National Foods BigM Skim Boards

National Foods were looking for a way to increase sales during the peak summer quarter.

The Brief
National Foods were keen to increase its sales revenues during the summer of 2005. This is the busiest period for BigM Sales. The company wanted to run a competition and was looking for an aspirational branded premium that would appeal to its target market of men 24 to 30 years. At that time, BigM had a market share of 80%. National foods wanted to increase its share of the pie. The intention was to attract 250,000 entries and give away 600 prize kits. The challenge was to select a premium that had high value to the market and could be purchased at a low unit cost.

The Execution
Arid Zone conducted a series of focus groups with the target market. Five potential products were shown to participants and a series of pre-selected questions were asked about each product. Each product was selected for its appeal to the target market according to National Food’s brief. The Skim Board was selected time and time again as the preferred premium. Skim Boards are enjoying a massive resurgence in popularity and the target group considered the product to be very cool. Arid Zone was able to leverage off this popularity to create a very appealing premium appropriately branded with the BigM logo.

The Result
This promotion was run between January and March 2005. Boards were prominently displayed at point of sale in petrol stations and convenience stores throughout Australia. Arid Zone assisted in the set up for key Victorian locations. Details of the promotion were also displayed on BigM cartons. The objective for the Skim Board promotion was to provide an innovative summer themed premium, which would generate excitement, connect with brand values and drive sales through the summer period. These objectives were delivered as follows:

• The campaign generated great excitement. All Skim boards were moved with requests for additional made by customers and suppliers
• Increased sales for the BigM Brand
• Increased market share in BigM’s target audience

The Assistant Brand Manager at BigM sums up the success of the campaign,

“The excitement the skim boards generated in store with our consumers was a testament to how well the premium met the basic elements of the brief (price and perceived value) and, more importantly, connected with the brand values and added an unquantifiable “cool” to the promotion. The premium was a perfect fit with the brand and added great value to our promotion.”