Ferrero’s festive foray brings it closer to integrated marketing mix
Ferrero is to spend more on digital and shopper marketing for its brands to try and reach ambitious sales targets for 2015, a plan that begins in earnest with the festive efforts for its Ferrero Rocher chocolates.
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The confectionery maker is to spend the bulk of a £7.2m festive pot for its praline brands on Ferrero Rocher, a 30% increase on what it spent last year.
It is funding an integrated marketing plan that pushes Ferrero Rocher fully into Facebook for the first time, while also adopting a coordinated in-store push over the next seven weeks.
Content revolves around a TV ad (see above) to highlight the craft that goes into making the chocolate, using the various layers on a “Magical Tree” to represent the different elements. It ends with the chocolates at the heart of a social gathering and features the brand’s “Make your moments golden” tagline.
Emma Colquhoun, marketing director for Ferrero UK and Ireland, says the strategy is a contrast to previous efforts when it has leaned more on TV to drive sales.
The traditional media mix reflected the lack of digital expertise in the company worldwide but it has made moves over the last 12 months to address those shortcomings. Two years ago, digital represented 1% of its total spend and now its 13%, double what it spent in 2013.
Colquhoun adds: “We’ve gone for a lot more modernity in terms of style and casting in the Ferrero Rocher campaign. That aim can also be linked to our media mix, where we’ve been very TV focused in the past and now for the first time we’ve really expanded into a more 360 approach. We’re trying to build relevancy by expanding those touchpoints, which is something we haven’t been good at in the past as a business.”
The reason for Ferrero’s bigger digital gambit comes from a need to drive relevancy for the Ferrero Rocher brand among women aged 35 and older this Christmas. The chocolatier plans to use the period, which accounts for nearly a third of Ferrero Rocher’s annual sales, as a launch pad to grow sales by 16% in 2015. Sales jumped 14% in the 52 weeks to August, according to Nielsen figures cited by Ferrero, and it believes the more aggressive digital and shopper marketing outlay will expand its flagship brand further.
Separately, Ferrero Raffaello will also receive its first ever standalone campaign. Driving trial, the campaign will be supported by significant sampling activity as well as outdoor and digital.
Additionally, Ferrero Collection will have its own press and TV advertising campaign to reinforce the special gifting occasion. Around 50% of Ferrero Collection’s sales are made in the run up to Christmas, according to the business.
