Big initiatives, by their very nature, tend to be directed towards a mass audience.
Achieving awareness and capturing the eyes of a wide range of people requires an agency to sketch some broad strokes, both creatively and in media selection. The 5 A DAY Just Eat More (Fruit & Veg) initiative was no different to many other large-scale campaigns in this respect. Our basic mission was to help get the nation eating more fruit and vegetables; but what became obvious after a fairly short time was that a different approach might be required to capture the attention, and ultimately aim to change the behaviour, of the young independents group.
Young people believe themselves to be invincible. We have all been young, and we have all ignored good advice and done things that may have been less than healthy. It was therefore unsurprising when it was revealed that ‘young independents’, people such as students or those who have recently left home, were the people least likely to be consuming the recommended five portions of fresh fruit and vegetables every day. In fact, where most adults consumed around three portions a day, this group was consuming even less, if any at all.
Among the main pillars of our 5 A DAY work involved the recruitment of partners to join the campaign. The issue in relation to young independents was that the kind of partners we had brought in to the wider effort would not necessarily play a significant role in this group’s lives.
Young independents don’t, for example, tend to do a weekly shop in Iceland; they are more likely to do frequent top-up shops in their local Costcutter. Their motivation for changing their behaviour differed too. Because the longer-term health benefits were less of a priority for this group, it was important that we shifted the focus of our campaign, in appealing to this demographic.
We decided to concentrate on the more tangible, immediate benefits of 5 A DAY, adopting two strands to our campaign: “Fuel for Living” related the benefits of eating more fruit and vegetables to energy and performance, whilst “Beauty Starts Within” looked to raise awareness of the benefits to looking good.
Having established these alternative creative routes, we set about negotiating partnerships with more specific relevance to our target group. Organisations such as Leisure Connection (which operates a network of gyms), the Lawn Tennis Association and Capital Shopping Centres (owners of Kent’s Bluewater shopping centre) signed up to the initiative, giving us an opportunity to reach this tricky audience at the most relevant times and locations.
The result was a campaign that won an IPA Best of Health award, extended the 5 A DAY partnership network and provided much needed focus on a specific, and very challenging, audience.
We are always looking for new partners to support the 5 A DAY programme through a range of activities.
For more information on becoming a 5 A DAY partner, please contact 23red on 0870 013 0023 or email 5aday@23red.com.
