Juicy mentoring for A new head of marketing

The alt dairy market was growing. But the good-for-your-gut Arla Lactofree brand was lagging behind its competitors.

Newcomer Spoon Cereals had elbowed their way onto the shelves of some major retailers. But the challenge was to keep them there and grow their rate of sale. 

Although Weetabix was still the UK’s favourite cereal, fewer shoppers were buying it and the long-term health of the brand was at risk.

Buyers are a hard-to-impress bunch. So we had to get them excited about the launch of a load of Weetabix’s new products with a money-can’t-buy experience. 

With everyone shopping from home during the pandemic, we had to make sure the UK’s favourite cereal made it onto the weekly online shopping list.

Sure. Weetabix is a British icon but it just wasn’t as relevant as it should be. So we got clever and looked beyond traditional media to give it a boost.

With the price of milk crashing and farmers struggling to make ends meet, research showed that 63% of shoppers were willing to pay more for a pint – if that money went directly to farmers.

Weetabix advertising RoI had flattened and needed a rethink to improve cut-through.

Heineken’s Bulmers was getting seriously outdrunk in the market by newer fruit ciders like Koppaberg & Rekorderlig, as well as the more traditional Magners brands.

In a price sensitive market, the UK’s largest dairy company, Arla, had the challenge of how to add value to one of the biggest categories in grocery.

With John Smith’s brand equity on the skids and with sponsorship of the Grand National in the offing, we had to do something more headline-grabbing than sticking a logo on a jockey’s arse (although we did that as well).

Although Arla is a huge European advertiser, their advertising was disjointed because of the way the business was structured. Consequently, it wasn’t working as hard as it could.

Mighty Drinks was growing fast. They were getting new products on shelves, but the process was slow and painful.