Envy Lures Lunar New Year Shoppers at T&T Supermarket

Gifting fruit to family and friends is a major part of Lunar New Year celebrations. T&G Global tied in to the occasion with special packaging for its premium Envy apple, which it heavily promoted at Canadian Asian foods retailer T&T Supermarket. “The goal of the program was to drive Envy sales and presence within the market during this special annual occasion,” Jen Lessner, T&G shopper marketing & analytics, told the Path to Purchase Institute. “We tested out the Lunar New Year program last year, and when it performed so well and retailers even asked for a repeat, it was basically a no-brainer for us.” The apples were sold individually and in eight-count red and gold Lunar New Year-themed boxes. The account-specific campaign, which ran from Jan. 1 to Feb. 3, employed sampling with special offers, recipe cards, circular ads, posters, header cards, display bins, and Instagram and Facebook posts in both English and Chinese. “They were very engaged, loved the focus and overall program we put together for the occasion with a few extras just for them; plus we had really expanded it from the prior year,” Lessner said. “We put a lot of effort into the program [to show] that partnering with them and us being invited to participate in this seasonal celebration was important to the Envy brand.” Envy also elevated activity in conjunction with the opening of a new T&T store in Montreal with sponsored social media posts, billboards and bus shelter ads that were active Jan. 9-22. The billboards earned 1.7 million impressions, and the shelter ads claimed 3.9 million. “[Out of home advertising] continues to play a pivotal role in driving market presence and brand recognition for the Envy brand,” Lessner said. Geared toward reaching Asian Canadian consumers, the program’s strategy was shaped by household panel data, consumer surveys and local research done by sales managers. “The Canadian consumer, like any other consumer, is looking for value and quality in what they spend their money on,” Lessner said. “A lot more retailers have been open to offering a premium apple like Envy, and consumers are responding in the positive, driving positive category results.” The Lunar New Year campaign performed extremely well, with overall Canadian sales increasing almost 40% compared to last year and 160% at T&T. Preorders of the Lunar New Year boxes, which were also available at several U.S. retailers, quickly sold out. “ROI results were in the strong double digits, so we are definitely looking to repeat again next year,” Lessner said. “The retailers that originally wanted them were looking for more and others had heard about them and wanted some as well. I think they were so popular because of the design, the celebration and that the fruit looked amazing in them.” Envy will continue working closely with T&T throughout the year. They’re collaborating on another big store opening in May and are considering OOH presence for the Dragon Boat Festival in June, as well as potentially sponsoring a local festival event. Creative has already been designed for campaigns for that holiday as well as Chinese Valentine’s Day on May 20 and the Moon Festival in September. The efforts will likely include posters, header cards, social posts and recipes.

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