It’s a busy Friday morning on a popular London street market and food writer-come-TV-presenter Celia Brooks Brown is showing a group of passers-by how to “make marrow sexy!” - at least, that’s what it says on the blackboard propped up by her outdoor demonstration kitchen, rigged up on Portobello Road as part its Taste of Summer festival.
“Everything I do is about inspiring people to appreciate good food,” she tells FPJ. “I want to engage people in the street, not only by talking about fresh vegetables but through smell and taste, in a very, very casual way.”
This kind of spiel has become the backing track of TV cookery shows, recipe books and all manner of foodie ventures as hundreds of celebrities continue to climb on board the so-called “foodie bandwagon”, claiming to want more people thinking and talking about what they are eating.
The list of big names that have turned out to back fresh produce reads like something of a Who’s Who of primetime viewing, from household names Jamie Oliver, Delia Smith and Heston Blumenthal as the faces of some of the major supermarkets right through to the cheeky Keith Chegwin as the all-singing star of National Chip Week (see it to believe it on YouTube).
But what does all this mean for the fresh produce industry? And more importantly, does it actually work?
The latest report on the issue, Celebrity Endorsement in Food, was released by Mintel in 2008 and shows that consumers are increasingly looking to those who have positioned themselves as “food role models” to inform their shopping choices. In fact, the study reveals that more than a third of those surveyed recreate celebrity recipes and around 15 million consumers aged between 16-64 have been influenced by celebrity chefs.
However, the report stresses that “although celebrity endorsement does generate some stand out on shelf, the majority of consumers are sceptical that they are of higher quality or offer anything different to other products on the shelf”.
Two years on, the food landscape has shifted since the UK was forced to squeeze itself through one of the most severe recessions on record. Consumers have been rethinking the way they shop, while competition among the big four retailers is more cut-throat than ever. At the same time, a sense of nostalgia has swept the nation and led to a rediscovery of home cooking and kitchen creativity.
Amid all this, Waitrose launched its first celebrity-led campaign back in March, uniting “Britain’s best-loved cook” Delia Smith and “Britain’s most innovative chef” Heston Blumenthal. A winning combination, the Delia-and-Heston effect saw sales rocket. In the first four days since the airing of Delia’s asparagus with nearly hollandaise sauce, for example, asparagus sales got a 67 per cent uplift. Jersey Royal potatoes came into their own after Heston’s recipe went public, with a staggering uplift worth 10 weeks of normal seasonal demand in just one week.
The campaign follows a string of celebrity endorsements in food, which started out a few years ago with the likes of models Sophie Anderton and Nell McAndrew posing naked among berries and potatoes, before moving on to what might be considered as marketing coups, such as Desperate Housewives star Marcia Cross promoting Rooster potatoes and MasterChef presenter Gregg Wallace as the face of the Inspire range.
However, not all celebrity-backed initiatives have turned out so well or worked out in the long term and increasingly, many firms are being forced to rethink what works and what doesn’t.
Just last week, Morrisons axed its celebrity advertising including Top Gear presenter Richard Hammond and football pundit Alan Hansen. It didn’t help that Hammond admitted on TV that he was “not interested in food” and that his wife did the shopping, but a spokesperson from the retailer said the decision to change tack was led by the retailer’s desire to “try something else”.
And last year, frozen food chain Iceland responded to Kerry Katona’s spectacular fall from grace by swiftly dropping her as the face of the retailer following allegations of cocaine abuse.
But in the context of these ups and downs, how are fresh produce businesses making the most of high-profile endorsement? And what are the tricks of the trade?
A fresh approach
The produce industry, in particular, has made inroads in getting celebrities to back its offer but it is still only the most forward-thinking companies that have pulled out all the stops to bring in some celebrity backing.
Many remain sceptical about the benefits of shelling out for a famous face, but the numbers should speak for themselves when it comes to weighing up whether the investment is worth it.
Potato heavyweight Albert Bartlett achieved something of a fresh produce first last year when it snapped up Hollywood A-lister Marcia Cross to front a £3 million campaign for its Rooster lines. Since then, the firm has signed a contract with Disney to market Toy Story 3-branded Rooster potatoes.
John Hicks, marketing manager at Albert Bartlett, insists that this kind of endorsement has helped to propel the brand onto “a whole different level”, in terms of both exposure and sales. “Our thinking behind getting Marcia Cross on board was to raise the profile of the brand, particularly with younger consumers who were not buying into the fresh potato category,” he explains.“The introduction of Marcia Cross significantly increased awareness of the brand and allowed us to deliver all our key messages and have fun in the delivery, which I think makes it more memorable for consumers.”
And you can’t argue with the figures, which show the brand’s market share doubling and retail sales up by 135 per cent year on year in the 12 weeks to Christmas 2009, just as the TV ads were screened.
This was followed by a link-up with the much-anticipated Toy Story 3, which centred around an on-pack competition offering five families the chance to win a trip to Los Angeles to attend the world premiere. Ten other winners attended the film’s London premiere, with a Disney Store shopping spree thrown in. This was supported by a national TV campaign that ran from March to May.
“We were the first to go live with our Toy Story 3 promotion and the campaign was a great success,” says Hicks. “I think the key has been to be clear on who you want to target and what you want to say and then find the creative vehicle to get your message over.”
These sentiments are shared at prepared produce specialist QV Foods, which last year recruited celebrity greengrocer Gregg Wallace to promote and develop its Inspire range and is now in the final stages of approving Jamie Oliver-branded products for this winter, with more in the pipeline for spring 2011.
Simon Martin, director of QV Foods, explains that the firm was “looking for something to take it to the next level” before it recruited the MasterChef presenter, as its first foray into celebrity backing. “Gregg comes from a fruit and veg background, but with MasterChef he really came to the fore and became well known for good food so it made more sense to us than looking towards a ‘celebrity chef’,” he explains. “Gregg is great for us in that with his background he is very knowledgeable about the fruit and vegetable industry and therefore understands the pros and cons of provenance and seasonality, which helps when we are developing products.
“Working with Gregg gave us a point of difference with our competitors and that alone cannot be underestimated - it has created interest at retailer level and ultimately, it now has a connection with the consumer.”
But by Martin’s own admission, the overall impact is difficult to quantify. “Inspire before Gregg was only a developing brand,” he explains. “But Gregg coming on board really saw things take off and we are now selling more than 750,000 packs per week.”
Anyone who’s anyone?
Not everyone can afford the A-list, but a number of fresh produce campaigns with smaller budgets are taking the principles of celebrity backing and gradually building links with a network of regional foodie personalities to drip feed their message to consumers. This take on celebrity endorsement, albeit on a smaller scale, has been instrumental in stepping up consumption of some key lines since this kind of activity got underway.
TV chef Rachel Green has a CV that reads like a listings page on a cookery channel, including her role as an ambassador for Select Lincolnshire and her work for a number of fresh produce campaigns, supporting promotions for British asparagus, home-grown carrots, the Yes Peas! initiative and UK shallots. And with her background as a caterer and a family farming history that stretches back 14 generations, she knows her stuff.
“I am passionate that we have to protect the produce industry, because if we don’t then it will disappear,” says Green. “Half of British growers have been lost in the last 10 years and this has to stop. Agriculture is not a fairytale and there are hard, raw facts about feeding ourselves; it is our duty to feed as many people as possible.”
But she is keen for the produce industry to make the right decisions about who should represent it in the public eye. “I am not prepared to sell myself short,” she insists. “I would not endorse something that’s not me. I don’t do these things to be a big name, but because I want them to work - just quietly, quietly getting on and doing it.
“It is all about building strong foundations for these campaigns and working away. You have got to have a plan and it can’t just be one really expensive advert; it’s got to be lots of different things, whether it’s devising recipes for a booklet, keeping your website fresh and up-to-date or getting bits into the news and on TV - it’s a case of slowly drip feeding all the time, not just a matter of one or two expensive campaigns.
“There has never been a better time to market produce and I think it is a mistake for people to cut their marketing budgets; I don’t think that’s right - you have to keep the momentum going.”
Because you’re worth it
The spend on a celebrity might drain the colour from your financial director, but what everyone will want to know is whether it’s really worth it?
A good example of how businesses must check and double check the results of their activities against their budget comes in the shape of the Potato Council, which runs consumer-facing initiatives thoughout the year. The trade body runs a number of campaigns featuring celebrities, from Cheggers as the face of National Chip Week to TV chef Sanjay Dwivedi and leading dietician Sian Porter, who are targeting younger consumers. As a levy-funded organisation, the team follows strict rules to make sure it can achieve a strong return on investment. In fact, spend on celebrity endorsement will account for just two per cent of the overall marketing budget this year.
Caroline Evans, head of marketing and corporate affairs at the Potato Council, insists that well-known names are only brought in as part of wider campaigns to achieve the greatest impact and longevity. “Choosing personalities that are true fans of potatoes and can passionately deliver the fundamental messages is crucial,” she says. “And of course, they must have an affinity with the consumers being targeted.”
The system seems to work. National Chip Week in February, for example, achieved national newspaper coverage for every day of the week, backed by slots on primetime and daytime TV and radio programmes. The campaign reached every person in the UK four times, resulting in a return on investment of 20:1. According to Evans, to achieve the same impact would have required an advertising budget of £3.8m.
But it is clear the fresh produce firms must think carefully about their campaigns and who they want to back their businesses, no matter the budget.
“A lot of people have jumped on the bandwagon, but they don’t have the knowledge,” says Green. “I didn’t get involved because it was fashionable -
10 years ago, it wasn’t. To get a presenter of a car programme to promote the likes of beef won’t work. Delia and Heston at Waitrose, on the other hand, have been highly successful because they are all about food.”
Many of those who have tried celebrity endorsement first hand have made it clear that they will not be going back, now or in the near future. Keen to see through their investments, some of the major industry players are determined to make it work in the long term and put fresh produce on a par with other sectors, many of which have been using celebrity backing successfully for years.
“Without doubt, celebrity endorsement helps to establish a relationship with the consumer because they recognise the person, pick the product up and look at it,” says Martin. “The fact that we can get people to look at our product in this way gives us a better chance of selling it to them. In the long term, celebrity endorsement can only be good for the consumer as companies strive to develop new and interesting products.”
FPJ’S FANTASY TOP FIVE
Ever dreamed about what you could do with all the marketing money you could wish for? Here at FPJ, we settled for brainstorming some alternative ideas for celebrity endorsement and these are the top five (feel free to send us your own suggestions).
5. Playing it safe in the fifth spot, Mr Bean would literally be our hero for UK beans and peas.
4. More fun at four, comedian Jasper Carrot has potential as the head of British carrots.
3. A little cheekier at number three, how about Katie Price getting up front about melons?
2. Ever second best, ex-prime minister Gordon Brown chomps his way through nine bananas a day. We see an opportunity.
1. In the top spot, Toy Story 3 is out this week and who better than Mr Potato Head as the (changeable) face of home-grown spuds? You know it makes sense.
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