Hovis

1
Hovis

• How advertising and repackaging helped Hovis buck
  the market trend

IPA Effectiveness Silver Award Winner 2002
2
Background

• In Spring 2001 sales were up on the Hovis brand
  despite the market as a whole being in decline
• In reality this was cosmetic. Hovis was selling
  more bread, but making less money out of it, and
  since May 1999 profits had been dropping, despite
  growing volume
• Hovis struggled with its brand awareness and was
  seen as old-fashioned and increasingly remote
• Part of the problem was that Hovis had always
  been associated and dominated the brown bread
  market, while in the white bread sector its share
  was half that of its share in brown. People
  still remembered The Boy on the Bike ad from 15
  years before, which stood for brown bread and
  old-fashioned values

3
Objectives

• Increase sales / profits significantly by the end
  of 2001
• Improve brand awareness in white bread market
• Update and improve brand image
• Alter customers perception of the brand

4
The Campaign

• A cartoon family were created for the TV ads
• Bright primary colours were used and the endline
  Get something good inside was added to
  communicate goodness in a more contemporary
  manner
• The advertising was bought against the core
  target market for white bread housewives with
  children
• The Hovis packaging was drastically changed
• The website was re-designed to feature the new
  Hovis family
• PR coverage was strong as the press picked up the
  new look

5
Results

• Following the re-launch people said they would be
  more likely to buy Hovis and Hovis white
• Its brand image improved, particularly among its
  key target audience of families
• The combined effect of TV advertising and new
  packaging made the difference between a drastic
  fall-off in sales and a large profit
• Hovis became the No.1 in the bread market and
  grew its volume and value substantially
• The brand increased in value by over 31 per cent

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IPA and WARC

• This case study is drawn from the IPA
  Effectiveness Awards, the most rigorous
  examination of successful advertising in the
  world. For more information visit www.ipa.co.uk
• All 700 IPA case studies are available in full at
  www.WARC.com, alongside 25,000 documents from 30
  other authoritative sources. The WARC database
  includes the world's largest collection of
  published studies on media and marketing
  effectiveness