As the firm tries to capitalise on a “transformational” year of development, Premier Foods expects to increase marketing spend behind its six main brands, including the launch of new creative for ‘Mr Kipling and Bisto’. The company is betting on its branded growth model and broader focus on consumer insight and innovation, which is supported by TV advertising, after attracting 4.5 million new homes across its portfolio in the past year. Ambrosia, Batchelors, Bisto, Sharwood’s and Oxo, Premier Foods’ five largest grocery brands, received 58 weeks of television advertising in the past year.
Ambrosia and Sharwood’s both debuted on television for the first time in four and five years, respectively with fresh campaigns aimed at fostering “emotional interaction” among customers. During the pandemic, Sharwood’s, for example, received 3.8 million new customers and saw sales of sauces climb by 40% in the third quarter alone, drawing a younger generation of customers. On a conference call with Marketing Week this morning, Premier Foods CEO Alex Whitehouse said, “We have a plan in terms of how we expand our brands and we start with fantastic, well-known names and then we innovate to bring new products to market based on consumer data.” “What we know is that if you want to maintain a brand relevant and modern, you have to nurture it and invest in it, so it’s very much on our radar. For the past few years, we’ve been steadily increasing our investment in our brands, bringing more of them into a position of support. What you’ve seen over the last year has been the continuance of that strategy.”
Premier Foods was able to advance this plan faster than intended because of lower media expenses in the first half of the year, according to Whitehouse, though the aim is still to spend in the brands incrementally. This entails developing “emotionally engaging” advertising for all core brands, including the new ‘Mr. Kipling and Bisto’ creative in the works.
“All of our work and experience indicate that the approach to build value in brands over the medium to long term is to focus on emotional engagement with your consumer base rather than functional features, so you’ll see an attempt to build that emotional connection with our consumers across all of our campaigns,” Whitehouse added. Premier Foods increased its overall revenue by 10.3 % to £934.2 million in the 52 weeks to 3 April, with branded revenue increasing 13.6 %, thanks to a mixture of innovation, continuing marketing expenditure, and a wider cultural trend to at-home dining under lockdown. The company’s branded grocery portfolio had a 16.9% growth in revenue to £601.7 million, while the branded sweet treats portfolio saw a 4.7 % gain to £199.9 million. Bisto, Oxo, Ambrosia, Sharwood’s, Homepride, Paxo, and Nissin were all “stand out performers” among Premier Foods’ supermarket brands, with growth in the “high double digits.” As more people began to cook at home, the Bisto, Oxo and Paxo brands each gained a million or more new customers.
