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| Tale of the Table: A Guinness World Records official measures Safeway’s picnic table on National Picnic Day in June 2011 in San Francisco. The 305-foot-long table was later sectioned off into 25 separate tables that were donated to the city of Portland, Ore., crowned "America's Most Natural City." Photo courtesy of Access Communications |
Company: Safeway
Agency: Access Communications
Timeframe: April - June 2011
Today, as shoppers become smarter about their food choices, and surveys such as a 2011 Deloitte study indicate that consumers have concerns about health, safety, processing and chemicals when it comes to the foods they eat, Safeway is once again listening to customer feedback and offering healthier choices.
Building on its already established O Organics line of foods available in the more than 1,702 locations across the U.S. and Canada, Safeway decided to go a step further in 2011 and roll out its Open Nature line of 100% natural food, including fresh beef, pork and chicken, cereal, granola, bread, ice cream, frozen pizza and entrees and peanut butter.
To help with the launch, Safeway turned to Access Communications, a full-service PR agency with offices in San Francisco and New York, in early February 2011. The two teams opened discussions on the design and execution of a communications campaign to launch this private label brand and communicate Safeway as a health and wellness innovator.
A PALATABLE APPROACH
“In launching our new Open Nature brand, we were looking for an innovative approach that would create broad brand awareness, resonate with consumers and encourage trial of the delicious all-natural foods,” says Elizabeth Shoemaker, VP, Safeway brand marketing. “We needed a PR agency that shared in our vision and worked seamlessly with our other media agencies to develop an integrated creative strategy that would accomplish our goals across several marketing platforms.”
Safeway’s objectives for a successful campaign were clear:
1. Position the brand as a leader in the natural food space;
2. Communicate Safeway’s messaging around its “high standards” for product innovation;
3. Encourage consumers to adopt the brand through product sampling and peer influence; and
4. Generate substantial media attention (100 million impressions).
Off the bat, the Access Communications team, headed by Lindsay Scalisi, senior VP, and Danielle Cantrell, VP, knew it wanted to create something unique.
“We started going through a series of meetings and came up with different ideas because we wanted to go with something that would be out of the box and really exciting,” says Scalisi. “We definitely didn’t want to do the normal site tour.”
However, there were several challenges:
• Knowing product launches in any industry are ubiquitous, especially in the overcrowded natural foods space, Access Communications needed to ensure the Open Nature launch would create high-impact brand visibility with strong sell-through.
• The team had less than two months to plan the launch of the campaign.
• Access Communications needed to secure national coverage for a product that wasn’t available nationwide, making it less appealing to national media.
Safeway and Access worked closely to distinguish this product introduction on a scale that would truly extend the product line rollout. The result was a multifaceted experiential event, integrating social media programs and including support tactics to drive consumer and media interest and keep momentum going. The strategy included:
• Create experiential events maximizing exposure via integrated marketing efforts,
• Activate programs to educate media and consumers on how Open Nature meets customers’ standards for natural foods (also affordable and easily available),
• Implement activities to extend buzz beyond launch and drive product awareness and purchase.
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GOING LONG
Through this approach, Access Communications created the ultimate trial event to showcase the product and sought out to set a Guinness World Record by creating the world’s longest picnic table. Tactics included:
â–¶ Large-Scale Event: Setting a Guinness World Record by building and unveiling the World’s Longest Picnic Table on National Picnic Day in June 2011 in San Francisco. A Guinness World Records official captivated the audience by measuring the 305-foot table (longer than a football field) and presented Safeway with the new World Record (see photo).
Safeway and Access secured Food Network celebrity chef Tyler Florence to prepare an Open Nature-inspired lunch (his original recipes) for the more than 600 guests, including public officials, Safeway employees, media and consumers to try the products firsthand.
Following Florence’s cooking demos, attendees were served lunch and given Open Nature samplers, filled with products and coupons, to encourage post-event sampling.
Safeway and Access activated social media contests through Facebook and Twitter to win a seat at the table, which resulted in more than 90 attendees.
â–¶ Educational Program: Following the San Francisco event, the Open Nature team went to New York and met with 10 national outlets including Good Housekeeping, Fitness, Health, Men’s Health, iVillage and Delish.com to address Open Nature’s high standards, transparency, affordability and diverse product categories. Coverage hit throughout 2011.
â–¶ Extend Buzz Beyond Launch: Conducted a social media contest pitting Safeway’s top 14 markets against each other to earn the title of “America’s Most Natural City.” Voters were entered for a chance to win a year’s supply of Open Nature products while giving their city’s parks and recreation department an opportunity to win a donation of $20,000 and 25 picnic tables, sectioned off from the World’s Longest.
Immediately following the contest’s conclusion, which revealed Portland, Ore., to be “America’s Most Natural City,” Safeway and Access hosted a press conference to award Portland’s Park and Recreation Department with an oversized check in the amount of $20,000. The event was featured in all major Portland outlets, including The Oregonian, Portland Tribune and Portland Business Journal.
UNKNOWN TERRITORY
Navigating through unknowns was one of Access’s biggest challenges. “It’s amazing the things you learn when you’re dealing with the logistics of an event this size,” says Cantrell. “You really need to be able to go beyond just your PR hat and be a problem solver.”
Some of those unknowns included the team’s discovery of a similar effort underway in England to also build the largest picnic table. “We certainly learned a great lesson about being flexible with this campaign,” says Scalisi. “You don’t know what your competitors are going to do and you don’t know what’s going to be around the corner as you start building out big events.”
With a 10-person team putting in 30- to 40-hour work weeks for two intense months, the results were irrefutable. The Access Communications’ monitoring and measurement team, which relied on Radian6 and Cision applicatoins, reported these results:
• Media Coverage: The team generated coverage in 1,176 outlets driving nearly 1.3 billion media impressions. Bloomberg Businessweek proclaimed the launch as a “publicity bonanza.”
• Message Pull-Through: Safeway was represented in 99% of the coverage, Open Nature was mentioned in 91% of the coverage and the products’ “high standards” for product innovation message was featured in 81% of the coverage.
• Activation Across Platforms: Proving to be a successful consumer awareness and sampling campaign, the picnic attracted more than 500 consumers. Additionally, more than 2,000 people participated in the “America’s Most Natural City” social media contest.
• Customer Impact: The campaign increased Safeway’s Facebook fans by more than 35,000 users, which in turn elevated direct-to-consumer engagement, strong brand dialogue and the following of @Safeway on Twitter.
“Open Nature sets a high standard for natural foods, and likewise, we had high standards for this campaign,” says Shoemaker. Based on the results generated and the feedback from shoppers, the campaign’s message has resonated on all fronts since day one, she says. “We not only exceeded our PR and consumer awareness goals, but we were pleasantly surprised by the buzz that continued long past National Picnic Day 2011.”
Perhaps one of the biggest wins was how Access was able to build on the momentum it created from the Open Nature campaign, and employ some of its social media tactics to create an entirely new campaign around Safeway’s search for its next culinary chef. PRN
CONTACT:
Lindsay Scalisi, [email protected]; Danielle Cantrell, [email protected]; Elizabeth Shoemaker, [email protected].