Since 2004, Sputnik has been piloting the PR effort of British-grown strawberries and raspberries. The campaign has coincided with the biggest growth spurt in the history of home-grown soft fruit.
Sales of UK-grown berries over the summer of 2005 soared to more than £157 million, an increase of 17 per cent on the value generated in the same period of 2004. And this year, there is every expectation that similar growth can be achieved.
The expansion of the category convinced the UK’s major players - most of whom are involved with the campaign - that the time was ripe to push their products throughout the year, irrespective of origin. And as a result, the industry’s first truly year-round category PR exercise kicked off in 2005. The berry category experienced massive growth last winter. While precise figures are not available as sales of imported berries are not measured to the same extent as home-grown fruit, every major marketing desk and retailer reported the best winter ever for imported berry sales.
The dedicated British Summer Fruits campaign runs from mid-April to November and generated over 330 pieces of positive media (print, broadcast and online) coverage in 2005. Each piece communicated the key messages and extolled the benefits and availability of berries. The coverage value totalled £4.9m and through it, more than 150m consumers were reached. TNS data confirmed that 500,000 additional UK households purchased berries in 2005 for the first time.
The ball was kept in the air throughout the winter campaign, from December through to Easter, in April. Sputnik claims to have generated a further £3.5m of media coverage during that period, and unsurprisingly, the initiative will be extended into the coming winter.
While nobody claims the growth in consumption, valued at around £50m, is entirely down to a PR campaign that costs around £100,000, it is difficult to escape the conclusion that it has played a significant part. So, what are the secrets of the campaign’s success?
When entering the Re:fresh Awards, Sputnik outlined three principal reasons why it believed the campaign should win: its “uniqueness”; its results; and its creativity.
The uniqueness claim centres around the fact that the promotion of berries in the UK is now year-round, a first for a single-category campaign in UK horticulture.
“While both campaigns are separate, they are carefully co-ordinated to ensure the results are maximised and work to benefit the overall objectives: to promote the benefits and availability of berries, keeping them top of mind for the media (via continual coverage) and ensuring they are on consumers’ shopping lists all year round,” says Rickett.
In creativity terms, she adds, “the emphasis of the 2005 BSF campaign was on raspberries, but as there was no ‘new news’, we had to create our own.”
The result was a ‘raspberry flush’ message based on scientific evidence from Bharti Vyas, the UK’s leading Ayurvedic guru. She proved that consumption of raspberries rapidly increases the speed of blood circulation which in turn floods the facial capillaries and produces a facial flush. “According to body language experts we consulted, rosy cheeks are a strong indicator of attraction to the opposite sex. The basic message therefore became: eat raspberries and become more attractive to the opposite sex,” says Rickett. Sputnik recruited top relationship and body language expert Tracey Cox to help spread this message to consumers.
“We also approached Innocent, makers of Innocent Smoothies, about communicating the message to their fans and consumers. The result was a bespoke BSF ‘Love Potion’ smoothie and a flirting zone at Fruitstock, the free two-day music festival in Regent’s Park which was attended by more than 100,000 people,” she says.
“During the winter campaign we ensured the messages were kept relevant and newsworthy by tailoring bespoke journalist mailings. For instance, around Valentine’s Day we sent heart-shaped boxes containing berries, and for Easter we sent hand-dipped chocolate-covered strawberries.”
And certain media organisations, having plugged into the messages in the summer, came back for more when their pages required a pep in the winter. “The BBC stations in the berry growing areas were the most clued up on this,” says Rickett.
“In some ways, winter lends itself more to a campaign, as all the natural news hooks are there. In summer, there is only really Wimbledon, whereas in the December to April period, there is Christmas, the New Year detox, Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day and Easter to work with.”
‘News hooks’ provide useful opportunities, particularly as much of the consumer media works on lead-times of as long as six months. All the planning in the world cannot guarantee you a PR win every time, but for BSF to date, there have been no dead ends. Rickett says: “You never really know until something comes out. In June, every single glossy magazine cover featured berries, despite the fact that there was no real news. That is a long-lead push, and it started in February. It was fantastic to see them all on the shelves though.
“One of the key ways we ensure the uniqueness and credibility of the campaign is by working with experts in their field and to hit the media with the correct and relevant messages at the right time,” says Rickett.
The World Cup has been a traditional downtime for soft-fruit sales, but BSF continued to attract coverage through the timely use of model Sophie Anderton. Celebrities are not just plucked out of the air; research of news and photo editors confirmed the interest in using pictures of the model in their pages, and the shots have been used alongside articles on any number of subjects - but always giving berries an airing.
Tracey Cox’s role involved giving radio interviews on the first day of the British raspberry season and again at Valentine’s Day. She also ran a series of flirting master classes during Fruitstock. These were more than twice over-subscribed. Bharti Vyas has a client-list that includes Madonna and Cherie Blair, so she has enormous credibility within her field and with the media.
“The impact on our audiences is considerable. Retailers report consumers’ awareness of the health benefits of berries. The media repeatedly write about them, and the sales are at new record levels,” says Rickett.
As much as the agency deserves credit for its work, however, the berry industry should be applauded for selecting a partner that had no experience in fresh produce circles. Sputnik Communications has enjoyed success with clients as varied as Skoda, the car manufacturer, and Speedo, the sportswear specialist. “We have a pretty good track record with all our clients,” Rickett says, adding: “At the very beginning of the berry campaign, we developed our initial plans and informed the retailers, who had never worked with us beforehand. Right from the start, everyone was very positive and there was a strong will to succeed.
“In the first summer, we used Patrick Holford to promote the message about zinc and stores were selling out of strawberries - people could see the potential from that point onwards.”
The campaign focused on strawberries in year one and, as news desks were more often in possession of photos of strawberries than raspberries, the messages stacked up in articles that were attractive to use. But last year’s raspberry focus was extremely successful. “Raspberries are becoming more mainstream,” says Rickett. “And that is certainly partly due to the masses of publicity generated.”
She adds that it is believed that one in three British consumers has never eaten a fresh raspberry. Combined with research that suggests raspberry is the UK’s favourite flavour, the long-term prospects for increasing consumption are very exciting.
The campaign also covers every other major berry sub-category and blueberries, blackberries and red and blackcurrants are all experiencing growth. Rickett believes the “superberries” banner has some mileage in it, not least through the superberries.co.uk website. “Our website is aimed at all age groups,” she says.
The campaign has an additional aim - to secure more shelf space for berries in the major multiples. That involves competing head-on with the other fruit and vegetables. “Three years ago, berries were seen as a treat, as a luxury item. We have created rational reasons why people should be buying a punnet of raspberries, for example, rather than a bunch of bananas or a bag of apples. We have attempted to broaden the appeal of berries to a much wider demographic,” says Rickett.
“And part of our success has been to take berries off the food pages and putting them in the news, health and lifestyle sections of the media. The food writers were always going to write about berries and include them in recipes, but it is the health messages that will catch the attention of a new audience.
“We want the nutritional messages to go out to all consumers,” she says. “The supermarkets are not allowed to make nutritional claims, but if we provide the proof, the press can get that message across for us.
“We know the key is to keep it fresh - our job depends on it and if we don’t continually develop new ideas, someone else will come and do it in our place. We’re not having that, we hope to be working with the berry industry for many years to come.”
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