pladis-owned snacks brand McVitie’s is running an interactive experience to back its ‘Sweeter Together’ Masterbrand advertising and marketing campaign. In keeping with the TV ad, featuring a crane driver, the Sweeter Together Challenge requires two consumers to work together to operate a model crane to grab a giant McVitie’s ‘prize’ Nibble, to instantly win prizes that are ‘sweeter when enjoyed together’.

pladis has appointed promotional marketing agency whynot! think people to deliver the interactive challenge, which will be appearing at Westfield Stratford City between until April 23rd April. It then moves to the Manchester Arndale Centre between April 25th and May 1st before finishing at the Cardiff St. David’s mall from May 4th to 7th. It will also be appearing at key London railway stations, including Waterloo, Paddington, Victoria and Euston.

The activity, which will also see the distribution of 800,000 samples of the  Nibbles product, is part of the re-launch of the McVitie’s brand, which is being backed with a £12m multi-media Masterbrand campaign, exploring the importance of real human connections and showing how the simple act of sharing a biscuit has the power to bring people together. It launched in mid March with the 60-second animated TV ad, titled ‘Crane’, showing a tower crane operator going about his work dozens of metres above the ground. Below him, he sees his colleagues enjoying the camaraderie of a tea break, complete with McVitie’s biscuits. He waves but is not seen.

As the day wears on, the operator becomes gloomy, craving some company – even if it’s only from passing birds. When he is convinced that everyone’s forgotten about him he gets a surprise: the latest steel beam he lifts has been loaded with a cup of tea and some McVitie’s biscuits. He looks down and sees his colleagues waving and smiling at him and his mood instantly lifts. The ad ends with a simple message: “Sometimes the little things are actually the really big things”.

A second TV ad will air later this year. Social and in-store activity also features as part of the integrated campaign.

Sarah Heynen, Marketing Vice President, pladis UK & Ireland, says: “whynot! think people have done an incredible job of bringing both the fun sharing attributes of Nibbles, and our Sweeter Together campaign, to life.  The challenge element physically executes our new brand purpose – enabling everyday moments of real human connections. We are confident that this brand experience will tap into our consumers’ love for our brands as well as supporting our efforts to drive penetration and repeat purchase of our Nibbles range.”

David Ryan, Creative Director, whynot! think people, adds: “Our Nibble twist on the iconic crane game is the perfect fit for a legendary brand such as McVitie’s. The Sweeter Together Challenge brings to life the new brand purpose, not only visually but by bringing people together to enjoy moments of sharing, the sweet spot for Nibbles.”

The Sweeter Together Challenges will be filmed and edited, with content featuring on outward facing TV screens at the events, as well as being used as part of a social media campaign to amplify the activation, extending campaign reach and driving footfall to future events.

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Belvoir Fruit Farms, makers of the Belvoir brand of fruit cordials, is backing its Little Drop of Lovely marketing campaign with a hot air balloon which will tour UK food and countryside festivals, including Bristol Balloon Fiesta, and selected supermarkets.

Belvoir cordials has worked with London-based creative marketing agency whynot! Thinkpeople to design and build a bespoke droplet-shaped hot air balloon and a support mobile sampling area, where consumers can enjoy a drink of Belvoir’s products while watching the Balloon take flight.

The Little Drop of Lovely campaign will be visiting 10 festivals this summer and 12 Tesco stores for outdoor sampling. A special in-store neck collar on bottles of the elderflower cordial will carry a competition to win a luxury weekend getaway to the Bristol Balloon Fiesta, with flights in the balloon. Social media will support and celebrate the activity.

The balloon launched on the June 14 2017 from the Elderflower fields at Belvoir Fruit Farms, Bottesford, Leicestershire.

Pev Manners, Managing Director of Belvoir Fruit Farms and son of founders Lord John Manners and Lady Mary Manners, observes: “We’re so excited about finally getting our stunning new balloon airborne. We believe it will enhance our presence at a series of events and shows over the summer, and engage the consumer more fully with the Belvoir brand. We’ll interact with a larger audience wherever it is flown, really giving them something to remember us by and hopefully prompt them to enjoy more of our lovely drinks. And personally, I’m really looking forward to checking on the progress of the elderflowers from the air next year to see if they’re ready for harvest!”

Nigel Clifton, Executive Creative Director of whynot!, says: “We wanted to celebrate how Belvoir cordials can be the perfect drink at every occasion.  We wanted to put the drink into people’s hands and give them a lasting memory of that moment. Adding A Little Drop of Lovely, to their day, their festival experience and where they shop was our solution. The Belvoir balloon is the perfect visual icon to deliver that thought across the UK.”

To find out where the balloon will be appearing this summer, visit https://www.belvoirfruitfarms.co.uk/things-to-do/events/

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This year’s IMC European Awards for Integrated Marketing Communications saw 81 trophies awarded to 31 agencies from five countries.

Ireland took the lead with 25 trophies, followed by the Czech Republic with 18, Belgium with 16, and Italy and United Kingdom, both with 11.

The biggest individual success was for Irish agency guns or knives, which took a total of 14 awards – five for the Hailo Drive For Equality campaign, four for the Orchard Thieves Launch for Heineken Ireland, three for the Hailo 3rd Birthday activity and two for It’s Your Call, again for Heineken.

BBDO from Belgium took seven awards – three for Lidl Blend Test, two for The Write Thing for Parkinson Liga and two for Personal Billboards for JC Decaux.

UK campaigns won 11 awards. Carey Trevill, Managing Director of the IPM, says: “Agencies Haygarth, Pretty Green, Space, Jack Morton, TLC Marketing and whynot! thinkpeople are all recognised for their work across a broad spectrum of blue chip brands. With wins across Innovative Idea, Digital Comms, Integrated, Product Launch and other high profile categories, the UK have yet again shown strength across promotional marketing.”

Integrated agency Space collected four Silver IMC trophies for GalaCoral with their innovative #CheltenHAM micropig racing content concept for betting company Coral, which won the IPM Awards 2016 Grand Prix earlier this year. Pretty Green scooped another two Silver IMCs for client Concha y Toro, while IPM Gold winners Haygarth picked up a Silver IMC for Sony. TLC Marketing’s campaigns for BUPA UK and Continental collected Silver and Bronze awards, while Jack Morton’s work for Freeview picked up a Silver with whynot! thinkpeople picking up an award for Arla.

Carey Trevill adds: “With an incredibly strong assembly of entries, the UK picked up some great IMC Awards this year including more awards for our IPM Awards 2016 Grand Prix Winner, Space, for #CheltenHAM, Haygarth for its work for Sony and Pretty Green for its work for Concha y Toro. An impressive list of winners from the UK and we’ll be back next year to take back the coveted IMC Grand Prix to demonstrate our creative strength in Europe.”

IMCC Chairman, Ondrej Gottwald, comments: “I am really grateful for the agencies’ high interest in the IMC European Awards and the high number of entries during my chairmanship. I am delighted that our industry is doing well across Europe. Beside the commercial campaigns, I highly value campaigns with positive social impact. I really like to see that these campaigns are recognised and rewarded by industry professionals.”

The winning campaigns were selected after two rounds of judging. All entries were first reviewed by a jury panel made up of 45 leading industry professionals from across Europe. Entries were then judged by the second round jury, comprised of IMCC Council member representatives. Full details of the judging procedure can be found at the official website at www.imcceurope.com.

Only campaigns which first win gold awards in their respective national awards programmes are eligible to enter the IMC Awards.

For the UK, the only way to enter the IMCs is to first win Gold in the annual IPM Awards. The IPM has just announced details of the IPM Awards 2017. For further information about categories, how to enter and entry fees, please contact the IPM Awards team on 020 3848 0444 or check the IPM website, www.theipm.org.uk.

The IMC European Awards are run by the Integrated Marketing Communications Council (IMCC), which is part of the European Association of Communications Agencies (EACA). The IPM is a member of EACA.

IMCC represents the integrated marketing communications agencies and agency associations in Europe. It acts as a central source of information for the industry and assists in the development of the reputation and professionalism of the industry across Europe by focusing on best practice, lobbying, the IMC European Awards programme and education through the IMCC International Diploma, which has been developed out of the IPM’s long-established Diploma in Promotional Marketing. For more information on the IMCC, visit www.imcceurope.com.

The European Association of Communications Agencies (EACA) is a Brussels-based organisation which represents full-service advertising and media agencies and agency associations in Europe. For more information, visit www.eaca.eu.

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Maria Sze, Managing Director at whynot! thinkpeople, has some advice for independent retailers on how to survive and prosper

I love my local shop.

Apart from stocking the essentials I’ve run out of, or the ingredients I’ve forgotten, it’s got a whole fridge dedicated to cheese and last Easter they had amazing hot cross buns with dark chocolate chips in them.

What’s more, I know the people who run it – they own it, they work hard, their kids go to the same school as my kids – so I like to support them.

With 30% growth predicted over the next five years and 78% of UK shoppers ‘mostly using’ convenience for their grocery shop, it appears that I’m not alone. It’s easier to manage your budget, it reduces food waste, the opening hours are much better suited to our busy lives… it’s simply more convenient for us.

The multiples have caught on to the opportunity. The heady combination of the business gains coupled with the chance to rebuild some local trust and engagement has seen a ‘space race’ with multiple-owned convenience stores delivering the largest increase in numbers (+10.6% YOY).

However, despite what appears to be an invasion of Sainsbury Locals and Tesco Express formats popping up in a town near you, multiples actually represent less than one in 10 of all convenience stores.

But are all convenience stores delivering for us?

From a shopper point of view, overall satisfaction is still an issue. The key driver – location – can only sustain you so long. The biggest challenges remain around price, range and layout. So what do independent convenience stores need to do to survive and grow?

3 things independent convenience stores can do

1          Solve and serve your shoppers. Get under the skin of why shoppers are in store; understand their missions; and merchandise to meet the shopper need. Above all, make sure your food to go offer is right. If it’s food for tonight, don’t slavishly merchandise to reflect category ranging – that helps nobody. Instead, merchandise multiple categories together to make it easy for them to pick up everything in one go. Putting ambient, vegetables and chilled together might not feel natural but it helps provide a swift solution. Suggest and upsell – having dinner tonight? Perhaps try this starter, dessert or wine? Support, enable and enhance their everyday lifestyle.

2          Push your local credentials. You’ll never compete with the multiples on their terms. Instead build a reputation around community spirit and local quality. Some local independents have delivered this by working in partnership with other local businesses and producers e.g. butchers, green grocers, florists. As small business owners catering to the same local catchment, you are stronger against the multiples when you work together AND your opening hours provide more opportunities for them e.g. fresh flower display on Sundays when the florist is closed.

3          In store excellence. Clear away the crap, take down the day-glow hand-written signs and make sure that your store is well stocked, well presented, easy to navigate and swift to serve. Consider ways to elevate your produce to suggest freshness and quality. Are there cues from farmers markets that might work e.g. blackboard signs and wicker baskets?

How can brands get more involved and benefit from the convenience boom?

Because of their fragmented infrastructure and sketchy retail compliance, many brands struggle to engage with convenience store formats. However, convenience provides a unique brand experience opportunity, as the shopper is often a consumer looking to make a purchase to consume now. Are most brands missing an opportunity to engage with the end consumer at that moment of truth? For brands that are prepared to commit, the rewards are worth it.

A confectionery brand I worked with recently saw their product return to growth for the first time in 10 years, driven by a successful focus on supporting convenience. This improved their prominence within the category, drove growth with younger consumers and helped them step away from a damaging cycle of multiple pack discounting within the multiple grocers.

3 things brands can do to win in the convenience channel:

1          View it as a longer journey. Unlike shopper activation in grocery, the rewards may take longer to deliver in convenience. Instead of thinking campaign planning by brand, start thinking long-term (years not months) portfolio investments.

2          Help them deliver local resonance for their community. Most C space owners/managers have no time for local marketing but have an appetite to engage. Providing meaningful tools and inspiration to help them build their local market share and engage with local consumers can transform your trading relationship.

3          Help them deliver in store excellence. Schemes like Heineken Star Retailer have really helped retailers with useful product information and merchandising guidance. It’s a perfect win-win. The retailer grows their category and profits whilst the brand secures prominence of display and gains the retailer’s trust.

My local shop brings out something almost patriotic and protective in me. It’s more than some faceless façade run by fat cats – these are real people and, by supporting them, I’m putting money back into my community.

Shopping there makes me feel better about me.

If they gave me a free sample of something it would feel personal, not some mass commercial push. In a world of cynicism and disillusionment, this is marketing gold dust.

Wouldn’t it be amazing if more brand spend started landing there? Smarter signage, more of the products you expect and need, when you need them. Perhaps some seasonal food and wine tastings for regular customers… and if it meant more of those hot cross buns with the chocolate chips in them, I’d be first in the queue.

Maria Sze is Managing Director at integrated marketing and shopper agency whynot! thinkpeople.

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whynot! thinkpeople, part of The thinkpeople family, has appointed Maria Sze as its Managing Director.

Sze joins from Haygarth where she was Head of Shopper and New Business. Sze originally joined Haygarth in 2014 as a retail consultant leading the client accounts for Londis, Budgens, Mars and The Walt Disney Company. Her role then expanded to include responsibility for driving Haygarth’s new business growth, resulting in client wins including Jack Daniel’s off trade account.

In her career, she has worked for agencies including adam&eveDDB, G2, Leo Burnett and Communicator.

Sze will report to Executive Chairman Andy Agar and will sit on The thinkpeople family board.

Andy Agar said: “I am delighted that Maria has chosen to join The thinkpeople family to head up our shopper agency, whynot! thinkpeople. She brings with her a wealth of experience not just in the world of shopper marketing but in business management and nurturing entrepreneurship. I have no doubt that she will provide strong leadership as we continue to develop and grow.”

whynot! is an award-winning integrated marketing and shopper agency. Clients include Heineken, Anchor, Belvoir and MATRADE.

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Creative agency whynot! thinkpeople has announced a key partnership with Stirling University’s Management School.

The partnership will allow the agency to work with the School’s Marketing and Retail Division to provide a unique research consultancy to whynot!’s clients. This will include bespoke research projects and academic research reviews to drive new ways of thinking.

Garry Lace, Honorary Professor at the Stirling Management School, commented: “When I arrived at the University last year, I was amazed by how much incredibly useful insight and data existed within the walls of the Management School. As a result, we built an offering for key commercial partners who want to give their clients new and interesting ways of generating market insights. The Marketing and Retail Division can offer a unique mix of commercial and academic rigour and we look forward to working with the team at whynot! thinkpeople to help them build better insights and create greater value for their clients. They are a smart, data driven, creative agency full of people who want to find new ways of working.

Andy Agar, Executive Chairman of whynot! thinkpeople (pictured) said; “We are delighted to be working with the Marketing and Retail team at Stirling University. Genuinely relevant, robust and interesting insights are hard to find and we believe this new partnership will help us work harder and smarter for our clients and give us a strategic point of difference. Academic rigour and insight combined with commercial thinking is a unique strategic offering that we will now be taking to our clients.”

Stirling University’s Management School is one of the UK’s leading schools for Marketing and Retail studies. It also has an AMBA accredited MBA and is one of the top UK 25 universities for business and management research.

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Belvoir Fruit Farms has launched its biggest-ever on pack promotion, dubbed FreeBees, with the grand prize of a seven-night holiday for two to Saint Lucia.

The FreeBees promotion rolled out across 500,000 promotional bottles from May 1^st, with each Elderflower Pressé bottle carrying a FreeBees neck collar complete with unique code.

To be in with a chance to win, shoppers have to visit www.belvoirfreebees.co.uk, enter their unique code and release their bee. The bee will take them on a journey, flying through the internet, to choose their prize.

There are over £1 million worth of daily prizes to be won throughout the promotion, including Champneys Spa Days, hundreds of Neom Organics Essential Wellbeing kits, Bee Good Eye Creams, Moisturisers and Lip Balms, Prezzybox Head Massagers, Ogilvy’s Mini Honey Taster Jars and 10 annual Honey Pot subscriptions, plus thousands of eVouchers and Neom Organics eBooks.

Everyone who enters the daily draws will be entered into a prize draw for the St Lucia holiday.

Belvoir Fruit Farms make their products from naturally lovely ingredients, none of which would be possible without bees. Bee populations are in decline in the UK, so Belvoir Fruit Farms wanted to return the favour and help them out.

As part of the promotion, the company will be making a £5,000 cash donation to the British Beekeeping Association to support their Friends of the Honey Bee campaign.

The promotion closes August 1st 2016.

The promotion was created for Belvoir by integrated agency, whynot! thinkpeople.

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Nurishment Original, the nutritionally enriched milk drink, is celebrating its 35th birthday with its biggest-ever on-pack promotion, with the chance to win technology prizes and branded merchandise.

The Anniversary Arcade promotion, created by agency whynot! thinkpeople, will roll out across 10 million promotional cans from May 9^th 2016, with each Nurishment Original can carrying the Anniversary Arcade promotional packaging complete with a unique code.

To find out if they have won anything, shoppers need to visit the Anniversary Arcade website with their unique code where they will have three free spins on the Anniversary Arcade game. The Anniversary Arcade game, hosted on a dedicated webpage, offers shoppers the chance to win over 700 prizes from Beats headphones and PS4 Consoles to branded Nurishment Original gym merchandise.

The Anniversary Arcade game can also be played on mobile and shoppers are informed instantly if they’ve won a prize.

Shopper marketing agency whynot! Thinkpeople created the promotion to appeal to Nurishment’s core audience of 18-24 year olds who are gym goers, music lovers and gamers looking for instant gratification whilst on the go.

Nyree Chambers, Head of Marketing at Grace Foods UK, says: “I’m confident that the combination of an instant win promotional mechanic and hundreds hi-tech prizes will resonate with Nurishment drinkers and attract new consumers to the brand. whynot! thinkpeople have demonstrated an in-depth understanding of Nurishment Original and created an on-pack promotion that will ensure the brand’s 35^th anniversary lives long in the memory of Nurishment fans.”

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United Biscuits is re-launching and extending its range of Sticky Pudding Cakes and is supporting the move with an on-pack promotion offering consumers the chance to win a range of prizes including trips to New York or Jamaica.

The promotion, which launched late December, was created by integrated marketing agency whynot!

The versatility of Sticky Pudding cakes provided the insight for the call to action, which encourages the public to vote whether the products are best eaten as a cake or a pudding.

The promotion is now running across two long-established consumer favourites – McVitie’s Jamaica Ginger and Lyle’s Golden Syrup Sticky Pudding Cakes – along with two new additions to the range, Golden Sticky Lemon Pudding Cake and McVitie’s Sticky Marmalade Pudding Cake.

Customers can pick up a promotional pack in store, go to the website and vote cake or pudding for their chance to win a trip to New York City or Jamaica as well as hundreds of other prizes.

The ‘Vote Cake or Pudding’ campaign will be supported with POS, digital and trade press.

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Anchor Spreadable is giving people the chance to see what’s under the Christmas tree early with its “Shake it, squeeze it, win it!” promotion.

The spread brand’s latest on-pack promotion, running from October to December, is based on the core insight that everyone is guilty of shaking and squeezing the presents under the tree before Christmas Day.

For the chance to win something, consumers enter a code from promotional packs of Anchor Spreadable and then get the chance to shake and squeeze a virtual present. If they guess right, then they win that present – which could be a prezzybox voucher, digital cameras, Christmas jumpers, socks or bikes for the family. Everyone who plays is also entered into a prize draw to win a family trip to Florida.

The promotion has been created for Anchor by integrated agency whynot! to encourage cost-conscious consumers to trade up and treat themselves this Christmas. It is part of Anchor’s new campaign for 2015 — ‘That’s the Good Stuff’ featuring the brand characters, the ‘Hugglers’.

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