Young’s mastered the art of TV

Key Points

• Young’s needed to generate incremental sales in a highly competitive market
• They partnered with Sky and used data-driven analysis to perfect their TV schedule
• As a result, Young’s Chip Shop sales enjoyed a 6-year high

The Challenge

Young’s Seafood is the UK’s no. 1 seafood company, with a rich heritage dating back to 1805. It produces some highly popular frozen brands such as Young’s Chip Shop and Young’s Gastro.  Usually, they are only able to advertise on TV for about four weeks per year. This makes growing sales challenging, particularly when their key competitors have much bigger budgets and can be on TV for much longer periods.In 2019, Young’s tasked their agency, Total Media, to generate £500,000 of incremental sales.

The TV Solution

TV has always been the lead medium for Young’s, primarily because TV is the safest investment in the long term for fmcg brands. So Total Media knew that TV would be the lead medium in this campaign too, but they wanted to explore ways of using it more effectively.Together with Kantar, Young’s had created audience segmentations using existing customer data to identify shoppers who may be buyers of fish products. Total Media analysed these audience segments, using TGI and Touchpoints, to understand their media consumption and to assess their interest in the Young’s proposition and their likelihood to convert.They also conducted quantitative research and propensity modelling. From this, they were able to identify two groups that had the largest growth potential which would enable them to expand their audience base and reach both existing buyers and buyers of rival products. 

The Plan

Total Media knew they could create an innovative and integrated solution to answer Young’s challenges and decided to partner almost exclusively with Sky Media to take advantage of their data partnership with Dunnhumby.They overlaid relevant purchasing data with Sky viewing data to profile Sky households and inform the channel and programme selection. Previously, the target audience had been housepersons with children and whilst this remained the most appropriate audience, there were some programmes that performed particularly well for Young’s that you wouldn’t normally find on a plan targeting that audience. For example, Sky Sports News indexed very highly for frequent buyers of Young’s products and so Total Media bought a proportion of airtime against a different target audience, eg. ABC1 adults, which enabled them to access certain channels and programmes.They also reweighted their daypart strategy, moving airtime from late to early peak and introducing ITV Breakfast into the mix. This strategy meant reaching viewers at more relevant times and was more cost effective. 

Results

• Through careful planning and a change in strategy, Young’s were able to be on air for an eight-week period – double the time of previous years. 
• The campaign reached 7.5m Sky households
• The campaign generated £731,000 of incremental sales, which was equivalent to a 23.6% uplift to the overall Young’s brand
• Young’s Chip Shop sales enjoyed a 6-year high, peaking at 20% higher than ever before the campaign finished.
• From the Dunnhumby partnership, they were able to ascertain that the campaign drove incremental sales from new buyers as well as existing heavy brand buyers

Databank

Sector: FMCG

Brand: Young’s

Campaign objectives: To drive sales

Target Audience: Housepersons with Children

Budget: c. £750,000

Campaign Dates: The campaign ran from 1st April to 31st May 2019

TV Usage: 20” spots

Creative Agency: Quiet Storm

Media Agency:  Total Media