English apples will receive their biggest promotional push for many years this season.
Grower-funded promotional campaigns for dessert apples will be backed at the end of the month by high-profile initiatives from some of the major multiples.
Spearheading the industry effort is a £150,000 advertising push by English Apples & Pears, the first of its kind for more than a decade. Targeting English apples’ core supporters and other listeners, radio ads have been recorded for Classic FM, with 174 slots airing in the three weeks from September 26, the official launch date of this season.
The ads will feature voiceovers in a variety of accents, in an attempt to widen the appeal of English product. “The industry has decided we need to communicate more directly with consumers with strong and clear messages,” EAP's Adrian Barlow told the Journal. “Those messages will be that English apples are back in the shops, that they taste fantastic, they are everyone's favourite and that listeners should look out for the Union Jack labels.”
Both Tesco and Sainsbury's are known to have been filming ads focused on English apples. Sainsbury’s are said to be running an ad with the mercurial Jamie Oliver extolling the virtues of the home-grown crop on national TV, while Tesco is believed to be filming an ad for its in-store TV network. Neither were confirmed at the time of going to press, but it is expected that both will hit the screens at around the same time as the EAP ads go out on the airwaves.
Classic FM TV, which attracts two million viewers a month will run the EAP campaign for four weeks, beginning a week earlier than radio. And Barlow expects to carry out three hours of radio interviews on September 26, to mark the launch and arrival in-store of English fruit.
“We are looking to motivate a lot of people who already eat English apples to go out and purchase new-season fruit, but through Classic FM we will also hit a lot of non-core supporters,” said Barlow.
He added there is a strong message for the major retailers too. “I think this will have an impact on the multiples too, who will recognise even more strongly the importance of having English apples on their shelves to satisfy the demand that these ads will create.
“The multiples have been very supportive at head office, and I have never doubted their sincerity when they say they do want to get behind English fruit. But far too many stores were out-of-stock at key times last season and we need to see the support translated into in-store performance and commitment.”
EAP staff will be visiting stores this year to monitor the performance of the fruit, in some cases at the behest of the retailer. “We recognise that it’s tough, but the most important for us all is that English apples are given the shelf space that helps the multiples to achieve the sales they tell us they want to achieve,” Barlow added.
See inside for Worldwide Fruit’s English top-fruit roadshow and news on a difficult end to this season’s Discovery job.
