Say ‘Hi’ to HI-CHEW

Just months after being ranged, our campaign for HI-CHEW made Japan’s #1 candy the third biggest seller in Coles.

CHALLENGE

To launch Japan’s biggest selling candy in a market that’s crowded and dominated by well established multinationals. Shelf space in the major supermarkets is limited and jealously guarded.

Morinaga, parent company of HI-CHEW, commissioned Sponge to launch the brand into Australia after being ranged by a limited number of Coles supermarkets. We were also commissioned to relaunch into the New Zealand market, after several years of no activity.

SOLUTION

With a limited budget we launched the campaign via social media in April 2020 using a series of simple animated videos. On big ranged in Coles supermarkets in June, we created an integrated campaign using an animated 30-second 3-D animated commercial, ‘Fruit Wrestlers’, which paid homage to the ancient Japanese sport of Sumo.

‘Fruit Wrestlers’ celebrated the brand’s Japanese heritage and communicated the product difference - ’sensationally chewy fruit candy’ and the brand positioning ‘Fortune Flavours the Bold’, as the 2 gamers in the spot transform into giant pieces of fruit and proceed to wrestle around the room.

To maximise the ROI, the core 30 sec TVC was re-edited into multiple short format videos to extend the audience reach, engagement and repeat video views. We then encouraged our audience to caption key segments from the TVC with the best entries being compiled into a HI-CHEW fans edit with rewards of HI-CHEW product to drive trial and repeat purchase.

RESULTS

Sales data from NZ showed a significant increase very soon after the launch of the social media campaign. In Australia, within 6 weeks of the launch into selected Coles supermarkets, the HI-CHEW range became the 3rd largest selling confectionary brand nationally in a highly competitive category dominated by established brands and with distribution limited to one third of the Coles channel.

The campaign was refreshed with a series of consumer competitions, with prizes ranging from several packs to an entire bathtub full of HI-CHEWs given away.

As well as creating a highly engaged community of brand advocates, the caption competition in particular created incredibly rich online conversations as followers shared ideas, critiqued other entries and discussed which flavours were their favourites.