Denny's "Home Is": Best Marketing Campaign Winner

Nice to see the Denny team we worked with last year picking up the prize of best marketing campaign in the recent Irish Marketing Awards. Denny is the leading brand of sausages, bacon and ham. The award was for their "Home Is" campaign, which is a good example of  "turbo-charged marketing" which goes beyond integration of different bits of the mix, and amplifies them. The different bits of the mix don't just look the same, they reinforce one another. Thanks owed to Phil Chapman of Kerry Foods, of which Denny is part, who came up with this concept when he led the T-Mobile "Dance" campaign.

The Home Is campaign involved engaging with consumers to learn about what home means to them, including a mobile house that toured the country, "pop-up" homes inside stores and online forums. This was followed by a "live" TV ad on Xams day with one the families, and the recruitment of people to feature in the new TV campaign that has just started.

 

Here's some learnings from the Home Is campaign:

1. Starts with a big brand idea: The start of turbo marketing is a big brand idea, which for Denny is "The Taste of Home". The idea works well as it combines, in this case literally, product sausage ("taste") and emotional sizzle ("home"). The brand is famous for making Ireland's favourite sausage, and the whole experience of making and eating and Irish fry-up is strongly linked with a sense of home.

2. Plan in the buzz from the start: This is one of the key differences in turbo marketing. Rather than running some marketing, and doing a press release just before it runs, you build in PR and buzz from the start. In the case of Denny, journalists were involved from the start when the bus pop-up homes started appearing. Further PR value was created by publishing results on what home is from the 12,000 consumers who shared ideas. And again with the live Xmas TV ad.

3. Tell chapters of the same story: Having launched the idea of The Taste of Home, Denny is now following up with a new summer campaign focused on the ham range, and the idea of taking the feeling of home with you wherever you go. This is nice as it is focused on selling more stuff, in this case ham. And it amplifies the brand idea by taking into a new occasion.

4. Create distinctive properties : The other way to turbo charge your marketing is creating distinctive brand properties that form a "red thread" linking your different chapters. Denny use a "reality TV" style of communication, to create a real-life feel and stand out from the crowd. They have now been using this for a couple of years. More buzz can be created via the story of the real people featured being found via the Home Is campaign in 2009.

You can watch one of the latest ads by clicking below if you're on the blog, or by clicking here.

In conclusion, to turbo charge your marketing, start with creating a big brand idea, plan in PR and buzz from the start and then tell a series of chapters of the brand story.

Comments

[Steven]

sorry.. I forgot the link in the above comment http://www.psfk.com/2010/08/an-open-letter-to-all-of-advertising-and-marketing.html

[Steven]

Hi Dave,
Great insights, as usual, into what the rest of us can learn from the bigger brands' efforts. I remember the "Home" campaign when it came out and thought it might be a winner. (Sausages on Sunday morning are definitely something that evokes the feeling of being Home for me).
I came across an article called "An open letter to all of advertising and marketing" which I also thought was interesting. I wonder is there an element of 'engagement fatigue' happening amongst consumers.
I attach a link to the article for background purposes. It is not my website (not a spam link).
Would love to hear your thoughts.