Circana's brief was to create buzz and awareness around the new brand, formed by the merger of IRI and The NPD Group, establishing the company as a global advisor on consumer behaviour to rival competitors such as Kantar who have an established reputation as go-to commentators on consumer trends. It also wanted short term lead generation.

Our campaign idea built on the availability of data-driven insights from Circana's biannual analysis of FMCG trends. We suggested creating an authoritative report (written and designed by us) to ground the campaign.

Desk research helped us build out a strong story in our briefing (on the data-driven insights). We identified an overall theme for the campaign "Unmasking FMCG's Tipping Point' that we felt would achieve cut-through and excite media and clients alike.

Over time we also wanted to establish Circana's spokespeople as voices of authority.

“Unmasking FMCG’s Tipping Point” encapsulated the overall theme, describing how growing sales of retailers’ private label products during the cost-of-living crisis could change the balance of power in the FMCG sector.

The creation of an authoritative and ‘glossy’ report would provide gravitas for the launch, as well as something for clients, prospects and other industry influencers to download (meeting our goal of lead generation).

The report included articles around consumer trends such as: inflation driving value growth; tipping point for private labels; inflation fatigued shoppers buying less; the private label categories experiencing the fastest growth; avoiding price wars; shifting price elasticities; promotional changes and a new innovation ecosystem. As well as providing data and insights on consumer purchase behaviour, we ensured that Circana gave bold opinion on what the trends meant for brands and retailers.

Our strategy:

- Create an authoritative report to ground the campaign and put a stake in the ground for future campaigns

- Maximise news buzz and reach: We identified three strong news angles to maximise coverage over a longer period, build anticipation for the main report launch and avoided drowning a single launch release with too much information.

- Develop story angles that we could use to place by-lined articles and set up interviews for feature length analysis.

- Focus media outreach on pan-European media while sharing news with country media (our budget did not allow for local PR support).

- Communicate key messages: including that Circana's insights are based on actual EPOS sales data and that brands should not ignore the advances of private label.

In time, we wanted to create anticipation for a regular, biannual ‘Demand Signals’ report that could become a bellwether for the FMCG sector.

We identified three strong news angles from the analysis to fit under the overall theme 'Unmasking FMCG's tipping point':

1. Pre-launch: "Inflation continues to drive FMCG sales value growth marking fifth consecutive quarter of decline across Europe’s six largest markets" (distributed on 26 April)

2. Launch: "Private Labels capitalise on the cost-of-living crisis to make up 38% of total FMCG value sales in Europe (€229 Bn)" (distributed on 16 May)

3. Post launch : "Reduction in product innovations, as economic pressure bites for brands" (distributed on 21 July)

Pre-pitching each story under embargo gave us time to set up media briefings with consumer goods and retail reporters at European (and global) business and trade media.

In addition we placed four by-lined opinion articles over the campaign period and secured two extensive pieces of feature analyis.

The campaign resulted in 72 pieces of coverage in tier 1 European business and trade media over six months. This included 12 pieces of broadcast coverage, four guest columns and two feature articles reaching an audience of more than 2.1 billion. There were:

616,300 coverage views on social

1,208 visits to Circana’s dedicated report page (from brands, retailers, investment banks and management consultants. 33% downloaded the report.

The campaign was shared internally as best practice lead generation.

Media highlights included:

12 pieces of broadcast coverage.

Our collaboration with BBC News resulted in extensive coverage across multiple BBC outlets including BBC News Online, BBC Radio 4 Today , BBC Radio 5 Live and BBC World Service. Channel 4 News also referenced Circana in The Rise and Rise of Supermarket Own Brands (programme aired 12 December)

Four by-lined opinion articles and two feature articles:

1. WARC byline: 'Navigating success in the new innovation ecosystem'

2. European Supermarket Magazine byline: ‘Shaping a new innovation ecosystem to meet future demand'

3. City AM byline: 'Can supermarkets ever overcome accusations of profiteering'

4. The Grocer byline: 'Private label gaining ground as shoppers vote with their baskets'

5. Marketing Week feature: 'Are big brands really fighting off the Private Label threat?'

6. European Supermarket Magazine feature on private labels.

Positive client feedback, new business leads and continued media interest positioned Circana as a voice of authority on consumer trends and we continue to influence the editorial agenda with requests for commentary on news and guest columns.