Giving snackers Gluten Freedom

Forecasts show over 8.5M people in the UK follow a gluten free diet as a lifestyle choice, rather than a dietary requirement. There was an opening for a GF champion, and for Nairn’s, this presented a natural evolution – when pure, uncontaminated oats are naturally GF, they could stake their claim on this growing need.

A brand campaign was required. One that could continue to grow volume and value for Nairn’s from Gluten Free sales YOY and re-affirm the strategic marketing shift by increasing the % of total business sales from Gluten Free.

After deciding that Coeliac Awareness Week would be the focus of our activity, we needed a tasty hook to make the most of it.

But after exploring a range of concepts, we had more than a mere hook on our hands. It was a movement.

Gluten Freedom was our rallying cry. Something that Nairn’s could take ownership of through their range of options. It was confident, challenging and it had legs. We embraced the Gluten Freedom persona – tonally through straight-talking copy and visually with a punk-grungy look, stencilled type, textured imagery and harsh drop shadows.

Now it was time to turn that movement into momentum. Activity focused on Tesco as the top seller of Nairn’s GF products UK wide. Our increased retailer PPC (on tesco.com) and connected Meta activity, now targeting shoppers using Clubcard data. We built out three audiences; competitor buyers, acquisition candidates and lapsed customers.
We then topped our delicious digital strategy with dominant, large format Out of Home activity, mapped out at close proximity to top Tesco sites.

The numbers at the end of 2024 showed that Nairn’s wasn’t just playing in the Gluten Free space, it was redefining it – more shoppers, more repeat purchases and more retail expansion.

Data from Meta activity provided new customer acquisition indicators with our ‘brand acquisition candidates’ accumulating the most sales (37% of total) with ‘competitor buyers’ also showing a ROAS (Return on Advertising Spend) of 4:1.

Nairn’s have continued to grow volume and value Gluten Free sales YOY – with sales up +14% with a record 16.3M packs sold. Lane and Nairn’s have also re-affirmed the strategic marketing shift by increasing the % of total sales from gluten free to a sensational 60%.