INSIGHT

Haggis. It’s as much a part of the Scottish identity as tucking in to a cheeky wee dram of whisky or getting all four seasons in one day. Our clients, Simon Howie Foods, produce what’s been proven to be THE haggis to top all haggis – it’s been crowned as the best selling in the UK for the last four years after all. Our brief was to come up with a campaign that would keep Simon Howie’s offering at the top of customers’ minds, before they even entered the supermarket.

Ideas

It was clear to us from the off that the creative focus had to be on quality, and the incredible taste experience that’s present in every bite. As with all Simon Howie products, we were drawn to the wow factor, or the ‘Wowie’ factor, as we like to call it!

Our campaign, ‘You Only Get A Wowie With Simon Howie’ consisted of 4 videos that we shot in various locations across the Central Belt; The Bagpiper, The Construction Worker, Rabbie Burns… and our personal favourite The Pigtails. Each one features a cameo appearance from Simon Howie himself (spoiler alert, it’s not hard to spot). Deliberately daft, lighthearted and with a big emphasis on quality they seemed to put a smile on people’s faces!

Obviously Haggis is a central feature of Burns Night, so in the two weeks preceding the celebration we launched multi-platform digital media placements. This included Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube, as well as proximity display based on GPS distance to supermarkets. Above the line media consisted of big, bold bus mega T’s and large outdoor sites on busy arterial commuter routes, including Edinburgh Airport and the Expressway Tower and Tradeston Street sites in Glasgow.

Impact

It’s safe to say that we certainly put Simon Howie’s name front and centre for haggis lovers all across the nation in the run up to Burns Night. In all, we delivered 1 million outdoor impacts across Edinburgh and Glasgow as well as 2 million digital impressions. This resulted in an overall cost per view of just 3 pence and a cost per click of only 35p.

Digital display placements on contextually relevant sites delivered more than 4 times the industry average CTR, whilst social engagements topped 300,000 – with existing and new consumers commenting and sharing our campaign.

On top of that, website visits increased 7 times YoY. As well as driving traffic to the product pages, visitors were spending more time discovering the full range, and all the delicious year-round ‘Wowies’ it offers.

Most importantly, these digital KPIs were also supported by a record sales month for haggis – with more than 1.2 million haggis sold, filling 3.5 million plates throughout both Scotland and the rest of the UK… Nae bad!

“Over the last few years we have enjoyed putting out creative content to promote our haggis during January. ‘The Wowie Campaign’ that The Lane developed for us delivered far more than that. Perfectly pitched creative interlaced with strategic media planning not only supported our record Burns sales it has laid the foundation for a much larger and far reaching brand building campaign. There is lots more to come…

And as well as all that, it was great fun to be a part of. It’s not every day you get up to such ‘hair raising’ antics.’ Simon Howie, Owner Simon Howie Group