Brief

The H&B marketing team challenged Ashgrove to create and package a burger week promotion that would assist in driving uptake of their burger meals. Their brief called for in-pub material that would get patrons’ attention whilst at the same time adherence to the visual treatment used on all existing in-pub communication, including the illustration of menus and food offerings in the brand’s colour palette. The goal was to get a quick uptake on the promotion and achieve predefined sales targets per pub. A secondary goal was to re-energise pub staff and prove that well-executed promotions can be very successful.

Approach

Five key elements needed to work:

1. It was important to offer choice between vegetarian, beef, chicken and lamb options to get maximum participation.
2. Getting buy in from the staff by giving them a very good understanding of the deals and targets is critical.
3. Powerful stand out design was needed to cut through the backdrop of all other materials in the pub.
4. Appetite appeal and imagery that drives and stimulates the taste buds works very well in shifting decisions in favour of the deals.

At the same time the team conducted visits to a cross section of H&B’s real estate to understand how the patrons typically experienced in-pub advertising materials. Ashgrove also carried out a study of the current design style to explore how to maximise the visual impact of food in illustrations to achieve appetite appeal.

Outcome

Ashgrove presented a range of burger solutions and, working with the H&B marketing team, adapted them to work for their menus. A design style was created that brought the food imagery to life and drove maximum appetite appeal. A collaborative effort was put in with the H&B marketing team visiting pubs and energising the staff as well as sharing the sales target.

The promotion was measured across the pubs in both the Isle of Man and the UK real estate. Sales exceeded target by 192% in the UK and 42% in the Isle of Man, with some very powerful anecdotal feedback from consumers in the pubs as well as from staff across the group.