Scratch & Win

The main vehicle of the campaign, the Scratch & Win cards were at first developed with the idea to communicate the benefits of canned food in terms of its packaging credo and comparable nutrition to fresh food. However, with Peter's input, these will now be proper promotional tools, where recipients stand a chance to win various (proposed) prizes from 2 cans of organic artichokes to a delectable Waitrose organic canned food hamper.

The reverse of the Scratch & Win cards will then highlight 3 facts, namely from three categories – environmental friendliness, 5-a-day servings and a 10-minute recipe idea. There will also be some copy to drive people to the website to learn more.

Round 2 – Logo development

In developing the logo for the "Win with Tin" campaign, I've been conciously trying to incorporate some element of the humble can, with the aim of creating a visual punch. The forerunner is the largest one, placed bottom right – comments are most welcome!

Work in Progress – concepts & sketches

Now that the concept is finalised, it's time to develop the campaign visually. Round 1 of sketches starts off with designing the strapline, trying to incorporate the essence of a can into the logotype. 

Project workplan

Week ending 22 November

• research consolidation
• concept development
• finalise concept
• design development
• identifying communication channels
  

Week ending 29 November

• concept implementation/design 
• feedback on design
• refining design 

Week ending 4 December

• rationale
• boards
• printing of final design
  

Project outline

"The consumer is king."

In preparing the project outline, I've decided to revisit the brief to dissect it and ensure I had the essential components addressed. Here, I've opted to define "packaging decision makers" as consumers since this group would have the most effect on the demand for canned food.  

Brief:
To highlight the benefits of metal as a sustainable food packaging material, delivering healthy nutritious food

Challenge:

Consumer perception

– Some of the views of canned food (from the survey I conducted) included "unhealthy", "inferior quality" and "a lot preservatives".

Insight:

– Lack of awareness of nutritional value of canned food.

– People would like to think that it is important that their food is packaged in a sustainable/environmentally-friendly way (survey results: 75% stated more important, on a scale of 4 out of 5) but are probably unaware that buying canned food helps this cause.

Key messages:

From the research I've done, I've come up with 3 main benefits that I would like to communicate in this campaign:

– canned fruit/veg is a convenient way of contributing towards your 5-a-day portions of fruit and veg

– canned food makes for quick, easy cooking (while being nutritious and cheap)

– canned food is eco-friendly (sustainably packaged and doesn't use extra energy to be stored)

Primary target audience:

Ideally, busy adults who appreciate quick, easy meals.

The Big Idea:

Amongst the concepts I've developed, I think that the strongest is "Win with Tin", where my aim is to get people to associate more positive notions about purchasing canned food.  The biggest hurdle in championing canned food in my opinion, is the negative way people feel about it currently. Thus, I've decided to position canned food in a way that allows people to realise that they're benefiting while simultaneously contributing to the environment; making them feel like they're already winners.

Communication channels: 

– 'Scratch & win' cards relating key messages, directing to campaign website for more info

– ambient media (ideas still being developed)

– website

And the prelimary results are in!

Interestingly, when asked what would make the participants buy more canned food, the following top 3 answers in order of popularity were:

• better quality 
• more recipes associated with canned food
• packaging appearance
  

For the first round of results from the survey on canned food, a pdf of the report can be found here.

Making Contact

So. With pluck aplenty, I've attempted to get some information from Canned Food UK and Sainsburys this week.


For Canned Food UK, I was interested to know:

• the success of the current campaign with James Martin so far
  
• how effective promoting canned food had been via schools and teachers (under the Education campaign)
  
• what other communication channels had been used previously to promote canned food
• the plans that are being developed for future campaigns
• if there were plans to involve the big-chain supermarkets in promoting canned food
• the major challenges that Canned Food UK face in promoting canned food apart from consumer perceptions

And if I could get Sainsburys to spill the beans on:

• considering promoting canned food as part of the drive to be more environmentally-friendly or even as a convenient source of fruit or veg towards the '5 a day' campaign as cans are easily recyclable – and if not, why?
• the success of Sainsburys Organics (SO) range of canned food since the redesign in 2005 by Williams Murray Hamm
• any increases in the sale of canned food since the recession
• the major challenges facing Sainsburys in the canned food department apart from consumer perceptions

And so the chasing starts!

More Posh Nosh

More browsing around in Harvey Nichols and Harrods yielded more stylish tins of tea, coffee and biscuits, but also those of sugar, assortments of sweets and mints as well as stuffed vine leaves. Also to be found were cocktail salts at Harvey Nichols – definitely more tempting a purchase than Harrods' tinned ox tongue.

What's resonated as a common link is how the aesthetics have been treated across these variations of the humble metal can. And it's probably highly likely that these are reused instead of merely being thrown out.

The Lifecycle of a Can

From manufacturing to recycling – the lifecycle of a can, courtesy of Canned Food UK.

The Can Conundrum

So what comes to mind when people think of canned food?

I've created an initial survey to help gather these insights.

http://www.surveypirate.com/Survey.aspx?surveyid=7730&hash=-ZcoRwb4qqnUUs08HZUMxw%3d%3d

And in the meantime, I came up with a sketch to illustrate a sample of opinions from friends.

Posh Nosh in a Can

During Friday's mapping exercise, I'd suddenly recalled that caviar and foie gras are usually sold in cans. Considering these carry a premium price-wise, maybe there's a perspective here that needs to be explored. 

A visit to Selfridges Foodhall yielded a whole list of items that are sold in metal cans or tins, listed in the graphic above. Not only have the packaging of these items been designed tastefully, they were mostly sold at a higher price than their cardboard or plastic counterparts. Who knew that a small can of king crab could fetch £24.99?

Man + Can = ?

What exactly do people think of canned food?

Post-mapping thoughts, the next step smells suspiciously of a survey needing to be cooked up.

Mapping for Metal Food Cans

 

Results of the mapping exercise done last Friday.

More questions than answers!