Supported by a strong international club and a proactive approach to marketing within the UK, the Rubens brand has continued to strengthen. Having won the ‘Britain’s tastiest apple’ accolade at the National Fruit Show for the second year running, it has cemented its place as one of the most exciting new varieties to come out of Britain.
With the appointment of Zest as the PR managers for the UK Rubens campaign, the strategy undertaken saw a staggered distribution of releases with time-specific and relevant messaging to a wide range of media from the trade, culinary and consumer sectors. The coverage received - in both print and online of the product launch - after the National Fruit Show award win and the apple’s Halloween and holiday campaigns, was at a high level with an estimated minimum reach of more than 1.3 million people.
The new strategy saw the evolution of a true 360-degree approach to engaging with the grower, the consumer and the retailer. Social media was embraced with a Twitter presence - @TastyRubens - facilitating the entering of an on-bag competition to win one of three iPad 2s. Facebook followers were directed to competitions, information on stockists and regular updates on harvesting, what the fruit was like and where it could be purchased. A landing site page was delivered with links to live grower discussions and Michelin-starred chef Richard Phillips cooking up a Rubens’ tarte tatin with black pepper ice cream. The social media and online campaign was set up to understand the relationship the target audience has with fruit in terms of taste, health, use and shelf life, and infiltrate this consumer audience on a platform they know, use and understand.
The successful campaign, coupled with an excellent crop, provided potential new growers with the assurance they needed to start planting. “Some 40,000 trees went in the ground last autumn and another 60,000 are ordered for 2012,” says marketing desk Norman Collett’s commercial director Michael Joyles. “As one grower put it, ‘every time I open the trade press I see Rubens; everyone is talking about it’. We are very pleased with the impact of the new campaign; it has been carefully managed and is paying dividends in terms of the value of the brand.”
Three new growers have joined the 13 existing members of the Rubens UK club, and volumes are set to rise to nearly 3,000 tonnes in 2013. “The existing grower base has been as proactive as ever,” adds Norman Collett’s managing director Andy Sadler. “We joined the European growers in celebrating a Rubens Tuesday event. All 13 established growers congregated on London Bridge with the Collett’s team and handed out fruit to passing shoppers, commuters and tourists. The day was heralded by press packs going to all main radio stations and gained Rubens mentions on Radio One, Heart, Kiss and Capital FM.” -
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