ConAgra Targets Office Workers

Omaha, NE -- When shoppers think Healthy Choice, they think cold vault. They think frozen dinner. But for its new line of shelf-stable lunches called Fresh Mixers, the brand brought its iconic green packaging to the soup and pasta aisle on unique pallets and floorstands.This is one of the bigger -- if not biggest -- product introductions from ConAgra Foods and its Healthy Choice brand (though the company would not disclose its marketing spend). In-store displays, TV, Web and live events drive the campaign. New displays will be integrated into a larger ad campaign targeting the cooped-up office worker next month.Fresh Mixers is a line of pasta, rice and noodle dishes that consumers prepare in the microwave. The meals need no refrigeration, which grants the brand an opportunity to hit the aisles."Because Healthy Choice is known mainly for its frozen products, part of the challenge was to drive shoppers to a new place in the store," says Jon Boeve, manager, in-store marketing at ConAgra. "We approached these challenges in a couple ways."On the shelf, trays printed on five-color litho hold six SKUs each. On the floor, a striking cylindrical floorstand works alongside quarter pallets, half pallets and sidekicks (made specifically for c-stores). Large graphic billboards on the displays demonstrate how the meals are prepared in four steps; other panels call out the six flavors and the product's freshness message.ConAgra worked with its agency partner Launch Creative, Chicago, to create the artwork. "Because the displays were on a much faster timeline than the other elements, the in-store team and Launch Creative really drove a lot of the initial communication platform," Boeve says. "For the second wave in January, we're working on a more parallel path and integrating a lot of the look and feel from TV into the in-store elements."The TV campaign centers on office humor, since the everyday worker is the Fresh Mixers target audience. TV ads launched in early October and were directed by Nicholas Stoller (who also directed the movie "Forgetting Sarah Marshall").ConAgra conducted an omnibus survey that found half of office workers eat something less than healthful for lunch than they would like to, Boeve says. The top reasons for this bad habit are convenience (57%), price (39%) and taste (35%), according to the study."With the growing trend of office workers working harder and increasingly eating at their desks, people are getting into a lunch rut of eating the same food every week because of the lack of convenient and healthy lunch options that still taste great," Boeve says. Fresh Mixers are shelf stable and therefore desk stable, he adds.ConAgra is reaching out to the office crowd in other ways as well, including a new website launched last month based on more office humor -- the company put an improv comedy troupe in a boardroom setting to perform live skits. As part of two live events in October, one in midtown New York and one in downtown Chicago, ConAgra trotted out Ivanka Trump to help convince workers during the lunch rush to trade in their meal for a Fresh Mixer. Fresh Mixers became available at Walmart this summer and rolled out nationally to supermarkets in late October. Displays rolled out to the pasta and prepared foods aisles. Smurfit-Stone Display Group, Chicago, produced 18,000 cylinder floorstands, 500 quarter pallets and 1,000 half pallets. The cylinder display proved most popular for accounts. It holds 72 packages and ships prepacked. The unique structure withstood extensive dynamics testing to ensure execution, Boeve says."Our in-store marketing team worked very closely with the brand team and shopper marketing teams to develop custom programs," says Boeve, creating custom work at Kroger, Supervalu, Meijer and Walmart. "Aside from Walmart, the customization was mainly focused on the product assortment and volumes."On the front of all Fresh Mixers packaging is nutrition information about how the meal fits into the USDA's My Pyramid daily dietary recommendations. The packages themselves are fairly tech-savvy, enabling the starch ingredients and sauces to be separated during storage and preparation to preserve the locked-in flavor and texture of both.

ConAgra Targets Office Workers

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