How Ocado magicked up a winning partnership with Disney

When Ocado got the call up from Disney to develop a meal bundle for kids, they were excited. It was a game-changing opportunity, and they wanted to nail it.

“We’d never done a partnership with a company the size of Disney before,” says Ben Franks, research executive at Ocado Retail. “It was a very important project for the business, so we wanted to make sure we got things right. That meant finding the correct name, and the most-appealing characters and food combinations.”

So, where does every successful campaign begin?

With a deep understanding of your target market. Ocado recruited Attest, a consumer research platform that empowers anyone to uncover opportunity with data. With Attest, Ocado could quickly and easily ask their target consumers for insight into their decisions, so they could be sure those decisions were the right ones.

Ocado designed three surveys targeting UK parents with children aged 5-13. The first was a proposition test to see which name and branding was most appealing, while a second study focused on what Disney films to use, and what types of food and food combinations. The third survey looked at what price point the new meal bundles should be sold at. With support from Attest’s on-demand research strategists, Ocado were able unlock the insights they needed to steer their campaign in the right direction.

“‘Once Upon a Mealtime’ was the name that came out top, so we ended up going with that one. We had expected this to be the most popular in the research team, but there had been a bit more contention between the marketing people, so it was good to have that data,” says Franks.

The pricing study, meanwhile, identified an ideal price range for the ‘Once Upon a Mealtime’ bundles to be sold at.

With value for money being one of Ocado’s pillars, it was important to launch at an affordable price.

“From our other tracking studies, we know we are usually perceived as quite expensive. Value for money is one of our key KPIs that we’re focusing on, so the research helped us solidify our thinking in that space.”

Analysing the impact:

Ocado launched the ‘Once Upon a Mealtime’ Disney meal bundles with a TV campaign across England and Wales. The six bundles were themed around favourite Disney movies including Cars, The Lion King, Frozen and Moana, encouraging the whole family to get cooking.

“Everyone is happy with the partnership. The research we did was definitely impactful in the business in terms of taking the project forward in its initial stages. The recommendations we put forward were all implemented and were really helpful in leading to the next steps.”