Fresh off the back of its appointment as lead communications agency across all of Heinz's brands, digital and social agency Channel T tells AdNews why advocacy and changing behaviour are key to what clients want.
The agency confirmed yesterday that it had been selected as the above-the-line agency for the entire Heinz account, following a competitive pitch late last year. Previously, Heinz had split out its creative and its digital and social work between two agencies, with GPY&R working intermittently for the brand from mid 2012 to early 2014. GPY&R confirmed it was not involved in the Heinz pitch.
Channel T executive director Paul Rhodes said while his agency specialises in digital, social and word of mouth, it works in an integrated way, which helped it secure the entire Heinz communications account.
“Heinz could see that we could do the complete job and work in an integrated way,” Rhodes said.
“We had a really good creative idea and we could also show how that creative idea could be brought to life from a word of mouth advocacy and digital point of view.”
Rhodes said Channel T came up with an innovative way to “take on tomato sauce” and build advocacy for ketchup which is sold by Heinz. He said in the Australian market, many consumers didn't know the difference between the two – thinking ketchup was a US term for sauce – until they tasted it.
Channel T has also won accounts for other big name brands, including an appointment as one of three agencies on Mondelez's digital roster last year and being named as the digital and social agency for Hungry Jack's. It was responsible for the “McOpoly” hijacking promotion that Hungry Jack's rolled out in September last year.
Rhodes said as an agency led by senior client-side marketers – including William Saxton, Paul Lamble and Matt Keen – it can tap into what it is that brands want in creative work.
He said that Channel T focuses on building a creative solution and a technology solution: the former to provide the motivation and the latter to help the consumer connect with the brand.
“The starting point of every marketer with brand planning is looking at: 'What is the behaviour and the belief that consumers currently have about our brand and how do we change it?'” Rhodes said.
“There is no point building technology for its own sake. We have the ability to plan very strategically for client and to create ideas and technology that enable behaviour change.”
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