Conagra combines five brands to drive holiday prep solutions

Conagra is meeting home-meal preppers were they shop with a “true” shopper campaign.

The CPG is combining Pam, Duncan Hines, Orville Redenbacher, VH sauce and new Bertolli frozen skillet meal SKUs into one holiday retail program, and directing shoppers to its ReadySetEat recipe-heavy microsite.

It’s another multi-brand shopper play for Conagra after this spring, presenting the trio of Swanson, Gardein and Duncan Hines in a bid to take the stress out of mealtime.

Shopper engagement includes store visibility, in-store sampling, digital presence, ecommerce programing by retailer and in-store POS materials.

Tim Lute, VP of commercial strategy, insights and transformation at Conagra Brands says “Holiday Prep Made Easy” is a true and more traditional shopper program.

It consists of totems, temporary merchandizing displays, bunkers and end caps, “a full suite of [shopper] tools,” but also digital elements like Walmart and Loblaw media banner ads.

As Lute explains, the campaign is built on Conagra insights that as consumers are still readjusting to holiday traditions in a post-pandemic milieu, they are time-strapped and want convenience so they can direct focus on family and friends.

It’s about broader activation to drive new points of availability in different parts of the store, and building on the notion of easy meal solutions and “relevant adjacencies.”

“What’s unique about this program too, is that we have a new launch in Bertolli, and so obviously there has been a lot happening in the frozen space,” Lute says.

In late November, Conagra introduced five frozen skillet meals by Bertolli, a 150-year-old Italian brand best known for its olive oils. The meals tout the products’ “quick and easy to prepare in under 12 minutes,” value proposition.

There’s been a shift from conventional grocer to discount banners and the former is now more open to commerce marketing programs to create more interest and experience, whether it’s meal solutions or adjacencies. “That’s something we really leaned into, and it is supporting a challenge that conventional banners have been facing,” Lute says.

“Holiday Prep Made Easy,” is being supported by the Mars Agency, and as the name suggests, is about driving inspiration around the holidays, whether it’s Hanukkah, Christmas or New Year’s.

Conagra has also been doing a lot of trial, recruitment and sampling, as it just introduced P.F. Chang’s to the local market, introducing the American casual restaurant chain’s Home Menu sauces and frozen single-serve. The latter are what Lute calls a more premium set of multi-serve frozen meals, part of a move toward “restaurant inspired” fare at retail, which also includes its Bertolli offerings.