PepsiCo is sowing more oats in the hot cereals sector with a revamp and a £5.8m marketing spend for its Quaker brand, up 134% on last year.
Oatso Simple will get the lion's share of the total with £4m, while £1.8m will back the traditional products.
The whole hot oats cereal range gets a new streamlined look, with a more sophisticated font and pictures carrying stronger appetite appeal, but most of the activity focuses specifically on the microwaveable format Oatso Simple.
There are healthier recipes for all flavours, including a 50% reduction in salt, 18% less sugar and the removal of all artificial flavourings, while apple and blackberry flavour is being replaced by a recipe featuring apple and another superfood, blueberry. There are also new family packs for the two Oatso Simple bestsellers, Syrup and Original, with 20 individual helpings inside the packs of the Original variant and 16 in the Syrup option. Both retail at £1.99.
Marketing activity includes TV and press advertising kicking off in the autumn and featuring brand ambassador Windy Miller, the windmill owner from iconic BBC children's programme Camberwick Green. The tongue-in-cheek ads will depict the silent Windy in irreverent mode. Sampling and online activity will support the brand.
Hot cereals have fuelled 46% of cereals growth, with Quaker driving 71% of it, according to the company. It predicts that the hot cereals sector will grow by 50% in the next three years.
Marketing manager Jo Cartwright said that oats' new status as a superfood had made it trendy and a "beacon for healthy living". She said health was a big issue for many consumers: "20% of people say health is number one reason for choosing what they eat."
The total spend forms part of an £11.4m across the oats portfolio this year.
Oatso Simple will get the lion's share of the total with £4m, while £1.8m will back the traditional products.
The whole hot oats cereal range gets a new streamlined look, with a more sophisticated font and pictures carrying stronger appetite appeal, but most of the activity focuses specifically on the microwaveable format Oatso Simple.
There are healthier recipes for all flavours, including a 50% reduction in salt, 18% less sugar and the removal of all artificial flavourings, while apple and blackberry flavour is being replaced by a recipe featuring apple and another superfood, blueberry. There are also new family packs for the two Oatso Simple bestsellers, Syrup and Original, with 20 individual helpings inside the packs of the Original variant and 16 in the Syrup option. Both retail at £1.99.
Marketing activity includes TV and press advertising kicking off in the autumn and featuring brand ambassador Windy Miller, the windmill owner from iconic BBC children's programme Camberwick Green. The tongue-in-cheek ads will depict the silent Windy in irreverent mode. Sampling and online activity will support the brand.
Hot cereals have fuelled 46% of cereals growth, with Quaker driving 71% of it, according to the company. It predicts that the hot cereals sector will grow by 50% in the next three years.
Marketing manager Jo Cartwright said that oats' new status as a superfood had made it trendy and a "beacon for healthy living". She said health was a big issue for many consumers: "20% of people say health is number one reason for choosing what they eat."
The total spend forms part of an £11.4m across the oats portfolio this year.
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