THE VEGETABLE NAME CHANGE

TitleTHE VEGETABLE NAME CHANGE
BrandDELHAIZE
Product/ServiceFRESH VEGETABLES
Category A06. Retail
Entrant TBWA\BELGIUM Brussels, BELGIUM
Idea Creation TBWA\BELGIUM Brussels, BELGIUM
PR TBWA\BELGIUM Brussels, BELGIUM
Production TBWA\BELGIUM Brussels, BELGIUM
Credits
Name Company Position
Frank Marinus TBWA Creative Director
Alex Ameye TBWA Art Director
Sébastien Verliefde TBWA Art Director
Julien Riviezzo TBWA Copywriter
Bout Holtof TBWA Copywriter
Wilfrid Morin TBWA Copywriter
Geert Potargent TBWA Client Services Director
Charlotte Lindemans TBWA Account Director
Marc Wauters Studio Wauters Photographer
Estelle Vanduynslager TBWA Designer
Jana Keppens TBWA Designer
Marianne Gualtierri TBWA Studio Artist
Raf Debraekeleer TBWA Radio producer
Lore Desmet TBWA Producer
Toon Vandenbranden TBWA Producer
Laurien Rodesch TBWA Producer
Jan Bikkembergs TBWA Digital Project Manager
Julie de Troostembergh TBWA Digital Project Manager
Michael Liekens TBWA Digital Strategist
Jolien Van Heyste TBWA Junior Digital Planner
Nigel Ooms TBWA Digital Creative
Sofie Gilliams TBWA Digital Creative
Sarah Pierrequin TBWA Digital Copywriter
Geert Broeders TBWA Open Source Developer
Wannes Vermeulen TBWA PHP Developer
Frederik Severijns TBWA Designer
Yannick Van der Goten TBWA Front-End Developer
Jeroen Govaert TBWA Flow & Mechanics Specialist
Ruben Temmerman TBWA Front-End Developer

Why is this work relevant for PR?

Kids only eat 30% of the recommended quantity of veggies, but parents are having a hard time making their kids eat them. So when a supermarket rebrands its veggies with magical Harry Potter-like names (co-created with kids), that’s a real solution helping parents to make their kids like veggies. Not only did did we convince the Delhaize's, the n°1 Belgian supermarket, customers. Thanks to a simple yet profound PR strategy, our campaign was picked up internationally. It sparked the debate because our story touched every family. Because of 1 simple reason: it is such a recognisable story to every parent.

Background

As a food retailer, Delhaize’s main mission is to make it easy for people to eat a little better every day. Better as in more healthy and more tasteful. Life is not perfect, but we think better eating is possible for everyone, with a little help it can be done. We all know it: veggies are good for us, we should eat plenty. But statistics show that children are only eating 30% of the healthy daily intake of vegetables. How can Delhaize, the n°1 supermarket in Belgium, make it easier for parents to feed their kids veggies? How can we demonstrate leadership in the fresh category, an important but unbranded product category?

Describe the creative idea

We asked kids what certain veggies looked like, what they made them think of. And we used 12 of the coolest names they invented on actual packaging in the stores, and in communication. By renaming veggies with magical, fairytale-like names(co-created with kids). That’s why carrot became an orange rocket. We activated children’s phantasy and invited parents to present the veggies in a different, more appealing way. By more or less making kids forget they are eating veggies, they will actually taste them and eventually learn to eat them: a gnome trumpet goes down way easier than an oyster mushroom.

Describe the strategy

Everybody knows veggies are good for you, and everybody knows we should eat more of them. So no need to be educational, it wouldn’t work anyway. Veggies suffer from an image problem. Making kids eat veggies is not easy: young parents know it, older parents remember it for the rest of their lives. That was the starting point. We use the power of enthusiasm: by introducing fairytale-like, magical names, kids get their phantasy going, they become enthusiastic and forget they are eating veggies. Every five-year old wants to taste troll soup. Enthusiasm and phantasy as a simple, likeable way to help parents to feed their kids veggies.

Describe the execution

We asked kids what certain veggies made them think of, what they looked like to them. And we used 12 of the coolest names they invented to rename 12 veggies. Carrots become orange rockets Oyster mushrooms become gnome trumpets Belgian andives become dragon teeth Green beans become frog ski’s Eggplants become Cherokee canoes Zucchini become troll bats Cherry tomatoes become clown’s noses Peppers become treasure boxes New potatoes become small meteorites Those names were put on new packs, which replaced the ‘normal’ veggies in all 900 Delhaize stores across Belgium. The Magic Veggies were all over the fresh department. A press release was sent out in which the Magic veggies were positioned as a proofpoint of Delhaize’s ambition to help people to eat better. Belgium loved it, both the people and the media. We aired through national radio, OOH and print, supported by a strong digital and social campaign.

List the results

TV, radio, newspapers, online: everybody talked about the Magic veggies, unanimously positive about the fact that a supermarket was actually trying to help people with a real live problem, in an unpretentious and likeable way. Not just news media reported about it, the Magic Veggies were also spoofed in the popular talk show De Ideale Wereld and the biggest quality newspaper De Standaard spontaneously published a quiz about the Magic Veggies’ names. Generated advertising value of the launch was estimated at 123K€, generated editorial value at 247K€. We had a 151% sales increase and sold 2 million Magic Veggies in 2 weeks. And maybe most rewarding of all: our story was campaign of the week in Belgium ànd internationally picked up by the biggest specialised press: contagious, ads of the world, ad age, and BBC. Not bad for a country with only 11 million inhabitants.