SITUATION

AOFC faced a dilemma: they needed to expand their retailer partnerships to reach more customers. However, with Australia grappling with a cost-of-living crisis, consumers shifted towards lower-cost brands, impacting the organic market's growth. This trend prompted Australian supermarkets, with significant market dominance, to prioritise their own-brand organic products, undercutting brands like AOFC.

BRIEF

AOFC wanted to enhance brand appeal among consumers to attract new retailers. We specifically targeted convenience retailers situated in high-traffic airport and transit hubs, the goal was to ensure AOFC's top-of-mind presence during negotiations to stock the brand.

OBJECTIVES

- Increase consumer awareness and engagement.

- Expand the number of retailers stocking the brand, with a focus on convenience retailers in high-traffic areas.

- Ultimately, grow AOFC's customer base.

In the organic food sector, brands often utilise 'authentic' influencers to endorse their natural products. However, a staggering 96% of consumers lack trust in these influencers.

Amidst the hype surrounding AI, we discerned an opportunity in its limitations - tasting our organic food. Through a recruitment competition, we sought artificial influencers as Artificial Taste Testers, knowing their artificial taste buds couldn't perceive our products.

After reaching out via social media ads and DMs, we turned down human applicants, instead offering free samples. Selected artificial influencers joined us in the studio, where their inability to taste our products became the centerpiece of an integrated campaign across film, OOH, social media, in-store displays, and as “stamps of disapproval” on tens of thousands of packs.

By demonstrating that artificial beings couldn't do, we reassured human customers of our 100% organic quality and presented a compelling argument for retailers to stock our brand.

The Australian Organic Food Company faced challenges in expanding their retail presence due to the dominance of major supermarkets like Woolworths, Coles, Aldi, and Metcash. These retailers, empowered by Australia's cost-of-living crisis, prioritise their own brands, often undercutting premium organic brands like AOFC.

To counter this, AOFC shifted focus to retailers beyond the supermarket oligopoly, targeting convenience outlets like WHSmith in airports and transit hubs. On average, 6.2 million people pass through Australian airports every month, looking for something healthy to eat before the very artificial airline food. Through an integrated campaign, AOFC aimed to boost brand engagement among consumers and open the door to conversations with retailers.

This strategic approach allowed AOFC to tap into new avenues, away from the stronghold of major supermarkets, facilitating potential growth and market expansion.

We executed the campaign in three phases:

PHASE 1 - RECRUITMENT: Recruitment ads were aimed at artificial influencers, inviting them to apply for the role of official Artificial Taste Testers through social media ads and DMs. Human applicants were respectfully declined, with free samples offered instead, a clever sampling approach that fostered engagement on social.

PHASE 2 - AUDITIONS: Social videos were created, presenting as audition tapes in our meta-studio. As anticipated the Artificial Influencers couldn’t detect any taste, highlighting our commitment to 100% organic quality.

PHASE 3 - TARGETED AMPLIFICATION: The inability of the Artificial Influencers to taste our products became the focal point of an integrated campaign, spanning film, OOH, social media, in-store displays, and on-pack promotions. Targeted media buys ensured our presence in and around desired retail environments reiterating that if artificial influencers can’t taste our food, our human customers know it’s 100% organic.

The failure of the Artificial Taste Testers turned into a commercial success story for Australian Organic Food Co. Our objectives were to:

1) Increase consumer awareness and engagement.

The campaign achieved 12x the category engagement rate, and a 315% increase in social impressions compared to our average.

2) Expand the number of retailers stocking the brand, with a focus on convenience retailers in high-traffic transit hubs.

60+ new stockists since launch, including a new partnership with WHSmith which has a retail footprint of over 50 stores in Australia.

3) Grow Australian Organic Food Co. customer base.

The new stockists have meant that Australian Organic Food Co. has increased its customer base by 10.8 million potential new customers.