Yeo Valley's groundbreaking 'rapping farmers' ad helped boost sales by ­almost £10m, The Grocer can reveal.

Almost half a million more households bought Yeo Valley products in the 12 weeks to 25 December than in the preceding ­period [Nielsen].

Average spend per household was up 16.2% to £4.30, while spend per trip was up 13%, to £1.80, as the organic producer outperformed the total yoghurt ­market by two-and-a-half times in the 12-week period, with quarterly penetration up 22% year-on-year to 10.7%.

During the same period, the total yoghurts and fromage frais market grew by just 5.6%.

The results were "extremely encouraging", said brand marketing manager Ben Cull, who also hailed the success of the company's single flavour four-yoghurt Pots range, launched in June.

And Cull promised that the ad campaign was "simply the first phase in establishing Yeo Valley as a mainstream brand".

The rapping farmers ad which aired seven times during ITV1's The X Factor live shows and during 25 ITV2 slots formed part of a £5m campaign for Yeo Valley. It has been viewed in excess of 1.8 million times on YouTube, or "Yeo Tube" as the West Country dairy dubbed it. The brand's long-term objective is to ­increase its share of the ­total yoghurt category from 5% to 10% in the next three years and bring 4.5 million new consumers to the brand.

Cull hinted that the ad might return. "With such a small amount of exposure and such popularity achieved it would seem wrong not to run the ad again." He confirmed Yeo would undertake more TV advertising in 2011.

Total sales of Yeo Valley for the 12-week period to 25 December 2010 rose 14.9% year-on-year. On an annualised basis this equates to an extra £10m in sales. Volumes were also up 11% to five million kilos, compared with a 5.9% increase for the total adult yoghurt and fromage frais market in the same period.

The results were particularly impressive given yoghurt sales had been generally expected to fall 10% in December as less space was devoted to yoghurt on shelves and brandy butters and creams took up more shelf space, said MD Tim Mead. Yeo Valley was just beginning to claw back shelf space after retailers slashed the amount of space devoted to organic in the recession, he added.

Meanwhile, Yeo Valley will launch its first limited-edition yoghurts of 2011 from next month. A mango and vanilla Big Pot will replace limited-edition apple flapjack from 7 February, and a limited-edition West Country fudge flavour will replace Cherry in the Pots range from March.

Read more
Campaigns of the Year: Our favourite ads of 2010 (18 December 2010)
Daily Bread: Valley state of mind (13 October 2010)
Yeo Valley’s rapping farmers are YouTube sensation (13 October 2010)

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