Warburtons has launched what it claims is the biggest-ever marketing campaign in the bakery category.

Britain’s top-selling bread brand - which lost £13.6m in value last year following a 2.5% year-on-year slump in sales of its loaves [Nielsen 52 w/e 13 October 2012] - is spending £16m in the first nine months of 2013 on a TV-led push that will also feature radio, digital, PR, sampling and in-store activity.

In a first for the company, the push will focus on individual products rather than drive awareness of the wider brand. TV advertising broke last night (4 January), kicking off a three-month push focusing on breakfast. This will be followed in the summer with three months of ads promoting lunchtime products.

Among the products under the spotlight in the first quarter of the year are Warburtons’ crumpets, its Half & Half loaves and rolls, its white farmhouse loaf, and brioche.

Crumpets had particularly strong growth potential, said Warburtons marketing director Mark Simester. “It is a regional product that is regarded as a staple in places such as Lancashire and Yorkshire, but there are opportunities to grow the market in other areas, including Scotland and Southern England.”

The campaign, which was devised by agency WCRS, focuses on the new strapline ‘Warburtons - From our family to yours’ and features family members talking about the role bakery products play in their lives.

Simester said the ads had been inspired by the “thousands of unique, quirky and wonderful letters” Warburtons chairman Jonathan Warburton received from consumers, and each TV ad has narration starting with the words “Dear Jonathan Warburton “.

The advertising will be supported with off-fixture promotional activity.

Topics