Shreddies Genuine Goodness

Off to a Good Start (BRONZE)

Client Credits: Post Foods Canada Inc
Post Foods Canada:
Jennifer Hutchinson, General Manager
Jennifer Dumoulin, Director, Marketing
Neil Fleming, Senior Insight & Foresight Manager
Linda Dominitz, Senior Insight & Foresight Manager
Helen Park, Senior Packaging Brand Design Manager & Social Media Community Manager
Melissa Machesano, Product Manager

Agency Credits: Grey Canada
Grey Canada:
Patrick Scissions, Chief Creative Officer
James Ansley, Creative Director
Rob Trickey, Sr. Art Director / Sue Kohm, Writer
Malcolm McLean, VP of Strategic Planning
Darlene Remlinger, VP Managing Director
Patty Moher, Group Account Director
Jen McLeod, Account Director / Renzo Mendoza, Account Supervisor
Lauren Scapillati, Account Coordinator
Karen Blazer, Agency Producer
Media Profile:
Dane Gergovich, Account Director
Jennifer Alsop-Lee, Account Director
Ginger Schewell, Consultant
MediaVest:
Steve Cotten, VP Group Director
Paul Hewitt, Strategy Director
Eugenia Kung, Strategy Manager
Marwan Abou-Guendia, Strategy Supervisor
Jenna Eager, Manager – Digital Manager

Section I — BASIC INFORMATION

Business Results Period (Consecutive Months):	MARCH 3 – NOVEMBER 30, 2013
Start of Advertising/Communication Effort:	MARCH 3, 2013
Base Period as a Benchmark:	MARCH 2013-NOVEMBER 2012

Section II — SITUATION ANALYSIS
a) Overall Assessment

For 75 years, Shreddies has been a beloved and iconic Canadian brand. Since childhood, we’ve possessed fond memories of the flagship Post Canada cereal and consumers readily laud it for its nutritious, whole wheat benefits.

However, recently the breakfast occasion has been challenged with an onslaught of out of aisle breakfast innovation – with the ready-to-eat (RTE) cold cereal category down because of all this change (-1.4% Compound Annual Growth Rate since 2011).

Family breakfast choices had become unprecedented: cereal bars, pre-made shakes, yogurt, gluten-free, instant, on-the-go, hot or cold? The RTE cereal category was under pressure with more choice and convenient options than ever. Deep-pocketed QSR players were aggressively investing in breakfast as well. From McDonald’s reframing the quality of their breakfast offerings, Tim Hortons bringing in more hot options like oatmeal and breakfast sandwiches, and even Subway getting into the breakfast game, consumer choice spanned both inside the home and out.

In light of all this competition, consumers still had heart for this iconic brand. However, to stay relevant, a refresh of the brand was necessary. We had to carve a place in the consumer’s psyche that re-connected the simple goodness of the Shreddies product with something bigger than just that of good, good whole wheat.

b) Resulting Business Objectives

With Original Shreddies declining faster than the category, the business objective was quite simply to grow baseline sales through new and lapsed users in order to help grow the franchise. More specifically we wanted to:

– Grow $ volume

– Grow share

– Increase household penetration

In addition we wanted to spark an upward trend of key brand imagery metrics.

c) Annual Media Budget
$1 – $2 million

d) Geographic Area
National English Canada, excluding Quebec.

Section III — STRATEGIC THINKING
a) Analysis and Insight

It was critical that we understood how to break through in the über-competitive breakfast occasion. And in our planning and research phases we discovered some core truths about Shreddies. These truths would become the underpinning of our new brand essence, “Genuine Goodness” and pave the way for our goodness strategy.

The 4 important themes that informed our strategy were:

– WYSIWYG. Shreddies had remained consistent over the years. Consumers appreciated its “what you see is what you get” quality and as such, translated that to a reputation of dependability; an honest brand with no hidden motivations. Dependability meant more than just reliability, however. It went deeper than nostalgia or ‘old fashioned’. Consumers gave kudos to the brand for not flip flopping but instead remaining true to its values throughout time.

– Shreddies’ personality was seen as genuinely good because of its nutritious, 100% whole wheat properties. But more than that, consumers evoked feelings of authenticity and selflessness. They saw genuine goodness as a type of goodness that is inherent to a person or brand that is natural, and is focused on others – as opposed to doing good for oneself.

– Simplicity was key to defining “genuine goodness”. To embody genuine goodness you must be uncomplicated, and straightforward. And Shreddies was a simple cereal.

– Shreddies is uniquely ours. Being made in Canada reinforced positive attributes such as familiarity, friendliness and trust. The “genuine goodness” inherent with being Canadian directly intersected the goodness that is part of Shreddies DNA.

To wake up lapsed users, we needed to reconnect this simplicity and dependability of Shreddies’ goodness in a way that leveraged the “what you see is what you get” honesty they clearly appreciated, but not be nostalgic. It also meant an opportunity to encourage new users looking for something simple, in a highly cluttered eating occasion, to consider Shreddies as part of their morning routine.

b) Communication Strategy

Connecting and re-connecting with the hearts, minds and stomachs of new and lapsed users was job one. They were open to simplified, good-for-you breakfast options. A reminder of the brand’s dependability framed in a different light was important.

For our communication strategy we needed to look no further than our own backyard for inspiration. Simple stories of authentic Canadian goodness – through real people who were making a difference everyday, in some small way, in their communities – became the way to demonstrate that the Shreddies brand and Canadians were inextricably linked. They both possessed shared values of simple “Genuine Goodness”. And that genuine goodness was bigger than just whole wheat squares in a bowl – it was inside all of us.

Section IV — KEY EXECUTIONAL ELEMENTS
a)Media Used

The initiative launched in English Canada on February 4, 2013 and support media primarily included conventional and specialty TV as well as online video.

During the fall media portion, additional dollars were invested in print and digital to promote phase two of the campaign.

Channels Used (English only)

National TV
National Print
National Digital
Social
Regional PR

b)Creative Discussion

Canadians – we believe we’re good people. And in research we heard that we also take great care to recognize that our kind of goodness is not a chest-beating, or self-serving kind of goodness. Instead, it’s a quiet confidence that permeates how we look after each other and the communities we live in. It was this sentiment that became the germ of the creative platform: that real, true Canadian goodness, is simple, quiet and unassuming. And that’s what makes it genuine – the same way that the simple ingredient of Shreddies, is genuinely good-for-you too.

We engaged public organizations across the country to find Canadians who were actually doing good for others. The response was overwhelming – and fruitful; landing us Greg Epp, a Saskatoon resident who wakes up at the crack of dawn to flood the ice at his local arena, out of the goodness of his heart, so that kids in the community can skate. We shared Greg’s story, and how he relies on the goodness of Shreddies to help get him up and out the door on cold mornings. And just as Greg relies on the trusted goodness in the product, the community had come to rely on “Greg” to give back to them. We launched in TV and online, but it was in social media where he was really praised. Canadians loved Greg and celebrated and shared his genuine goodness with their network of friends, paying forward the idea of Greg’s community involvement.

c)Media Discussion

Film, and its ability to connect emotionally, was the best vehicle to use for the storytelling nature of the creative. The media dollars stretched to include a combination of :30s and :15s.

Story telling extended online with the launch of a mini documentary to deepen message delivery of Greg’s back story and engage the Shreddies Facebook community with shareable content.

A traditional PR campaign was not initially leveraged to accompany the launch. However within weeks, local media was picking up Greg’s story in Saskatoon and surrounding areas. All PR was earned and Greg became an instant local celebrity.

Results were so positive and immediate that media spending increased in the fall to include digital and print supporting the follow-up campaign leveraging the “Greg” spot with end slate tags and key “Greg” visuals in print and digital for The Search For Goodness.

Section V — BUSINESS RESULTS
a) Sales/Share Results

After the launch of the “Greg” spot, original Shreddies experienced it’s best 10 months in over 2 years. Baseline sales had been declining between -7 and -16% over the previous 2 years, but the launch of “Greg” was able to reverse the declines:

Original Shreddies National Base $Vol % increased +8% while the Ready-to-Eat Category Base $Vol% declined -4%.
Total Shreddies Franchise National Base $Vol % Chg increased as well +10% indicating a positive halo effect.
Original Shreddies $Share increased +0.2pts (and Total Shreddies franchise $Share +0.3pts).
In a historical move, Shreddies Franchise Baseline growth surpassed all of the top 10 brands in the ready-to-eat cereal category.
Penetration increase of 0.3 in a declining category.

(Source: AC Nielsen, Natl ex Quebec Mar. 9/13 to period ending Nov. 16/13)

b) Consumption/ Usage Results

c) Other Pertinent Results

d) Return on Investment

Section VI — CAUSE & EFFECT BETWEEN ADVERTISING AND RESULTS
a)General Discussion

Creatively, the Shreddies Goodness platform and its components are the ultimate example of driving effective business results. We met or overachieved on each and every campaign objective without increasing media spending vs. the benchmark period.

Because of this positive ROI and overwhelming campaign success, we launched the “Search for Goodness” at the end of 2013 in a multi-channel social, print and digital campaign to find our next Shreddies story. In the first phase of the campaign, we asked Canadians to nominate, via our Facebook app, individuals who completed acts of goodness in their community, no matter the magnitude. We received so many inspiring stories from coast to coast about humble, genuine Canadians written by friends, family or just admirers in their community. “Julia and Emma” is the follow up story to “Greg” giving more Shreddies fans a chance to get to know their fellow Canadians.

Against our Ancillary goals we also delivered:

Earned media coverage garnered over 6.34 million media impressions and 27 unique stories. All of this coverage was 100% positive in tonality.

The Shreddies Facebook community also took notice with a fan increase from 49,205 to 65,329.
Brand and advertising tracking revealed that those who were aware of and could correctly brand ‘Greg’ had a 4% higher brand awareness for Shreddies than those who were unaware.
Those who were aware and could correctly brand ‘Greg’ had a significantly higher purchase intent level than those unaware of the spot (42% vs. 28%).

(Source: Ipsos Equity Tracker – 2013)

b)Excluding Other Factors
Spending Levels:

The combined media and PR budget for the campaign was less than the previous year – therefore results were not driven by an increase in spending VYA.

Pricing:

Average Retail Unit Price % Chg was minimal during the BRP.

Distribution Changes:

Average ACD Pt Chg was minimal over the BRP.

Unusual Promotional Activity:

N/A

Other Potential Causes:

Any applicable factors have already been detailed in this case.