Will Big Bird be able to convince kids to eat their veggies?

In support of First Lady Michele Obama’s “Let’s Move” initiative, the Sesame Street Workshop agreed to waive its licensing fees for two years and allow its characters to be used for in-store signage and labels on fruit and produce items, as part of a partnership with the Produce Marketing Association (PMA) and Partnership for a Healthier America (PHA).  (Lukovitz, 2013)

The most recent successful effort targeting children was the Bird’s Eye’s Gen Veg campaign, also in partnership with the PHA, which featured a tie-in with iCarly and an invitation for kids to create their own veggie combinations.  The result?  A two-month increase in sales while the campaign ran and plans to continue the effort for two more years with a budget of $4 million.  In addition to new advertising, the program will also include the introduction of new products based on the recipes submitted by the kids.  (Wayne, 2013)

Here’s the blog I wrote about that effort.

http://pjlehrer.blogspot.com/2012/05/genveg-is-idea-whose-time-has-come.html

But, back to Big Bird and his pals.  What do you think?  Will this partnership be a success as well?

Lukovitz, K. (2013, October 31)  Sesame Workshop To Help Market Fruit, Veggies To Kids.  mediapost.com.  Retrieved October 31, 2013, from http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/212478/sesame-workshop-to-help-market-fruit-veggies-to-k.html?edition=66372

Wayne, A. (2013, March 7)  Birds Eye Vegetable Sales Mark Progress in Obesity Fight.  Bloomberg.com.  Retrieved October 31, 2013, from

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-07/birds-eye-vegetable-sales-mark-progress-in-obesity-fight.html

Let’s hope the success of Birds Eye’s GenVeg campaign emboldens other healthy foods to reach out to kids.

In May, when Birds Eye announced that they would be spending $6 million over three years on kid-friendly advertising with a goal of increasing vegetable consumption among children, I was hopeful the campaign would be successful as I noted in this blog.

http://pjlehrer.blogspot.com/2012/05/genveg-is-idea-whose-time-has-come.html#comment-form

I figured if the corny commercials that the Television Bureau of Canada ran in December 2010 could increase broccoli sales by 8%, then there was every reason to believe that other, possibly better, attempts to increase vegetable consumption would be successful as well.  Here’s that blog for reference.

http://pjlehrer.blogspot.com/2010/12/yes-advertising-can-sell-broccoli.html#comment-form

So I was tickled pink to read that the partnership with “ICarly” appears to have been a great success.  According to Birds Eye, the campaign generated 40,000+ sweepstakes entries, 16,000+ recipe ideas and 225,000 page views on the Nick/Birds Eye site.  Perhaps more importantly, the category experienced growth while the campaign ran, countering the flat to negative sales trends of recent years.

The campaign had so many interesting tactics that it’s hard to know which impacted the kids most.  Was it the” Steamfresh Chef of the Week” which encouraged kids to submit cooking-related photos?  Or the kid’s recipe contest, which resulted in “Yakimaniac Veggie Martians,” being featured on an episode “ICarly?”  In the end, I suspect that it was the totality of the multi-faceted effort that was responsible.

Birds Eye is already preparing a new campaign for next fall based in part on key insights gleaned from the kid-generated recipe ideas.  Doesn’t that sound like a win win?  Chiquita Bananas, are you paying attention?

Lukovitz, K. (2012, November 21)  Birds Eye Reports Success With ‘ICarly’ Partnership.  mediapost.com.  Retrieved December 6, 2012, from

http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/187720/birds-eye-reports-success-with-icarly-partnershi.html?edition=53767#axzz2EHYsf1G2