The Challenge
Easyfairs has run a hugely successful packaging show at the NEC for some time. While the show had strong traction among the packaging community, there are many others who impact on the packaging process. However they aren’t interested in packaging and don’t see it as a priority.
Easyfairs asked us to come up with a smart and inexpensive way to create content for the show which would compel these non-specialists to attend. This would mean securing coverage in non-packaging media and educating more people about the importance of packaging.
How We Helped
Many see packaging as a less important element within the marketing mix. They don’t read the packaging press and wouldn’t attend a Packaging show. So, to elevate the show (and packaging) in their minds our strategy was to create packaging-related content which addressed a key buying audience that many of these groups need to better understand – namely teenage girls.
So we set about gathering unique insights into the minds of teenage shoppers.
To do this we recruited ten teenage girls (with full parental support and permission) for the campaign.
The aim was to discover their brand preferences, packaging’s role in purchasing decisions, how they shop, what influences their buying habits.
Each teenager kept an interactive online journal for three weeks to record their everyday shopping habits, websites browsed, online and offline activity when buying or looking at products.
The teenagers were also given weekly tasks:
- Week 1 – send pictures of packaging they liked so much that they kept it.
- Week 2 – purchase a product online, spending a minimum of £10.00 from an allocated £35.00 budget and report on the whole experience from ordering to product delivery.
- Week 3 – complete a general packaging questionnaire .
This generated a wealth of original data, and content – including imagery, sharable experiences, feedback forms, pet hates and top ten lists.
The findings showed bloggers were a key influence on teenage purchasing decisions with Zoella at the top. Mindful that she’d just launched her YouTube channel we led with this angle generating massive media interest and the opportunity to roll out all of the other content in waves.
We illustrated the research with an infographic and seeded the content across the media and blogs. We also created content for the client to exploit on the show’s social channels and in the show’s newsletters.
