Just Juice Bubbles launch

Category: FMCG

Agency: Colenso BBDO

Advertiser: Frucor Beverages (Just Juice)

SUMMARY

Just Juice was a brand in a category being squeezed by heavy discounting, it had to radically rethink what it did. It launched Just Juice Bubbles. Taking the brand out of juice and into the competitive carbonated soft drinks (CSD) category.

To successfully do this was a big job for Colenso BBDO - announce a brand new product, in a brand new category, in a completely different part of the supermarket and against mega brands.

How would Colenso BBDO and Frucor Beverages do this?

By:

• Charging a price premium (53%)

• Keeping true to Just Juice's taste with 50% juice content (five time's the level of any other CSD)

• Tapping into known consumer behaviour (mixing 50% juice with 50% lemonade)

An integrated mix of mainstream television with radio, Ad Trolleys and Adshels was used to generate mass awareness and also to touch consumers when they were out and about – close to point of consumption.

The campaign cut through using two simple truths:

• CSDs make you 'burp'

• Consumers already mix juice and lemonade.

The results:

• Advertisement awareness and brand awareness were above the Millward Brown norms for a new product launch

• Total Just Juice sales increased by 29% - seven times category growth.

(Source: Ex-factory data; ACNielsen & Millward Brown)

MARKETING CHALLENGE

Just Juice is a 24 year-old brand competing in the juice segment of the second largest beverage category worth $200m. It has market leadership in its category through its 100% tropical family juice positioning and its 'unique tropical taste' articulation of this strategy.

However it was leadership in a mature market experiencing growth at just 4% per annum and low profitability.

The market had changed dramatically and was now been driven by two factors, a growth in premium brands and heavy price discounting.

The average price per litre of juice had plunged from $1.74 down to $1.61 over the past five years – an unsustainable position.

Competition at the premium end of the market was significant too. Charlies had taken the high ground, claiming 'not from concentrate' as its unique point of difference. Juice wasn't just juice anymore; research showed consumers saw it as either 'real juice' (not from concentrate) or plain juice. Attributes critical to the Just Juice brand - flavour and brand values - mattered less and less.

The result was that the market was being ravaged by two factors, massive discounting on juice in the mainstream (mainly on the core 3ltr juice range) and expansion of premium products at the top end.

The overall effect was that Just Juice was being squeezed and profitability was under pressure.

Competition from within the parent company was substantial too, with much newer brands in faster growing categories like energy and water elevating growth rate targets and making it increasingly difficult for Just Juice to meet its financial objectives.

It was clear a major rethink was in order to prevent Just Juice having to abandon its core values and fight it out with poorly differentiated brands through price discounting.

In the search for growth opportunities, the carbonated soft drink (CSD) market was seen as a potential source of volume given the fact it comprises over 50% of the non-alcoholic beverage category. However there were two significant barriers to entry:

• The market was relatively price sensitive, low value and dominated by one player, Coca-Cola, whose stable of established and successful brands accounted for over 90% share of the category

• How could 'Just Juice' launch a CSD?

A series of market trends and insights provided a key to the solution:

• There was a rising popularity of 'hybrid' beverages internationally - beverages that combined mineral water or soda with fruit juice – although the maximum juice content of these hybrids was around 13%

• Among traditional soft drinks, lemonade was identified as being one of the most 'natural' with consumers believing it has relatively little or no colours or preservatives*

• Where the CSD and fruit juice categories intersected was around consumer needs of 'fun' and 'enjoyment'

• One third of consumers were already mixing Just Juice with lemonade*.

(*Source: Focus Research)

In combination, these led to the concept and development of Just Juice Bubbles – a 50/50 blend of Just Juice and lemonade.

Being squeezed in its traditional core juice category, under pressure to generate higher returns and growth, this combination, while seemingly a massive shift from the brand's traditional 100% tropical juice platform, looked like a real possibility. The secret was to stay true to the brand, both its image and product performance (unique tropical taste), in doing it.

CAMPAIGN OBJECTIVES

Overall the campaign objectives were to get the Just Juice brand back into growth and improve profitability, without compromising the brand's values or its essence of tropical family fun.

Sales Value

1. Increase sales value of total Just Juice by 8% (double the category growth rate)

Profitability

• Increase value and profit in the CSD category for the retailer (a key selling point with the trade)

Market Share

• Achieve 7% value share of the fruit flavoured CSD segment in grocery and 18% value share in total Service Stations after 12 months.

• Grow Just Juice Bubbles through the creation of new consumption occasions without cannibalising the parent product

• At least meet new product norms in six months for Awareness (54%), Trial (19%) and Recent Purchase (8%) (as measured by Millward Brown).

Brand

Possibly the most strategically problematic; it was imperative that the launch of Just Juice Bubbles did not detract from Just Juice's perceived naturalness or undermine the foundations of the brand.

Advertising needed to portray that the new product added something to the Just Juice brand rather than detracting from it. It also had a big job to do in cutting through the clutter to announce a new product, in a new category and in a new part of the supermarket. Shelf facings and product presence in the CSD aisle were very low for Just Juice Bubbles. The advertising had to work doubly hard to make sure consumers knew what Bubbles was and where to find it. Consequently, brand objectives were to:

• Create strong advertisement recognition for Just Juice Bubbles and correct message outtake as being 50% lemonade and 50% Just Juice (brand recognition of Just Juice Bubbles and understanding that it was a CSD were essential)

• Improve consumers' perceptions of the Just Juice brand as a whole

• At least maintain top of mind recall for the Just Juice brand, measured by its status as the third most recalled beverage brand in New Zealand.

Essentially if this campaign did not establish the functional difference of Just Juice Bubbles relative to other CSDs or reinforce the brand's tropical family juice credentials, it would fail.

TARGET AUDIENCE

The Just Juice target market is mainstream, basically Kiwi mums with kids. Just Juice Bubbles' market was defined as being largely similar, with a slightly broader appeal because of its CSD format and the combined strengths of both the juice and soft drink markets.

• Primary target was the Household Shopper with children 0–14. They are busy parents (more often Mums), buying mostly from supermarkets. They buy Just Juice for its taste, its soft health benefits, its appropriateness for the whole family and its relaxed tropical values. They would also buy Bubbles because it built on these foundations and added an appealing sense of liveliness - both functionally in taste sensation and emotionally, in attitude.

• Secondary target was Teens / Youth (15–24) who buy mostly on-the-go from service stations and dairies. Again the appeal of Bubbles was to come from the unique combination of Just Juice (taste, goodness and tropical 'escapism' values) and Lemonade (bubbles and liveliness) – communicated in an appropriately lively and playful personality.

CREATIVE STRATEGY

The creative idea rose out of the need to reinforce Bubbles' Just Juice heritage, but also clearly establish that it was a CSD.

The strategy:

• Leverage the Just Juice heritage - the tropical island, fruit and family cues

• Dial-up the cheekiness and fun aspects of the brand, to match CSDs rules of engagement – liveliness, vitality and socialability

• Maximise cut through and stand out.

The last point was critical as this could not afford to be a wallpaper communications exercise. It was essentially a new product, in a highly competitive and crowded category. It had to gain cut through in the CSD category and clearly differentiate itself, but also still feel like a Just Juice campaign.

Three elements underpinned the creative:

• Traditional Just Juice tropical island and family cues

• A highly visual '50/50 Just Juice & Lemonade' device was designed and used in all communications

• The 'burp' as a shorthand for CSD.

The 'burp' device was a brilliant way of achieving cut through, but also in one simple gesture it clearly signaled that this was a CSD product – burping is a universal truth about CSDs.

A visual 50:50 device was also effective in communicating the actual product offer. This was important since 50/50 was the mix that consumers were most likely to use when creating 'bubbly juice' at home and the blend that performs best on taste. Also, because it had five times the juice content of any other CSD product available, it was a major differentiating factor for Bubbles that had to be clearly established. Thus, communicating the half and half detail was important to support brand values and distinguish Just Juice Bubbles from lesser product offerings.

OTHER COMMUNICATION PROGRAMMES

Given that this was a mainstream launch, into a mainstream category (CSDs), in the grocery channel, it was essentially a fully integrated mass media launch. However, two important aspects marked the activity:

• No price discounting or heavy promotion was employed. In fact, Bubbles was launched with on average a 68% price premium - $1.87 per litre in comparison to the CSD average of $1.11 in grocery!

• Distribution used all existing and established Frucor channels of grocery and direct – except it was into a new category of CSDs. As such, Just Juice Bubbles endured relatively poor levels of facings and disproportionately low share of shelf space because of competitive pressures, particularly in grocery.

In-store point-of-sale and in-store sampling activity was an essential media strategy as Just Juice Bubbles was going to be ranged in the CSD aisle. It was important consumers knew where to find the product, since it was not going to be where they were used to finding Just Juice.

The only other significant level of support other than mainstream media was a sampling campaign on the launch of the product.

MEDIA STRATEGY

Given the highly competitive CSD category all Just Juice media activity for August to December was put behind the Just Juice Bubbles launch.

The challenge was to launch Bubbles with minimal cannibalisation of the Just Juice Brand.

Over the August to December period Just Juice Bubbles achieved a 31% share of spend in the CSD category. This was ahead of the 20% category forecast.

The single-minded strategy was to hit them hard as the product would only be new once and it was imperative to create immediate awareness.

Television was chosen as the core medium for the campaign. It was valued for its high mass-market reach, responsiveness and the fact that it was the category battleground

Whilst television built ongoing brand equity, layers of secondary media drove relevance and supported impulse occasions.

The resulting strategy used layering of messages to ensure that frequency was high, and that these messages were seen in different contexts.

MEDIA

The campaign employed a mix of:

• TV

• Adshels

• Cinelights

• Radio

• Ad Trolleys (at point of purchase)

TOTAL MEDIA EXPENDITURE:

$500,000 to $1m

RESULTS

Sales Value

1. Total sales value achieved 116% of the launch objective

2. Sales value of total Just Juice increased by 29% – achieving 235% of the objective set

3. Just Juice Bubbles has become the most successful launch in Frucor's history, exceeding one-year sales of both V and Mizone

(Source: ex-factory sales, Aug '04 – June '05 vs. prior year)

Profitability

Just Juice Bubbles has increased profitability for both the company and the retail trade. Just Juice brand profitability increased significantly. Profit for the retailer has increased too with the average price per litre in Grocery of $1.81 for Just Juice Bubbles compared to $1.15 for all other CSDs – a massive 58% premium.

(Source: ACNielsen 26 weeks ending 26/06/05)

1. The launch of Bubbles has helped explode the fruit CSD segment – it is currently the fastest growing segment in CSDs with 19% growth. At current rates it is anticipated to overtake lemonade to become the number two segment in the next 12 months.

   • In service stations the launch has sparked growth for the total CSD category that was previously in decline

   • In Total Supermarkets Just Juice Bubbles accounts for 30% of Total fruit CSD growth.

Market Share

1. Just Juice Bubbles is the number two fruit CSD brand in Total Service stations with 34.9% share (more than double the set target).

2. Just Juice Bubbles is the number two fruit CSD brand in Total Supermarkets with 15% value share of the Fruit CSD segment.

3. Just Juice Bubbles doubled Millward Brown new product norms for brand awareness, trial and recent purchase.

(Source: ACNielsen 26 weeks ending 26 June 2005)

Brand

1. Just Juice Bubbles has had a positive impact on consumer perceptions of the Just Juice brand as a whole. (Source: Post launch qualitative research, Focus Research)

2. Just Juice is now the second most recalled beverage in New Zealand behind Coca Cola – but more importantly ahead of Fanta for the first time in the brand's history.

Advertising Recognition

1. The television commercial “Burps” outperformed Millward Brown norms for advertisement recognition and consumer key outtakes were clearly on strategy.

Orbit Gum – No Matter What

Category: Sustained Success

Brand: Orbit Gum

Client: Wm. Wrigley Jr. Company

Primary Agency: Energy BBDO

Media Agency: MindShare

STRATEGIC CHALLENGE

In 2002, despite having overall leadership of the gum category and a stable of great brands, the Wm. Wrigley Jr. Company could not claim to have a true power brand; a brand that dominates the category both in terms of sales and relationship with the consumer. Our mission was to create a brand that would set a new standard, as the most meaningful and involving brand in the category.

With brands like the Juicy Fruit and Extra, Wrigley was well seeded in the hearts and minds of the public they hadn't had big innovation in a long time. Orbit, however, was designed in look, feel and taste) to be that breakthrough product that could change the category. To accomplish this, we needed to carve out a new meaningful proposition and fresh, involving communication to convince teenagers and young adults that this gum was unlike anything introduced over the last 100 years.

Orbit needed to be a gum teens and young adults claimed as their own vs. the one their mom always chewed.

From a business standpoint, Wrigley would win as a company if Orbit could assume a leadership position in the category. Currently the leading competitor held the largest share and enjoyed the highest unaided brand awareness in the category due to its long-running campaign. Thus, we needed to makes sure our message was relevant to a large segment of our key competitor's base consumer and over time we needed to secure these chewers while continuously wooing new teens and young adults.

OBJECTIVES

Orbit's communication needed to trump the rest of the gum category in every way. The holistic communication effort we created had to be more break-through, more meaningful to consumers and ultimately more involving than anything in the marketplace. Lastly, Orbit had to grow at the expense of Wrigley's competition.

To be the power brand in the category, we wanted to lead in the following areas, as these measures were and continue to be the key performance metrics we use to gauge success.

Business Metrics

• Most dramatic, sustained sales and share growth

Communication Metrics

• Achieve the most breakthrough communication via highest ad awareness in the category

Brand Equity Metrics

• Establish the brand in popular culture

• Obtain ownership of “clean mouth” benefit

• Generate highest association with “cool” and “contemporary”

THE BIG IDEA

“Orbit cleans up even the dirtiest of mouths”

Consumer Insight

A key consumer insight was the genesis for the campaign. The prime prospect, 18–34 year old trend-surfers didn't just want fresh breath, they wanted a clean mouth to help them feel put together, confident and at their best at any time. Key to this is they saw a difference between covering up bad breath and the feeling of having a truly clean mouth. As one person said “you can brush your teeth without taking a shower and still feel ok but the opposite is not true.” We saw “clean” as a compelling yet wholly unique benefit that gave us an advantage since our competition was relying on more typical positioning areas such as breath-freshening, dental and long-lasting.

Brand Defining Idea and Campaign

Based on this insight we created a meaningful Brand Defining Idea (i.e. the core of the brand from which the campaign would be built) of a “Clean Mouth Guarantee.” Thus, we knew that whatever we did it had to reassure consumers that no matter what happened, their mouths would be clean. From there, our campaign was born.

Our Big Idea was to demonstrate this guarantee by showing that even the dirtiest mouths can be cleaned up with Orbit. This approach hit hard on the product benefit but was still broad enough to do the heavy lifting of a product announcement, specifically tout the innovation, showcase the packaging, seed the name and do it all in an engaging manner. Further, it had legs to allow for ongoing product innovation news (the key driver of sales in the gum category). Finally, it simply felt different from the competition and delivered the message in a non-dental, friendly way. This strategy continues to be the foundation in which all Orbit communications emanate.

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We brought the idea to life by first exaggerating the problem of a dirty mouth and then finding new and clever ways to clean it up.

The Approach

Prior to the Orbit launch, gum advertising was generally focused on help for the “hookup” or hard-core dental benefits. In general, the communications were void of any memorable personality, style or humor. We saw an opportunity to market Orbit in a quirky, witty manner that would generate powerful consumer involvement and deliver our communications in a unique and stylized feel.

The World of Orbit

Our first step was creating a hyperbolic world, where no matter how dirty people might be or get, Orbit still delivers on its guarantee of a clean mouth. To ensure we stood out, we made the world feel stylish and retro-forward. Additionally we used a sparkling icon named Vanessa, a pseudo scientist/anthropologist who, as the ironic observer of these crazy situations, delivers the pay-off “Dirty Mouth? Clean it up with Orbit – For a Clean Feeling Mouth, No Matter What” while showcasing the product and relevant news. With Vanessa we had an enjoyable thread that allowed us to solve new and different “dirty” situations while providing a consistent voice to the campaign.

Phase I – Literal dirt

The initial campaign featured a lab where test subjects were continually bathed in dirt but found chewing Orbit kept their mouths delightfully clean. From here, the brand continued to use hyperbolic literal dirt scenarios to communicate our message, from equestrians who fall in the mud to man-eating plants that attack individuals.

Phase II – Figurative dirt

Prompted by consumer learning that the idea of “dirty” extended to dirty language, we expanded the definition of a dirty mouth from the literal to the figurative and began cleaning up stereotypical “dirty mouths”. For example, in “Affair” an illicit romance is uncovered and dirty words are “cleaned-up” using silly, non-sensical language.

Phase III – Cleaning up pop-culture

Given our trend-surfer target is highly tapped into whatever is happening in the here and now, in 2006, we embarked on a crusade to “clean up pop-culture.” It was opportunistic way to broaden our mass appeal and there was (and is) no shortage of material. We focused on celebrities known for being dirty – starting with Snoop Dog (in our communications, his dirty mouth was sending him to hell, luckily Orbit is there to save him) and moving on to Steve-0 and Chris Pontius of “Jackass” and “Wildboys” fame (their dirtiest stunts are no match for Orbit). In a highly integrated effort, we demonstrated that even the dirtiest of mouths could be cleaned up with Orbit.

Communications Involvement Strategy

While the Orbit campaign has always utilized layered communications, television has been the key delivery vehicle because it is the target's dominant medium, it allows us to communicate our stylish point of difference and it provides a highly visible forum for our “dirty mouth” demonstrations. However, as we've moved to creating true communication platforms (e.g., clean-up pop culture) digital has become a key element in delivering that experience. Additionally, print has also had a significant role in communicating flavor introductions/messaging while expanding our reach. In 2006, we extended the Snoop Dog TV Spot and the idea that Orbit cleans up the dirtiest mouths online with a microsite that allowed consumers to interact with the brand and share an Orbit “clean it up” message from Snoop with others.

As we continued our quest to clean up pop culture in 2007, we charted new territory by tapping into the ultimate icon of pop culture with teens and young adults-MTV. Due to the hip imagery of the brand and strong connection teens and young adults have with Orbit, MTV allowed Orbit to infiltrate one of their most coveted properties, the MTV Movie Awards. MTV and Orbit created an entirely new award category of the “Dirtiest Mouth Moment from a Movie.” Within the show, Vanessa (Orbit's brand icon) presented the award and Kevin Smith and Jason Mewes, “Jay” and “Silent Bob” of Clerks fame, took the honors. Consumers helped decide the winner by voting on a microsite at www.orbit.mtv.com.

Communications Touch Points

Additional Marketing Components:

Increased distribution due to sales has been an on-going success factor for Wrigley.

Reach: National

Total Media Expenditure:

Initial Year $10–20MM

Year # 2 $10–20MM

Year # 3 10–20MM

Year # 5 $10–20MM

Current Year $20–40MM

RESULTS

Business Metrics

Year on year sales have been the fasted growing and most sustained within the category, with the brand growing 400% since launch and overtaking the leading competitor's share by 2 to 1.

Orbit Share vs. Leading Competitor

Communication Metrics

• Orbit has built the highest level of unaided advertising awareness in the category, with an average of about 22% in 2007 (Brand Monitor Tracking, 2007 Results).

• The brand has excellent traction with its core target and has achieved the highest level of effective awareness to-date of any gum campaign. 94% of adult chewers 18–34 who recognized the advertising correctly identified it as Orbit advertising (Communicus Campaign Tracking, 2007 Results).

Brand Equity Metrics

• Orbit owns the “just brushed clean feeling” benefit, with the highest association in the category at 33% among 12–24 year olds (2006 Brand Fitness Study).

• Orbit has the highest association in the category with “cool to be seen with” among 12–24 year olds, at 35%, almost triple the association as our key competition (2006 Brand Fitness Study).

• The creative has seeped into popular culture with the TV spot “The Affair” generating over 2 million hits on You Tube, while multiple consumer generated versions have also been uploaded.

Anything Else Going on that might have Helped Drive Results?

Through the five years, the brand had to overcome numerous category threats, including copycat flavor and packaging innovation as well as copycat brands, most notably Stride. None of it had much effect as Orbit sales have continued to increase with little loss of base, while new innovation/flavors have continually brought new consumers to the franchise.