Company: Frito-Lay
Agency: Ketchum
Timeframe: 2006-2007
In the wake of America's newfound obsession with health and nutrition, the Frito-Lay brand needed to clean up its greasy image in favor of something more calorie-conscience. Swapping cottonseed oil for the far more salutary sunflower oil in its famed potato chips, Frito-Lay executives sought to increase the health benefits of its chips while retaining the tastiness quotient. There were only two problems: How do you change public perception (as well as that of the health and nutrition community) of a food product widely seen as "junk food" to one that can increase heart-healthy oils in a person's diet? And, how do you do this without adversely affecting sales?
To exert sway over the disbelievers, Frito-Lay teamed up with Ketchum to design a campaign in 2006 that would communicate the heart health benefits of sunflower oil, while also underscoring the fact that the chips had not changed one iota in flavor.
For Frito-Lay, choosing Ketchum as its agency of record for the campaign was a no-brainer.
"Ketchum has a long reputation in food and nutrition marketing," says Aurora Gonzalez, Frito-Lay's director of public relations. "We thought it was important to select someone who understands the traditional PR side of media, as well as the influencer side and how that relates to changing perceptions and educating [consumers]."
Given Frito-Lay's ongoing relationship with Ketchum, the partnership was a fait accompli.
"We have a long-standing relationship with Frito-Lay," says Ilene Smith, VP of food and nutrition at Ketchum. "We had also started working with them in 2003 on nutrition-based programs for the first time."
Thus, for both sides, familiarity with the brand was a strong foundation on which the new campaign would be built.
Repositioning Potatoes
To help meet its goals, the Ketchum and Frito-Lay team conducted research to determine the following: how are healthy oils positioned in competitive and non-competitive food products; which influencers in the health and nutrition community should be targeted; and what message should be created to best convey the chips' health benefits. Comparative research was done with competitive products to determine cases where consumers responded negatively to product reformulations.
"We made sure the client understood what the goals were from a media perspective," explains Smith. "[We also wanted them to know] what the brand team's goals were upfront from a business perspective, and we planned accordingly."
Communication was key to making the campaign run smoothly. It also played a strong role in shaping the fluid interaction between Ketchum and Frito-Lay.
"One of the benefits [of this program] is that the team we worked with was very familiar with fats," explains Gonzalez. "That's an integral part of our story, so already they had a working knowledge of the issues and the topic we needed to communicate around. But then it was important to get an understanding of two things: Frito-Lay's overall health and wellness strategy and how this [campaign fits] specifically into that; and how the switch [in oils] plays within the Lay's brand."
From this initial phase of research, the team concluded that its target audience was comprised of the potato chip consumer, which represents 83% of all households according to Simmons Market Research Bureau; and influencers in the health and nutrition community. The findings also led the team to home in on three project goals:
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Generate positive feedback from health and nutrition influencers;
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Generate at least 100 million media impressions (for under $1 million) conveying the heart health benefits of Lay's Potato Chips with sunflower oil in the nine months between launch and when a marketing program was to begin; and
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Prevent sales erosion as a result of the announcement.
The team executed its strategizing in three phases:
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Phase 1: Seeding Sunflowers. Prior to the launch announcement, the influencers would be supplied with credible science behind the oil change;
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Phase 2: Moment in the "Sun" flower. The campaign would create a single moment for the consumer oil change announcement to promote the health benefits of eating Lay's Potato Chips; and
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Phase 3. Spreading the Joy. Disseminate the heart health story behind Lay's Potato Chips on a local level with a grassroots mobile market media tour, broadcast tabletop segments and sampling events at retailer locations, such as Wal-Mart, Pathmark and Acme. This would be done as the rollout of the reformulated Lay's product featuring a sunflower on the package hit each local market.
Cutting Fat, Not Flavor
Budget for the campaign was $917,500; $50,000 would be earmarked for Phase 1; $117,500 for Phase 2; and $750,000 for Phase 3.
For Phase 1, Ketchum executives designed a brochure that summarized the scientific research supporting the claim that changing the types of fats in the diet, not the amount, can have immeasurable health benefits. The brochure was sent to influencers and nutrition/health writers to provide background information prior to the announcement. Also during this phase, the team selected nutrition experts to lead webinars on the fat/oil debate.
For Phase 2, an announcement about the oil conversion was made on May 3, 2006. An exclusive story on it appeared in USA Today, the day of the announcement. The article was used to drive additional print and broadcast media coverage. A B-roll package featuring Penny Kris-Eatherton, a leader in healthy oils research, and Rocco Papalia, Frito-Lay's head of R & D, was released along with an audio news release with sound bites from Papalia.
From July to September 2006, during Phase 3, Ketchum pitched broadcast segments on the East and West Coasts, featuring New York-based dietician Samantha Heller. A second outreach on the West coast featured California-based dietician Julie Upton.
In October 2006, the team spearheaded a release titled "Fat: It's a Matter of Balance" that focused on "good" fats versus "bad" fats and highlighted the healthy benefits of the oil change in Lay's Potato Chips. Also starting that month, celebrity chef Dave Lieberman of the Food Network led the 100% Pure Joy Tour, which featured a branded truck with an interactive stage that made stops at retail locations. Lieberman prepared recipes using Lay's and discusses the health benefits of sunflower oil with the public.
"[It was a challenge] making people understand how important it is to consume healthy oils," says Smith, "and get them off the low-fat/no-fat mentality and yet be creditable."
In addition to informing consumers that potato chips can be a potentially healthier snack option, another campaign aim was promoting a dialogue among consumers about the quality of fat. "I think this type of discussion is difficult on any level," says Gonzalez. "First, you're trying to educate that we're moving away from total fat to quality fat. Also challenging is [telling consumers] that there's a difference between fats--that there are bad fats and good fats. Both of these points are counterintuitive to consumers today."
In November 2006, dietician Heller appeared in 15 markets for broadcast segments on "How to Be a Healthy Host" and "Snack Foods with Benefits" featuring Lay's Potato Chips with sunflower oil. A third segment for March's National Nutrition Month, "Extreme Snack Makeover: Desktop Edition," appeared in seven markets.
The ROI was extensive and wide-ranging. Nutrition experts and pundits weighed in with positive feedback on the reformulated Lay's Potato Chips. The campaign generated about 175 million media impressions in the nine months between launch and when the marketing program commenced. And, despite worries that the change in oil might cause a drop in consumer sales, the opposite turned out to be true. According to Information Resources, Inc., Lay's leads the $2.8 billion potato chip category with a 27.2% share of dollar sales and a 28.4% share of volume sales.
For Smith, the lessons learned were "things that were more reinforced than learned and what is the importance of getting influencer buy-in prior to the launch of a consumer campaign which we had done. We rolled out with influencers first and continued to tell our story to them because they would frequently be called on to comment when a story rolled out to the consumer media."
Logistics also figured strongly in the team planning. "There were a lot of moving parts at the same time," notes Smith. "The team learned a lot about juggling. It's more a matter of making sure that you fully understand what the client's expectations are upfront, what's on their wish list and what's acceptable to a client or not."
Ultimately, what made the campaign work was not just effective communications strategy but a simple precept when it comes to snack foods: "Taste is still king," says Gonzalez. PRN
CONTACTS:
Ilene Smith, [email protected]; Aurora Gonzalez, [email protected]
Listen To Feedback
How do you rebrand (or reformulate) an old product? For Ketchum's Ilene Smith, VP of food and nutrition, it's crucial to pay attention to industry experts.
"The key here was not so much a rebrand as a reformulation. In terms of that, I think the most important thing is to make sure you understand who the influencer community is for that particular product and making sure that you let them know the news first, explain your story and let them understand it. Get feedback from them and incorporate that feedback into your messaging. [We did just that] and tweaked the messaging along the way to make sure they were creditable."