When you release a new product, you want it to be as eye-catching as possible. What can be more eye-catching than a well-known film character?
Many food and beverage companies, from McDonalds to Kellogg’s, have run film tie-ins over the years, often aimed at children. It’s clear what the benefit is for the film producers, who can spread the marketing of their films to a wider audience. But what about the food companies themselves? Do film tie-ins drive sales?
According to The Kraft Heinz Company, which has a history of participating in film tie-ins, the answer is a resounding ‘yes.’
The company has recently collaborated with toy manufacturer Mattel to create a pink ‘Barbiecue’ sauce. While officially released to commemorate the 65th anniversary of the Barbie brand, the product comes hot on the heels of renewed interest in Barbie, following last year’s film, starring Margot Robbie.
The Barbie tie-in has, according to JoJo Lins De Noronha, northern Europe president at Kraft Heinz, driven incremental growth in the mayonnaise category for Kraft Heinz.
Before Barbie, Heinz recently collaborated with Paramount for a Godfather tie-in. According to Noronha, it was #1 SKU in the Pasta Sauce category in British supermarket, Waitrose, outperforming the next best SKU by +21%. ‘Godfather’ also became a trending search term on Ocado, in the top 20 most searched terms.
For juice brand Cawston Press, which is new to the film tie-in game, its recent collaboration with Disney to promote Inside Out 2 has been highly beneficial to the brand.
“A key objective when developing partnerships such as Disney and Pixar x Cawston Press is to drive brand awareness and tap into a new, wider audience, which in turn holds the ultimate aim to convert into increased rate of sales,” Milly Tuck, senior brand manager at Cawston Press, told FoodNavigator.
“Our on-pack promotion, which has been supported through shopper marketing across supermarket retailers, has formed mass awareness on a nationwide scale. Featuring key visuals of the familiar Inside Out characters across our product packaging has in turn, boosted purchase consideration across our target family audiences.”
The brand’s collaboration with Disney featured on-pack promotion of the film Inside Out 2, including the film’s characters.
While it is of course far from exclusively the case, many film tie-ins are aimed at a younger market. This is indeed the case with Cawston Press, whose collaboration ties in with a film aimed at children.
“All four flavours included in our on-pack promotion are school approved and provide a child-friendly vegan option for lunch boxes, picnics and family days out,” Tuck told FoodNavigator.
More to the point, the collaboration aims to tap into feelings of familiarity among consumers. “Familiarity is also a key consideration for partnerships, as consumers are more inclined to try a new product if it holds the endorsement of a brand they know and trust,” said Tuck.
For Barbie, Heinz was able to tap into two markets – those whose interest in Barbie had been piqued by the release of the film, and those who were already fans of the brand from childhood. Much like with Cawston Press, familiarity – in this case with the Barbie brand – was key to the appeal of such a collaboration.