Breast Cancer Tie-up Puts Mount Franklin In The Pink
Sydney Morning Herald
Thursday November 8, 2007
GOOD causes pay dividends. Just ask Coca-Cola Amatil.
As activity around the second year of Mount Franklin's sponsorship of the Pink Ribbon campaign comes to an end, the brand's marketers are totting up the return on its investment.Australia's leading water brand increased the money it gave breast cancer research this year by 150 per cent, to $250,000. It also launched a new mechanism, asking consumers to visit a website, thewellofpositivity.com, where for every wish made it would contribute $1, up to $150,000. This is on top of the $100,000 it has already pledged. Coca-Cola Amatil is also collecting customer data with a view to using it later for promotional purposes. Last year, sales of bottles with pink lids rose on the back of the tie-up - the reason why the company has increased its investment. For September-October last year, Mount Franklin's share of the bottled still-water market rose by 4.6 percentage points in supermarkets and 3.6 in convenience stores, compared with the same period in 2005. Softer measures show it worked; awareness of the tie-up between the National Breast Cancer Foundation last year was 70 per cent of all people. Measures for brand health and preference also rose. This year it is also driving sales in supermarkets, where multipacks of the distinct bottles are also sold. Early signs on the sales front for this year are good, according to Coca-Cola Amatil's external affairs manager, Alec Wagstaff . "It was a success last year, and obviously the challenge is to make sure we hold the gains and I'm told that on preliminary data for September, we are," Mr Wagstaff said. The exercise was helping to build a relationship with both men and women, he said.Not that Mount Franklin is suffering low awareness - the brand is the leader in both grocery and convenience stores, and has 42 per cent of the value of the still-water category.The online element has not worked as hoped. The number of wishes "deposited" into its virtual well has meant that the company has fallen short of its fund-raising target and has had to make up the shortfall by writing a cheque. Data collection was always a secondary consideration, Mr Wagstaff said.
© 2007 Sydney Morning Herald