Australian supermarkets were an increasingly stressful environment during lockdown. As one of the few permissible places to visit outside the home, Australians would mask up and wait in line to complete their shop. Category media messages focused on purchasing restrictions, in-store safety regulations, product availability and opening hours.

Whilst supermarket messages focused on these practicalities, Coles saw an opportunity to bring a positive, much desired mealtime inspiration to the community, with the goal of:

• Becoming the “what’s for dinner?” destination

• Improving Coles Brand trust

• Lifting positive sentiment

Coles needed a partner to bring WFDL to life. Australians were in a 24-hour news cycle, anxiously tuned in to broadcast TV for the latest updates. News viewership increased by a massive 42%. Whilst we watched, we cooked. This became Coles’ opportunity to think beyond the rational shopping occasion – and own the positive, emotional cooking one.

Placement of the WFDL segment was key to ensuring brand impact. Free-to-air news was the obvious choice: record-high ratings, topical content, and a role for Coles to bring positivity. With Network Seven consistently rating number one, and the network keen to bring WFDL to life through a never seen before partnership, we identified our partner.

We captured the nation’s attention by placing WFDL segments within the national news, solving the new dinner dilemma for home-cooks. Fiercely protective, never before had a solus segment been permitted – however WFDL enhanced the news offering.

From concept, to live on Network Seven, took just five days! In a media first, media negotiations, content creation and campaign implementation happened simultaneously.

‘Live’ 2.5-minute WFDL segments were secured at no premium, with no charge 10-second billboards promoting the segment to a national audience

Coles sourced Australia’s most loved and trusted chefs, leveraging their existing relationships

As we couldn’t send out a film crew, the chefs filmed their content themselves from their kitchen, on their smartphone, and submitted raw footage to us

Raw files were sent as they were created, with the network creating the 2.5-minute segment within 24 hours. We embraced ‘imperfect’ content – the occasional pet in shot or off-centre placement only enhanced the segments’ affinity and inclusiveness

As the segment went live on air, we created a bespoke search and social media support campaign to effectively convert the web traffic each WFDL episode generated.

55 members from Network Seven, Coles and OMD rallied 24 hours at a time, to produce 127 ‘live’ segments with 17 different chefs.

Brand results hit record levels:

Roy Morgan called out Coles as the ‘big mover’ in brand trust: “is a trustworthy brand” +3%

64% of customers agree Coles is providing ‘great meal inspiration’

Better opinion of Coles reached 27% (outpacing previous, bigger partnerships).

Media set new benchmarks and competitive advantage:

WFDL consistently achieved higher audiences than 7 News – the first time a commercial placement has ‘out viewed’ content airtime

Digital engagement with recipes on Coles owned channels increased by a staggering +160%

CTR on supporting digital activity were +20.38% above benchmark

Average clicks to Coles from search increased by 161%.

Coles responded to a cultural cooking shift to take the lead in an untried or tested format – and proved with great risk comes great reward.