According to Tom Sheppard, client strategy director at Newsamp NSW, one of the highlights of Newsamp’s Finish campaign was not just the way the team responded to the brief, but the way they got the brief to begin with.
“It all started with one of my direct reports, Angus Manson, who said, ‘I can see a cost of living crisis coming’. He pulled together this huge piece of work that took maybe two months, that essentially said a cost of living crisis is coming, and it’s going to hit FMCG brands the most. He developed this huge piece of thought leadership, and we got it out to every FMCG brand within our portfolio.”
A few of the key statistics in Manson’s report included that 41% of Australians were cutting back on eating out and ordering in, 61% were cooking more significantly at home, and 47% of Australians were looking for more confidence and security in their day-to-day life.
This data was just what the Finish team needed to tackle the problem it was facing.
“When we spoke to Finish, they said ‘we’d love you to use some of these insights to help us, because right now, we’re really up against our competitors.’ They were still maintaining a number one share in market, however, they were starting to lose ground,” said Sheppard.
The Newsamp team approached the challenge by asking how it could help Australians feel more comfortable and secure within their homes with another crisis on the horizon.
“We looked at the brand challenges that they were trying to achieve, which were centred around increasing purchase intent, increasing relevance, and trying to maintain that number one position for that brand,” said Sheppard. “Then we crossed it over with what we knew Australians were feeling at that point in time.
“We broke the campaign out into a few different spheres – easy entertaining recipes to get cooking more, video content about cooking in a clean fashion and not messing the kitchen up too much, and a competition that heroed Australia’s best kitchen cleaners rather than Australia’s best kitchen cooks.”
Kantar measured the results of the campaign, which Sheppard described as “fantastic.”
“84% of respondents felt that the content fit within the site that it appeared on. We had an 11% increase in purchase intent – and that’s one of the most ridiculous numbers I’ve seen in five years, we don’t usually see numbers like that so it made everyone here exceptionally happy.
“We had huge relevancy scores as well, 75% of the exposed who were dishwasher owners were in the correct audience category. We even saw almost a 5% increase in awareness of Finish itself, which is just ridiculous when you look at the fact that they’ve been the number one dishwashing brand for 15 to 20 years in Australia.”
Reflecting on the campaign, Sheppard said the biggest takeaway was making sure that messages are heard in contextually relevant environments. Whilst it’s easy to focus on making sure you’re talking to the right audience at the right time, he suggested that what sometimes gets forgotten is the right place.
“People who have kids are going to be cooking a lot more than people who don’t, because they have more people to feed. Putting the Finish campaign on KidSpot, with the authoritative voices of mums who are actually talking to this problem really helped the audience relate on a personal level.
“Being able to add that contextual relevance to the campaign is something that we’ve now really dialled into pretty much everything else that we’re doing. It’s not just the right creative, it’s not just the right audience, it’s not just the right time, but it’s surrounded by the right voices and the right context.”
The results got the thumbs-up from the Finish team as well, with Jennefer Elten, senior digital CX manager in Finish’s brand team, telling Mediaweek: “Partnering with News Corp Australia and Newsamp was a strategic move to elevate our brand and align us with relevant food contexts. Newsamp’s bespoke solutions aligned perfectly with our goal to maintain and build our brand equity among a foodie audience.
“The campaign’s success exceeded our expectations, delivering an 11% increase in purchase intent and a 4.6% lift in awareness. These results not only solidify Finish’s position in the market but also strengthen our brand among key demographics, particularly parents with a love for home cooking. This partnership has justified the importance of contextually relevant environments for our content to thrive.”
See Also: How Glenfiddich lifted luxury perception by 12% with Newsamp and iProspect