The UK’s most effective brand activation agency, ZEAL Creative, supported Yeo Valley Organic to engage consumers, drive trial and deliver memorable brand experience inspired by nature.

During the first lockdown, the University of Cumbria found that Brits’ connection with the natural world deepened, as people spent more time in nature every day. In particular, two-thirds of parents and guardians said their children spent more time than usual in nature¹. To capitalise on greater public interest in wildlife, ZEAL developed campaigns that celebrated Yeo Valley Organic’s brand value: ‘Put Nature First’.

ZEAL launched two direct mail campaigns in August 2020 that enabled the brand to engage with its target audience, contact-free. Rooted in Yeo Valley Organic’s dedication to supporting Britain’s bee population through building hives, adopting sustainable farming methods and protecting natural habitats, the first campaign distributed wildflower seeds, brand information and activities to one million people. The initiative enabled Yeo Valley Organic to connect with consumers in the comfort of their own homes and give them materials to actively contribute to its mission.

ZEAL also developed ‘Get Back to Nature’ activity boxes, which were delivered to 15,000 families with young children, to educate and keep small minds occupied during a summer of restrictions. To broaden reach, the activities were available online, providing an important digital method of activation and capitalising on increased time consumers spent online this summer.

The results increased brand awareness and by incorporating a money-off coupon to encourage sampling with new shoppers, the brand could tangibly track uplift in sales.

Lisa Nyman, Account Director at ZEAL Creative, comments: “This is our first experiential project for Yeo Valley Organic, and we were excited to exercise our creativity and develop campaigns that would be effective even during the national lockdown. By understanding how consumer purchasing behaviours were changing in response to the pandemic, we developed campaigns that resonated and took quality brand experiences directly into UK households.

“As well as an uplift in sales, the ‘Get Back to Nature’ boxes supported Yeo Valley’ Organic’s content strategy. The activities drove visitors to the brand’s online activity hub and were used to strengthen influencer relations, providing social media interaction.”

Kate Sharrock, Yeo Valley Organic Brand Manager, says: “We had to completely reinvent our activation plans for 2020 and focus on reaching consumers at home. It was still important for us to connect with new consumers and communicate what our brand stands for. Distributing wildflower seeds meant households could contribute to our mission of supporting Britain’s bees, which play an integral role in food production.

“We loved the final campaigns. The team at ZEAL developed an innovative concept to help us to drive sales in challenging conditions but also reach young families and give them something fun to combat boredom during the summer holidays.”

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Meet Norman

You will have read plenty about ‘the new normal’ now allow me to introduce the New Norman.

TLC Marketing’s Planning team have been sifting through the latest research reports to understand how customer behaviour will be affected after lockdown and more permanently in the long term.

They have wrapped all their findings up into one pen portrait; your new best mate, Norman. Norman represents the average British customer after lockdown; their concerns, changes in their purchasing behaviour, how they shop and where they shop.

One thing we know for certain is that uncertainty will rule. For more than 10 weeks Norman has been at home with restricted access to the outside world and very different circumstances to life as we usually know it. As those restrictions are slowly lifted it is natural that he will still be cautious and won’t be rushing to return to pre-pandemic routines.

Brands too will be adapting and recovering after the storm. Once they recognise Norman’s mindset brands can react. By rewarding him with a choice of rewards to enjoy in the safety of his own home or the option to venture out. It’s all about giving the customer the decision, so they can do what feels most comfortable to them.

We can help brands react by understanding Norman’s new priorities and how rewards can influence post-pandemic behaviour. So, we can work together to create happy customers who favour brands who truly helped and achieve great results for brands in this new landscape.

For a full copy of The New Norman eBook get in touch lets.talk@tlcmarketing.com

About TLC Marketing https://www.tlcmarketing.com/

TLC Marketing is The Original Rewards Company. Founded in 1954, we are the world leaders in bringing brand stories to life through customer rewards provided by our incredible national networks and brand partnerships. If a brand talks about beautiful hair, we can provide a free haircut with every purchase. Or if they promote a healthy lifestyle we can treat every single customer to a free fitness or wellness session. We call this approach turning brand storytelling into story doing because we know actions speak louder than words.

With offices in 14 markets, we apply storydoing from New York to Sydney offering customers the experiences they love. Working with the biggest brands in the world including McDonald’s, Nestle, Unilever, H&M, Samsung and many more to help them achieve amazing results.

The post The New Norman appeared first on IPM Bitesize.

In a recent call with a potential client, we referenced Kantar Consulting’s graph on the public’s emotional response to the present situation. After the downward plunge of disbelief, shock, and despair, the curve starts to rally and ascends towards an ‘experimental’ phase, in a stage called ‘new beginnings’.

This more positive period of acceptance resonates with many – as a colleague said to me last week, “If I don’t come out of this a different person, I’ve wasted an opportunity”

So what are we all going to do with the time? I recently saw a post about Lidl’s middle aisle causing a stir in Ireland. The normal power tools and barbeques had been replaced by trumpets, oboes and all manner of instruments. It seems the wind (section) of change may already be blowing over us as we try to find new ways to pass our time in lockdown usefully.

You could argue Lidl’s trumpets may cause as much pain as they bring joy, but by using this unique time to learn an instrument, speak a language or even get a qualification in accounting, will, I believe, eventually benefit us all. A change in society begins with a change in all of us, and a healthy dose of betterment on an individual level is a great place to start – just be mindful of your neighbours!

So back to the client meeting and Kantars’ graph?  At each stage there was a positive experience that we recommended the brand should offer its consumers, to sympathise, entertain and then of course inspire.

Sadly their budget didn’t stretch to all three.

To get in touch with Rob Scott email, Rob.Scott@tlcmarketing.com

About TLC Marketing, social handle LinkedIn @TLCMarketingWorldwide, others @TLCMarketingUK 

TLC Marketing is The Original Rewards Company. Founded in 1954, we are the world leaders in bringing brand stories to life through customer rewards provided by our incredible national networks and brand partnerships. If a brand talks about beautiful hair, we can provide a free haircut with every purchase. Or if they promote a healthy lifestyle we can treat every single customer to a free fitness or wellness session. We call this approach turning brand storytelling into story doing, because we know actions speak louder than words.

The post Evolution of Lockdown appeared first on IPM Bitesize.

Covid-19 has created a unique planetary experience. Never before have we all shared such a loss of liberty, certainty and control.

Although there has been an incredible loss of life; the magnitude of the emotional impact may never be truly realised.

We all have a personal relationship with the lockdown. The lows and indeed the highs. For many, it has been a revelation; a chance to step back from a life that was riddled with unchallenged beliefs and habits and connect again with what really matters.

For some that has been an enlightening process, for some terrifying.

We have all lost something during the lockdown, but many are unaware of the cost.

When we experience trauma, our brain protects us by hiding away the painful parts of it into our subconscious until it has passed. It’s a coping strategy that means that we can carry on living our lives in the face of extreme hardships.

These moments are however still stored within us, and unless they are processed, they will pop out at times and in ways that are beyond our control.

They may surface through irritability, anxiety or even depression. They can manifest as physical ailments and disease. They can induce lethargy and lack of motivation but almost certainly lead to an instability that for some, rocks their very foundations.

We all are swimming in an emotional soup. We cannot help becoming affected by the energetic maelstrom that the virus has created. And when the whistle is blown and we all go back to work, we cannot expect for it to be business as usual.

Everybody returning to work will have been deeply impacted and will need to be looked after in ways they were never looked after before.

Your teams will need a chance to process together so they can reconnect with each other with a new awareness of who they are and what’s important to them.

Without creating the space and the safety for such explorations, you are guaranteeing fallout.

This emotional soup needs to be cherished and held. It needs to be acknowledged and embraced.

When your teams can talk about what’s really going on for them and know they are not alone or being judged for not having all the answers; we can start to move forward together into a world that will never quite be the same.

Our programming means that deep down we don’t like change. We cannot help but viscerally react to it as a potential danger and therefore everyone is primed now to see the bad instead of the good.

Leaders need to step forward and help make sense of it all and create the opportunity for us all to be fragile and vulnerable as we rebuild what should be, much stronger relationships and businesses.

Get this right and not only will your people feel loved, supported and energised to be back, but they’ll continue to find new ways to shine in a world that’s likely to keep changing for some time to come.

Don’t miss this opportunity. It will never come again.

Our Team Re-Set Program is designed to create the space for people to process their unique experiences and re-connect as a team that’s raring to go…

Find out more here: https://www.uppingyourelvis.com/files/Team-Re-Set_2020.pdf and get in touch to chat about how it could help you or your people…

Chris Baréz-Brown is Founder of Upping Your Elvis and contactable at chris@uppingyourelvis.com

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