[Philip Lelyveld comment: useful 3D cinema marketing case study]

[Marketing Magazine]

The cultural insight

What was engaging the hearts and minds of today’s young families? A chance cinema visit to see Avatar by a Belgiovane Williams Mackay strategy planner and his young family ignited a the idea: retelling old stories with new 3D wizardry.

The channel insight

What could be more perfect? An ageing product in need of a refreshed image, a new and relevant story to tell, and an ageing animated character that could benefit from a bit of 3D technology.

Even braver was our suggestion that we were going to launch using only one traditional media channel – cinema – and a small budget (under $500,000) for media and 3D production!

The big idea… If you thought Birds Eye Fish Fingers were old school, think again.

…

Results

Objective 1

We achieved a 26% volume increase (versus our goal of 5%) without any price promotion. NB: this is based on actual Scan Data; i.e. sales to consumers, not weighted retailer stock. This equated to 211,750 units in the launch month versus the monthly average previously of 167,407 units, a 26.5% increase – the biggest increase in years. The increased dollar value of these sales represented a 76% return on every dollar invested in advertising.

Objective 2

And sales are also up 16% YOY, initiated through the cinema launch period – importantly, an increase in unit sales greater in size and sustained effect than those previously achieved through heavy discounting.

Objective 3

There was also a significant jump in share growth (and decrease in growth for our main competitor) during the initial cinema launch period, climbing from 59.15% to 64.45% market share (well above our target of 60% market share) during the four-week launch period and, importantly, this effect was sustained after the cinema campaign.

Objective 4

We also achieved a great result in increasing the key measure for the new and improved Fish Finger product… that ‘Birds Eye Fish Fingers are made from real fish’. Total impressions after the initial launch campaign in January were 58%, a massive improvement on our last measure of 23%. It proved that we could change perceptions around the product and differentiate our quality over competitors.

We also won a Silver Effie in the Best Small Budget under $500,000 category, as well as being a national finalist in the brand revitalisation category of the 2011 AMI Awards.

See the full story here: http://www.marketingmag.com.au/case-studies/birds-eye-fish-fingers-3d-cinema-campaign-11931/