You don’t have to create a brand-new, breakthrough product line to make your sales figures dance. Just teach a few new steps to your already tried-and-true approach, and wake up to some dreamy numbers.
When the folks at Montreal-based Ultima Foods saw sales of their drinkable yogurt product, Yop, rising steadily over the last few years, they thought it might be time to raise the ante. Since the drink launched 20 years ago under the Yoplait banner, advertising was confined to on-pack promotions and a bit of well-placed event marketing aimed at young people.
The target hasn’t changed, explains Lucie Remillard, Ultima’s VP marketing, but the focus is a little different. ‘Research has shown that teenagers go to bed later at night than most adults, but they have to get up early to go to school.’ Increasingly, she says, they’re skipping breakfast to get a few extra minutes of shut-eye in the morning. ‘Parents are really concerned because breakfast is so important.’
This provided an ideal opportunity for the concept of a breakfast substitute in a bottle.
Montreal-based BOS reworked a U.K. spot that pumps the youth appeal and, says Remillard, ‘promotes the idea of a breakfast for sleepy teens. Distorted mouths and catchy music – we wanted to reach them in a way that was direct, funny, and stood out from what they’re used to, because they’re exposed to so much advertising.’
As the TV campaign neared the end of its run, the next phase of the
co-ordinated strategy kicked in. Bottles of Yop started showing up on store shelves with details of a new Wake Me Yop contest: Peel the label to see if you’re one of 100 winners of an Apple iPod.
The fit was uncanny. The iPod is a must-have for young people, and this model is equipped with an alarm clock. BOS came up with the catchy Wake Me Yop line. Once the contest was in place, Ultima followed up with the final phase of the integrated campaign – ‘a sampling program targeting the biggest high schools in the GTA,’ Remillard explains. ‘We gave out bottles of Yop in the morning, again, to create the link between the brand and breakfast.’
The early signs are encouraging. ‘The new strategy is clearly working for us, because in the first two weeks of this campaign we had a 40% increase in sales versus the same period last year. So it’s really bringing the brand to another level.’
