The Challenge:Thermos found its sales declining, due in part to the availability of portable food options and the lack of time for most families to prepare a lunchtime meal. Our challenge: use Thermos' 100th Anniversary not only to remind parents of their lunch box memories (we all have a favorite), but also to transfer this favorable nostalgic emotion to focus attention on Thermos as a contemporary brand offering relevant products for today's families. To build relevance we combined this strategic message with a growing body of evidence that shows increases in obesity rates of young children is accelerated by the poor choices available in school cafeterias. Critically, research revealed that most Americans have a stable of favorite lunch box memories and experiences -- and enjoy sharing that feeling with their children. Importantly research also demonstrated that the lunch kit is the first means for a child to express their unique personality. This study also uncovered that mothers were looking for advice on how to provide safe, healthy meals for their children's school lunches. They were aware of the less nutritious alternatives at school but unaware of convenient options to provide a safe, healthy alternative.
The Solution:Positioning a brand as part of popular culture begins with making it buzz worthy. Reminding consumers of the relationship with their favorite lunch kit and how it helped make their lunchtime memorable was a means of increasing the brand's relevancy for today's consumers. Wheatley & Timmons negotiated a special agreement with the Smithsonians National Museum of American History, the keeper of our country's most cherished treasures, to create an ongoing exhibit called
“Taking America to Lunch.” This exhibit chronicles the history of the lunch kit from 1900 through 1980, but primarily focuses on the popular TV and movie hero lunch kits we know and love from the 50s, 60s & 70s. In launching this exhibit at a press conference at the museum, Wheatley & Timmons, brought in lunch box stars June Lockhart, Meadowlark Lemon and Shirley Jones to personally enshrine their lunch kits. Henry Winkler, David Hasselhoff, Pam Dauber, Florence Henderson and Gene Simmons were included in a video presentation. Strategically, this event was linked effectively in the media from the nostalgia of the past to today's hot school kits and accessories.
For back-to-school, W&T utilized a noted child nutritionist and author of numerous books on healthier school lunches for a six-market media tour and video news release to position Thermos products as the safe choice for concerned parents to create healthy, fun lunch choices.
ResultsWheatley & Timmons generated more than 350 million media impressions over the six-month media period with placements in
USA TODAY (twice, while calling Thermos the kingpin of lunch pails), the
Wall Street Journal,
The New York Times, a full page photo/article in
Better Homes & Gardens and
Parents magazines, plus numerous other magazine placements, as well as an array of major articles on the Smithsonian launch in 80 percent of the top 50 market newspapers. TV coverage included 199 of the top 200 TV markets.
Thermos' new product launch of FunTainer food jars sold out at all retailers in a little over three weeks of their August shelf date, vastly exceeding expectations. The company's food storage category was up an astounding 600 percent with the addition of the new line of FunTainers. W&Ts effort is credited with driving these results -- the brand did no consumer advertising.
SEE THE RESULTS click to enlarge
