For the first time in more than a decade, South Africa is spending significant sums of money to support sales of a wide range of its fruit in some of its key export markets in Europe.
A new campaign, which uses the South African government’s ‘South Africa - Alive with possibility’ logo, trades on the country’s natural advantages for growing top quality fruit with the strapline ‘Beautiful Country, Beautiful Fruit’.
Not surprisingly, growers are expecting the campaign to benefit from the additional focus on the country generated by the FIFA World Cup, which kicks off in South Africa in June. The month-long football tournament will keep South Africa in front of an expected global television audience of more than one billion viewers just as arrivals of summer fruit from South Africa are hitting their peak.
The UK and Germany, not just notorious rivals on the football pitch but also still South Africa’s two largest fresh fruit markets in the European Union, are the target of a publicity blitz, both in store and in print, which is designed to support sales and, in addition, provide a few lucky shoppers with a trip to South Africa during the final week of the World Cup in July. Promotions are also being coordinated for Belgium and the Netherlands.
Supermarkets are the focus of the promotions in all of these countries, with the major food retailers set to support both in in-store promotions and tastings. The roster of food retailers includes all the well-known names such as Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda, Edeka, Metro, Albert Heijn, Delhaize and Colruyt, among others.
“Britain’s major food retailers are all taking part in the campaign that the South African fruit industry is putting together for the UK,” says John Valentine, MD of Red Communications, the agency coordinating South Africa’s UK promotional activities.
A budget of more than E2m has been earmarked to support sales of a range of South African-grown fresh fruit, including apples, pear, plums, nectarines, peaches, table grapes and grapefruit. The campaigns to support South African plums, peaches, nectarines, apples, pears and grapefruit are jointly funded by growers and the South African government. The campaign for table grapes, meanwhile, is wholly funded by SATI growers.
The project itself aims to build on the success of a pilot campaign to promote South African plums rolled out last year which, according to the organisers, made plums the fastest growing fresh produce item in sales terms and stonefruit the only category to see value growth in the UK.
This year’s UK campaign is fronted by two television celebrities, presenter Jasmine Harman and chef Sophie Michell, who embody the twin passions of many British shoppers – buying a house abroad and cooking cordon bleu meals at home. They will lead a public relations programme, while in-store promotions and tastings in major supermarket chains will also do much to raise the profile of South Africa’s fruit.
A number of TV advertisements profiling the positive attributes of South African fresh fruit have been filmed and will be aired on various channels, while the consumer press is also poised to profile features and articles using South African fruits in their recipes.
In Germany, the campaign is running along very similar lines, with point-of-sale material and tastings planned in the major supermarket chains across the country, according to Michael Roos of Cologne-based marketing agency Böhr & Roos. The company is also working with food retailers in Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg, where the campaign is focused primarily on South African pears.
The new campaign heralds something of a return to form for South Africa, whose high-profile trade and consumer campaigns for both the Cape and Outspan brands waned after export deregulation in 1997. A focus on private label means those brands have almost disappeared in many European markets, but the new campaign is set to put South Africa firmly back on the map.
