May 5, 2011 (Powerhomebiz.com) Stay Sourced were initially approached by one of the UKs leading marketing agencies GHMC for help with their latest Kingsmill promotion. GHMC had already approached a number of other companies who had been unable to meet with the requirements of the high specification and bespoke nature of one of the promotional gift concepts.
Kingsmill were to ‘piggy back’ on the success of the latest Christmas blockbuster, Wallace and Gromit’s film ‘A Matter of Load and Deaf’, and create a range of related items to help promote the brand.
The promotion was intended to be an old fashioned sales driven, loyalty building on-pack promotion. Vouchers would be appearing on 60 million loafs of Kingsmill bread throughout the UK within all major UK Supermarkets. Consumers would collect the vouchers, and dependent on how many they collected, would be able to redeem them against a range of different gifts (a mechanical toast rack, lunchbox, oven gloves and pencil case).
To begin with the brief was fairly loose with the focus being on the main gift of a ‘Turbomatic Toast Rack’. This was to be based on the design of the van in the recent film and feature a wind up mechanism so it could be raced across the table at breakfast time. All Stay Sourced had to work from was a hand sized van model, a few rough sketches and several images of the van from the film. Working with GHMC and the factory in China Stay Sourced went backwards and forwards with different designs and mechanisms until they created the perfect solution that would be true to the brand and the licence.
The factory then produced a mud mould which allowed the whole project to come to life as the client could now see what the Turbomatic Toast Rack would look like. A number of pre- production samples were created, tweaking each one just slightly to ensure a quality, novel product. Considerations included; ensuring the van run smoothly across the table; the rack was the right height so the toast didn’t fall out (part of the brief was the rack had to accommodate all bread sizes); and a rigorous testing procedure to ensure it adhered to all legal standards as well as the clients exacting standards.
The whole project from idea stage to final production had to be delivered in just 16 weeks which, given the amount of testing required and also the fact it run over Chinese New Year, meant Stay Sourced had to be ever more vigilant and planned over the whole project management.
In addition to the ‘Turbomatic Toast Rack’ Stay Sourced also produced other gifts for the whole campaign including ‘Wallace and Gromit’ branded lunch boxes, stationary sets and oven gloves. In total over 46,000 prizes were redeemed of which 25,000 were for the very popular Turbomatic Rack.
A website launched to manage the whole redemption scheme which showcased the different gifts and how many vouchers were required for each one. From launch the number of hits the website received was far greater than ever anticipated and led to Stay Sourced producing a further 5000 racks to ensure demand was met.
The whole promotion created a massive buzz and received lots of PR in magazines, including: Promotions and Incentives, Talking Retail and was even reviewed in Brand Republic receiving an 8 out of 10 for effectiveness.
Feedback from GHMC informed Stay Sourced that the promotion surpassed both the sales and redemption targets set out at the beginning of the project, with a total of 47,562 redemptions. Additionally, the client also received unprecedented positive customer feedback online, with promotional toast racks and oven mitts being sold via eBay for as much as £30 with photos of the items being uploaded to social media sites including Twitter and Flickr. Proving the Turbomatic Toast Rack had become a popular and cool household item.
Only in their first year of trading whilst creating these campaign products, Stay Sourced had a lot to prove to the industry, and they succeeded. The faith and trust GHMC had in Stay Sourced to look after and manage this project is a tribute to the quality and expertise of their staff.
“From the moment we presented our initial concepts to the client and Aardman they fell in love with the idea of the Turbo-Matic Toast Rack. After much stress about how we would deliver Stay Sourced were the only company we found who could supply all of the items required on time, on budget and to the high standards required.” Marc Williams, Account Director from GHMC
contact
StaySourced
Suite 15, Evans Business Centre, Burley Road
Leeds
West Yorkshire
LS4 2PU
United Kingdom
Tel: 0113 288 3215
Fax: 0113 288 3214
http://www.staysourced.co.uk/