It’s time to look at the shortlist for Marketer of the Year, which appears in Marketing’s Nov. 19 issue. We’ll be featuring each one online as a lead-up to our January 2013 issue, where you’ll find out which marketer will reign supreme.
Inventing a brand in 18 months, Ultima Foods finds “the new way to say yogurt”
What do you do if you’ve been running a business for 40 years and there’s a good chance 95% of it will go away within 22 months?
Take $70 million, create an entirely new brand and launch it across the country with a bang.
That was the challenge and triumph for Ultima Foods, which pulled off a remarkable feat with the breakneck development of Iögo yogurt. The Longueil, Que.-based company, which is owned by the Agropur and Agrifoods dairy cooperatives, had produced Yoplait yogurt under a long-term license agreement with Paris-based Yoplait S.A.S.
During renewal talks, it became clear both parties wouldn’t reach a satisfactory agreement, so Ultima Foods dreamed up Plan B.
“Starting in January 2011, we had no choice; we had to start contingency planning,” says Gerry Doutre, president and CEO of Ultima Foods. “We started with a blank page and said, ‘We have to create a new brand from scratch.’”
While continuing to produce and market Yoplait, Ultima Foods began investing millions of dollars in research and development, packaging and marketing. When General Mills, which markets Yoplait in the U.S., took control of the brand in Canada in May, Ultima Foods officially hit the go button on Iögo. (Ultima Foods will continue making Yoplait products at its Granby, Que. plant for the next six years.)
Pronounced “yo go,” the new yogurt brand has 44 products across seven lines: Iögo, 0%, Probio (probiotics), Greko (Greek), Nomad (drinkable), Zip (in tubes) and Nano (yogurt in mini-bottles for kids).
There are also another 21 products for foodservice. Each product is free of gelatin and artificial colours and flavours.
But Ultima Foods isn’t the only “new” player in the yogurt category: U.S. Greek yogurt maker Chobani made a push into Canada this year and PepsiCo. will start selling yogurt in the U.S. in 2013. As the competition heats up, Ultima is confident there’s room for its new brand in the dairy case “because there is still growth in yogurt,” says Lucie Rémillard, VP of marketing at Ultima Foods. Data from NPD Group shows the average Canadian now reaches for yogurt 61 times a year versus 25 times a year in 2001.
To compete with major players and get shelf space at retail, Ultima Foods’ mission was to “go big” and “innovate,” says Doutre. “All of our products have to have a point of difference versus other products on the shelf,” whether it was new flavours, different ingredients or innovative packaging. For example, the drinkable yogurt for kids comes with a resealable, spill-proof cap. And flavours range from category staples like strawberry to the more exotic lychee-raspberry and pineapple coconut.
The product shipped to stores Aug. 13, the same day Ultima launched a teaser campaign on billboards and with five-second TV spots featuring just the name of the brand and various characters like a cow or a child. Following that, a 60-second spot told the story behind the brand, playing up the company’s Canadian heritage while introducing the array of products.
The official launch campaign, created by Ultima Foods’ long-time advertising partner, DentsuBos (formerly BOS), also included social media, station domination in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver, and flash mobs in Toronto and Montreal. Billboards and 30-second TV spots featuring single product lines are currently in market.
“We had to create a ‘wow’ to be really different and make sure consumers and retailers truly love the brand,” says Rémillard. “After three weeks we already had 31% awareness among Canadian yogurt consumers. And that’s huge. Normally we would hit the same level after about three months.”
Faced with the ultimate marketing challenge, Ultima Foods emerged with a fresh new brand in the yogurt category, an extensive array of great products and a well-designed marketing campaign that generated all the right buzz.
Wow, indeed.
To read more about the companies that made the Media Players of the Year and Marketers of the Year shortlists, check out Marketing’s Nov. 19 issue, which is on newsstands now.
