Helen Potter, Cereal Brands Marketing Lead – UKI – Kellogg Company
Kellogg’s cereal brands are part of the morning routines of millions of families across the UK.
When it looked at the value it could unlock from sports sponsorship, it thought first of how it could improve the lives of those families. The answer, for the nation’s most popular cereal producer, was to tap into the power of the nation’s favourite sport – and launch support for a network of holiday football camps.
As its UK and Ireland Cereal Brands Marketing Lead Helen Potter explained, it leveraged research that highlighted real pressure points for working families in every part of the country.
For parents, childcare was a huge concern – especially during the school break. Encouraging active lifestyles was another priority, made more pertinent by the rise in mental health issues among children and young people.
Kellogg’s also wanted to develop activations that could build brand equity in the long term, grow sales and consideration, and create better days for its customers.
Inspiration came, in part, through the powerful associations parents have with Kellogg’s brands from their own childhoods – not least their support for activities like the ASA swimming lessons schemes of the 1990s and 2000s.
But it needed to build a football camp concept that worked for the 2020s. It began with partnerships that could build reach, awareness and logistical capacity. The EFL’s 72 member clubs could assist with camps within easy reach of most British children; 2024 Premier League champions Manchester City delivered star power and mainstream impact; and Glasgow powerhouses Celtic and Rangers brought huge credibility north of the border.
Kellogg’s built momentum behind its campaign with creative that tied amplified the involvement of players and IP across multiple media channels, bringing that to life through stories and experiences that are easily relatable to ordinary families.
It built further awareness through on-packet branding and a ‘free days’ offer with every purchase – a scheme that earned national media coverage and energised retail partners.
As the campaign enters its third year, it has already reached over a million British children and created 120 new data points for the brand. The challenge from here is to make the camps a part of every summer, and a memory of Kellogg’s that children take into the future.