Veetee targets university students in £1m HungryHeads push

Veetee is readying a £1m campaign to promote its new HungryHeads range of ambient meals.

The ‘Where’s Your Head At’ push would combine in-store, outdoor, press, social media, brand activation and sampling, and target students “with limited cooking skills and an unsatiable appetite”, the Kent-based supplier said.

It would seek to grow sales of Veetee’s new HungryHeads range, rolled out as part of Tesco’s ambient aisle reset last month.

Having expanded beyond its microwave rice heartland with the launch of NoodleHead in May 2023, Veetee launched a total of 27 new lines in Tesco in July – more than half of the new SKUs added as part of the retailer’s new ‘easy meals’ fixture.

It includes nine new ‘RamenHead’ products, five ‘SoupHead’ flavours, three new ‘PastaHead’ serves and three ‘MacNCheeseHead’ variants.

The original NoodleHead has also been expanded with the addition of Mee Goreng and Pad Thai SKUs.

Veetee said its new campaign would be targeted at the estimated 2.8 million students in the UK, with particular emphasis on the 680,000 ‘freshers’ heading to university for the first time this autumn.

Students were “a target audience of scale that are particularly open to convenient, more exciting food options,” said Veetee head of marketing Marcel Aerts.

Citing survey data from NatWest’s Student Living Index 2024 survey, Aerts said some 40% of students were buying fewer takeaways in light of the cost of living crisis.

“They are living on a budget – so value is important – but are much more impulsive about their consumption and trying new things,” he said.

The HungryHeads range offered “a fake-away that won’t disappoint for less than the price of a Costa Coffee, a Greggs sandwich or a Pret a Manger wrap,” he added.