Not only was this campaign awarded a Bronze Effie last year in the ‘Small Budget’ category, it was also last week named in WARC’s World’s Best Campaigns. From the insight to the strategy to the results, we reveal what made this campaign so successful.
Due to a batch of contaminated imports, Australia was experiencing a Hepatitis outbreak,
causing nationwide alarm about country of origin food labelling. The situation posed both a challenge and an opportunity for Australia’s largest fruit processor and cannery SPC.
Meanwhile, major foreign exporters were found by the Anti-Dumping Commission to be selling their products in Australia for 26% less than their value, making it difficult to compete. In response, SPC went to extraordinary lengths to show where their food is from. They leveraged the thing at the heart of the issue – the labelling – to create a packaging platform called #MyFamilyCan.
Leo Burnett Melbourne dedicated SPC’s iconic advertising real estate to Australian farming families, converting 4 million cans into an educational media space in every major Australian supermarket. These cans went into millions of households and ignited a nationwide labelling conversation.
The challenge
Leo Burnett needed to empower Australian consumers to make informed shopping decisions more easily. Defensive objectives were set: to defend SPC’s position in the market by maintaining share and sales volume, to grow SPC’s relevance from a brand perspective, and grow the brand conversation by generating 100,000 social interactions during the two month campaign.
The core target audience was young Aussie families with children aged less than 11, a total of 21% of the Australian population. With traditional nuclear households declining in Australia, these families had become increasingly harder to reach. Yet what they have in common is continually balancing nutrition, taste and convenience when it comes to food for their kids. In a fast food world, they care about what goes in their children’s mouths and where it comes from.
The insight
The intrinsic link that people make between the origin and the quality of food however, whilst strong, is not powerful enough alone for people to always choose SPC at the shelf. Price has a 70% impact on grocery choices in store, compared to only 25% for the food’s origin. Australian provenance resonated with people’s food values, but it did not give them the value needed at the point of purchase.
With discounting not an option, Leo Burnett needed to increase the impact that Australian origin would have on people’s choice at the shelf to dial up people’s motivation to choose SPC. The agency gave their new campaign a purpose beyond packaging design, with a strategy to champion SPC farmers in a way that would create a connection with shoppers to encourage them to buy Australian produce – and willingly pay a premium for it.
The strategy
Leo Burnett overhauled SPC’s iconic suite of brands (SPC, Goulburn Valley and Ardmona) to galvanise the nation with an initiative called #MyFamilyCan. To stimulate the conversation, they launched a deeply moving branded film. Building off the film’s momentum, they placed families at the forefront of SPC’s social media assets. For the first time, SPC brand logos were stripped from social channels and replaced with farmers’ faces – a simple gesture that spoke volumes in the labelling debate.
To cement the #MyFamilyCan legacy, the campaign honoured families that showed support online by dedicating a real tree in the farmers’ orchards – their very own ‘family tree’ – which will grow SPC fruit for generations to come. Distributing emotive branded content through owned and earned channels invited real-time responses and gave rise to local influencers, triggering a surge of support from Australian families that quickly spread online.
The launch film was screened at the ANZAC Day Australian Football League match, complemented by PR and nationwide point of sale. Suddenly Australians were passionately discussing food labelling and proudly supporting farming families.
The results
#MyFamilyCan quickly left its mark. Due to the overwhelming response a rerun was ordered within days, and it has now become a permanent fixture across the SPC range. The campaign not only defended SPC’s position in the market but strengthened it, surpassing the original objective, with one million SPC Family Cans sold in the first month alone. The campaign also generated 1.2 million direct social interactions. The online video received 3.7 million views, 21 times above the industry average.
As a result, SPC became the number one Australian FMCG brand for engagement. Three months on, the Prime Minister unveiled new labelling legislation, making company of origin labelling compulsory for all products manufactured in Australia – a massive win for the countless Australians who showed support online.
#MyFamilyCan began to change the way Australian families thought about food labelling. The new labels transformed the routine purchase of packaged fruit into a highly emotional decision. No longer merely cans of fruit, these cans became a beacon for Australian-grown produce.
With this emotional packaging platform, #MyFamilyCan empowered millions of Australians and sparked nationwide labelling change. All with a humble can.
Click here to read the full entry and here to watch the video. On time Effies entries close April 20. Visit http://www.effies.com.au to enter.
