Case study – The Federation of Quebec Maple Syrup Producers
Jason MacKenzie
Managing Director,Liquid
President-Elect, Chartered Institute of Public Relations
Background
The Federation of Quebec Maple Syrup Producers is an association of 7,400 producers in Quebec ,Canada. It is responsible for more than 70% of worldwide maple syrup production. The Federation identified the UK as a potential export growth marketand appointed Liquid as its national consultancy at the beginning of 2015.
Maple syrup is synonymous with Canada – so whilst messaging was multi-faceted, it always emphasised the importance of provenance and purity: ‘Pure maple syrup from Quebec and Canada’.
Many UK consumers only use maple syrup once a year – on Pancake Day. There is a lack of understanding about itsflexibility and diverse uses.
The objective was to persuade UK consumers to buy more pure Canadian maple syrup or, in simpler terms, to ‘make maple a staple’.
Strategy
The primary strategy to increase consumption was to heighten awareness of the product and to improve perceptionamongst three distinct, yetinterconnected audiences. This was carried out by a sustained integrated marketing communications and public relations campaign.
Publics
Liquid’s first task was to conduct market research in order to understand the stakeholder environment. A series of focus groups across the UK, and an online survey of 2,000 potential consumers provided key findings:
- Maple syrup had good levels of trial, and widespread but infrequent usage in the UK
- There was significant interest in healthier alternatives to sugar
- Honey was the established reference as an unprocessed natural sweetener
Thus it was importance to send a clear message that maple syrup is 100% natural and unprocessed.
The research helped to identify three target audiences:
- Foodies
- Sporty consumers
- Health and wellbeing consumers
Other key publics included the media (both traditional media and the foodie blogosphere), maple brands selling in the UK and buyers at the major supermarket multiples.
Tactics
Website
Liquid designed, wrote and built a dedicated site for the UK market. A content strategy featured mini-campaigns such as a festive ‘Christmas wreath’ microsite allowing consumers to create customised cakes, promoted through a paid twitter campaign: The campaign resulted in 123,000 impressions and almost 2,000 engagements.
Recipe creation and sharing
Liquid’s consultant chef created new maple recipes, shared through the website and via social media. There was an ongoing programme of gathering and sharing maple recipes and content from sister sites in Canada and the US, as well as from other sources.
Media relations
Proactive and reactive media relations played a major role in the campaign, including themed releases, recipe submission, product sampling, one to one press briefings and engagement on social media. This resulted in more than 70 pieces of broadcast, print and online coverage, including Channel 4’s Sunday Brunch; Daily Mail online; Good Things; Cycling Active and Veggie magazine.
Press trips
Liquid co-ordinated and hosted two UK media visits to Quebec.
- A cycling media visit in September generated six positive articles in specialist media with a potential audience of 116,000 in print and over a million online.
- UK food journalists representing five titles with a potential audience of almost four and a half million were taken to the Maple Festival in Quebec and visited maple production facilities and farms.
Chef engagement
Through face to face briefings, a maple dinner at the Canadian High Commission and sampling, Liquid engaged with chefs from high end restaurants in London, Brighton and Birmingham. This resulted in maple products from Quebec being included in their menus and repeat orders being placed, as well as social media exposure through the restaurants’ own channels.
Blogger engagement
Through social media activity, media relations (sample requests, releases) and events (Christmas in July, a media dinner at the Canadian High Commission) Liquid engaged key UK food bloggers including The Boy who Bakes (original Great British Bake Off winner), Frances Quinn (Bake Off winner 2013), Ms Marmite Lover (blogger, 19.3k followers) and Eat Like a Girl (41k twitter followers).
Social media
The twitter account @welovemaplewas created in March 2015 and gained a loyal and engaged following through exposure gained by media relations activity (e.g. appearing on Sunday Brunch), engaging with influential media figures (re-tweeting relevant recipes and including the blogger’s twitter handles to encourage retweets and mentions), posting coverage of recipes, links to the website and twitter competitions.
Notable followers include reality TV star and ‘I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here’ 2015 winner, Vicky Pattison (1.88m followers), as well as boyband Union J member George Shelley (870k followers). Other celebrity followers include Natalie Lowe (BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing, 115k followers) and celebrity chef Aldo Zilli (82.8k followers). Frances Quinn, Ed Kimber, Lavender & Loveageand Ms Marmite Lover are all followers who wield significant social media influence.
YouTube
Liquid have created 17 videos so far, including ‘Taste Test’, posted in August 2015, which was viewed more than 11,000 times.
Staff Canteen
Liquid created an account on The Staff Canteen, a catering industry website, and populated it with more than 50 recipes, news articles and video content, viewed almost 8,000 times. The banner and MPU on the website saw a click through rate to the exceeding industry averages.
Events
The Maple Christmas Showcase event at the Canadian High Commission combined maple sampling and cookery demonstrations and was attended by more than 50 food writers. A series of face to face trade briefings were held at the High Commission, with representatives of M&S and Sainsbury’s and major UK maple brands Clarks and Pure Maple.
Literature and collateral
- Designed and delivered direct marketing boxes of the four grades of maple syrup to key media.
- Produced a trade report, distributed to category managers at all major UK retailers including Tesco, Asda, M&S, Whole Foods and Morrisons.
- ‘We Love Maple’ chef aprons and goody bags were produced for use at events.
Results
Exports of pure maple syrup from Canada to the UK increased by 36% year-on-year from 2014 to 2015. This was an unprecedented success.
Top tips for organising a campaign
- Understand the proposition – why your product/service/brand is different from and better than its competitors. From this, shape and articulate your unique selling proposition and key messages. It is your source of sustainable competitive advantage.
- Understand your stakeholders and publics – and their rational and emotional triggers. Insight is key to making the connection with your audiences and changing awareness and perception.
- Ensure that everything you do strategically and tactically aligns itself to achieving your business/commercial and communications objectives.
- Use as many or as few tools as you need to get the job done. The goal is to be effective and cost-effective in delivering results.
- Manage the campaign well, reviewing and recalibrating where necessary.
- Emancipate team members from fear, encourage innovation and celebrate success.
- Keep focused on the goal of the campaign – and aim to exceed objectives.