broccoli embarked on a bonanza broccoli promotion campaign to inspire children and adults alike to eat a bit more broccoli in their diets. A social media campaign was run with followers asked to search for Brocolin with a prize to win one of 50 +Broccoli aprons. The prize winners were also encouraged to post funny photos of themselves in the aprons. +Broccoli also visited Aldeas Infantiles de València where children learnt about the health and nutrition benefits of broccoli consumption. On top of this the +Broccoli blog also featured interviews with researchers and doctors on the science and nutrition of broccoli.
The Netherlands: Nickelodeon dreams
Hillfresh have collaborated with Nickelodeon to create the healthy snack of children’s dreams – collectable cards hidden inside fruit and vegetable snack boxes. With 32 cards to collect, each with a different Nickelodeon character, each time a child opens their healthy snack box they get to collect another card. And if you’ve already collected that card? You can swap it with a card from a friend! The main objective of the campaign is to showcase healthy fruit and vegetable products in a positive way to make the healthy choice the easy choice. Currently providing snack vegetables only, the next step in the campaign is fruit boxes.
US: Let your heart BEET
Are you letting your heart beet? To celebrate American National Heart Health Month in February ready-to-eat beetroot company Love Beets has launched a ‘Love Your Heart-BEET’ campaign with in-store and online promotion activities to educate consumers that beetroot is a fantastic addition to a heart-healthy diet. Partnering with retailer Kroger, in-store demonstrations will form the main part of the campaign, with customers receiving samples and a beetroot recipe book. Importantly, the recipe book contains beetroot recipes certified by the American Heart Association giving integrity to the campaign. All recipes also contain 10 or less simple ingredients so they’re both easy and quick to prepare in a busy lifestyle.