Colenso BBDO is pitching breadmaker Bürgen’s new campaign, launched this week, as the opening rounds of a contest between a current title holder and a former champ making a strong comeback. “This contest,” says Colenso CD Steve Cochran, “will be fought and won in the hearts, minds and taste buds of Kiwi families.
“Bürgen is laying down a serious challenge to the incumbent market leader in premium bread [Vogels], asking the question: which tastes better?
“For Bürgen it’s a classic case of going back to basics and focusing on taste and quality.”
Bürgen launched in the 1980s with a mixed grain recipe with strong appeal and quickly became New Zealand’s leading premium bread, a position it held until the early 1990s. And when a fire in the bakery of George Weston Foods caused a hiccup in production, Vogels swooped.
George Weston Foods rebuilt the bakery, but couldn’t recapture the lead. Successive advertising campaigns failed to make a lasting impact. That was until last year, when the company launched the Bürgen Virgin campaign, which succeeded in making Bürgen the fastest growing premium brand in 2014.
“While heartening, it wasn’t enough to topple the champ,” said George Weston Foods baking division general manager Mark Adam.
“But social media revealed a chink in Vogels’ armour. Even in breadmaking, change is constant, and innovations in production techniques and adjustments to recipes have altered the taste and mouth appeal of Vogels. Noticeably so.
“We first recognised a change in sentiment when we noticed people on Facebook complaining that Vogels just didn’t taste the same – we saw that as an opportunity to make a move.”
To address the opportunity George Weston decided to play to Bürgen’s core strengths, which the company says is around nutrition and variety – lots of grains, seeds and additional ingredients.
“We responded by going back to our roots, bringing back to life one of our original bread recipes to help get us back in front,” said Adam. “We’ve returned to where it all began to bring people a modern take on our classic Mixed Grain recipe.
“Our new Original Mixed Grain loaf is once again beautifully made. It delivers a unique and mouth-watering crunch when toasted, and a nutty and flavoursome sandwich experience.
Once the initial development was complete the company asked consumers to compare the two loaves based on moistness, texture, density, grains and smell. “The results were unequivocal: in branded and unbranded testing Bürgen won hands down in every measure except size of slice,” Adam said.
The campaign launched with a 15sec TVC (on TVNZ, Sky, Choice and Prime) at the weekend, backed up with strategic strikes online, a 15sec radio spot, and in social media (“an appropriate medium as that where the insight and inspiration arose,” Cochrane says).
It runs until Saturday 2 May.
About George Weston Foods
George Weston Foods is one of New Zealand’s largest manufacturers of bread and bakery products. Launched in the early 1950s, following the purchase of Stormont’s Bakery in Kingsland, the company today produces over 1.2 million loaves of bread, buns, rolls, muffins, and crumpets each week under the Tip Top, Bürgen, Ploughman’s, Big Ben, Golden and Bazaar brands. George Weston Foods is part of Associated British Foods plc (ABF), an international food, ingredients and retail group with sales of £13.3bn and over 113,000 employees in 47 countries.
CREDITS
Agency: Colenso BBDO
Creative Chairman: Nick Worthington
Creative Director: Steve Cochran
Art Director: Mike Davison
Copywriter: Steve Cochran
Group Business Director: Victoria Graves
Senior Account Manager: Pink Kitsawat
Producer: Jen Storey
Client: George Weston Foods
GM Marketing & Innovation: Justin Alblas
Group Senior Brand Manager: Tracey Hawes
Brand & Insight Manager: Deborah Tudehope
Production Company: The Collective Force
Producer: Jason Jones
Director: Kieran Scott
Sound Design: Franklin Road
DOP/Cinematographer: Kieran Scott
Editor: Marco Siraky
Online Editor (Vis Effects): Marco Siraky
Post Production (Vis Effects Co): Blockhead for grading
Share this Post
