Choccy Philly? BE SILLY!

Last January, Kraft the company that not very long ago acquired British founded Cadburys, informed the public its plans of combining their two most popular products Cadbury’s chocolate and Kraft’s Philadelphia Light launching a chocolate spread nationwide in all UK supermarkets.

The idea of tackling consumer scepticism in a TV and YouTube ad endorsed by Jennifer Saundy on the combination of light Philadelphia and Cadbury milk chocolate was definitely a great and fun strategy to get people’s attention and create buzz on Social Media sites. Plus, inviting customers to test the new product and give their opinion is definitely a bold strategy to generate awareness and increasingly involve more people with this new invention.

In my opinion, the product was really well-received and the campaign itself managed to get people’s interests and attention driving them to try the product and commenting about it on their Facebook and Twitter pages. I also wonder whether this was also a Kraft’s strategy to start gaining further acceptance of the British public after the acquiring of one of the most respected British companies. In any case, it was a very well thought and executed campaign, well done Kraft!

HUBS MEAN GROWTH- Building Public consensus

I recently came across a very interesting campaign that has been targeting the general public and the government. As in every public controversy, there are two sides to every coin.

Heathrow has been fighting to build its third runway and sixth terminal as a way to expand the airport and have more connections available. In 2010 the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE), Climate Rush and others environmental groups managed to stop the Heathrow’s plans arguing that such policies will cause increasingly more harm to the environment and tranquillity of the countryside (carbon emission, local noise).

In October 2011 Heathrow launched a campaign targeting MPs with the aim to build public consensus over protecting the airport status as the main point of business connection between UK and other countries. The campaign aims to enhance the important of Heathrow airport expansion as a way to help the country to recover from the economic crisis by having more connections in order to be able to do business with other countries and keep the UK growing and competitive in relation to other countries such as China, Madrid and Germany.

Very interestingly, the movement consists in newspaper ads that features the slogans ‘Only Heathrow brings growth to our doorstep’, ‘the road to economic recovery isn’t a road it’s a flightpath’, ‘nothing grows without routes’; posters featuring the slogans have been also put up in Westminster underground station. These adverts have been sabotaged by environmental activists who have changed them for their own benefit ‘the road to climate change isn’t a road it’s a flightpath’

In my personal opinion I agree with the fact that the UK needs more direct flights connections to be able to operate and trade with important markets, however, many people especially environmental activists and the media are watching the Government’s actions and decisions and waiting for them to act responsibly.

I do also believe the Government will need to do both, think on a way to help the UK’s economic growing without ignoring climate change and all the damage is causing to the environment and the UK’s budget. It is definitely a challenge the Government is facing as both their reputation for acting ethically and its economic recovery are at risks if the right decisions are not taken.

Would you ask for a doggy box when out for dinner?-The Too Good to Waste initiative

The ‘Too good to waste’ campaign launched in October 2011, is an initiative carried out by The Sustainable Restaurant Association (SRA), a not-for-profit organisation which aims to reduce food waste in London Restaurants by raising both consumers and industry awareness about the huge scale of restaurants’ food waste in London.

In the United Kingdom, the problem with food waste has been identified since the World War I when the food started to become scarce. Since then, campaigns to increase understanding began and people’s awareness towards the amount of food wasted voluntarily increased. During the World War II, regulations to rationalise food was implemented by the British government due to the decline of importations; the wasting of food became a prisonable offence.

Nowadays, the issue has been at the top of the social and political agenda due to the raising levels of waste which is believed to be up to nearly 25% or 10bn of consumable food per year just in the UK. The media coverage has been increasing the level of awareness and attention from the UK public, as well as the responses from government (which declared war on food waste in 2008) in order to fight against this environmental and economic issue that is costing the average household in Britain around £8 per week’.

The TGTW campaign is facing a real challenge in changing people’s attitudes towards asking for a doggy box, therefore they should be first focusing on making people aware about the huge amount of food thrown away in London restaurants and widely inform all consumers about the TGTW initiative by spreading high-impact facts as the messages of the campaign rather than just promoting the doggy box. An example of how to this could be done are the strategies taken by Love Food Hate Waste campaign which presented the evidence of their research as their messages for the campaign, on their website, speeches, reports and so on.

In terms of changing possible prejudices their key publics might have regarding the doggy box, they could potentially think of different approaches to improve results. These could include changing the name and style of the box and perhaps committing participating restaurants to train their staff, so waiters and waitresses are those offering to pack the food for their dinners instead of them asking for the box. Additionally, they could be relying on the power of Social Media to create a greater awareness about this critical problem and get supporters.