Tracking the Wild Pineapple
Dole Packaged Foods Co. breaks a nature-themed promotion April 9 to kick off the all-important Easter season.
The produce company hooks up for the first time with Coleman Products and the National Wildlife Federation for Enter to Win Your Next Big Adventure with Dole. The sweepstakes will give away a week-long family camping trip to the national park of the winner’s choice with outfitting by Boulder, CO-based Coleman, which launches a Coleman for Kids line of gear this year. A National Wildlife Federation guide will give a day-long tour of the park. Dole donates $25,000 to NWF. Flair Communications, Chicago and Los Angeles, handles.
The promo adds an environmental overlay to Dole’s positioning as a spicy family-friendly source of convenient nutrition. The partnerships came together last year through Flair.
“We had discussions [with NWF] over the years. The fit was right for our outdoor adventure theme,” says Dole vp-marketing services Marty Ordman. The NWF donation is “part of Dole’s long-established charitable program.”
The campaign also ties together Dole’s fresh and canned products, as well as new items like Fruit Bowls and Fun Shapes (pineapple cut as sea creatures or stars and moons). About 10,000 displays appear in aisles of canned fruit (pineapple, Fun Shapes, Tropical Salad) andsnacks (raisins, dates, fruit snacks). Also, 3.3 million packages of Dole Greener Selection Salads are flagged with entry forms.
A two-page FSI drops April 9 to announce the sweeps. Shoppers can enter via mail-in forms on the FSI and salad packages or via dole.com. A mail-in offer will give a Coleman for Kids flashlight and discounted subscriptions to NWF’s Ranger Rick magazine for four UPCs and $2.50.
The campaign is part of an aggressive slate for Fun Shapes and Fruit Bowls, both introduced nationally last fall. Fruit Bowls in January kicked off a year-long alliance with Disney’s Recess, a TV show in ABC’s One Saturday Morning programming block. Dole has three premium-for-proofs offers – a talking spoon (January), a watch with Recess characters (April), and a back-to-school effort in August. Dole also will tie in with the feature-length Recess movie. (The release date isn’t set.)
The Fun Shapes brand teamed with Binney & Smith to give a Crayola “Box of Imagination” tin, and is doing some recipe advertising with Kraft Foods’ Jell-O.
The Dole partnership gives Coleman an entry into supermarket aisles at a time when families are planning summer vacations. In return, Coleman provides a Fleetwood folding camp trailer, 17-ft. canoe, and other gear for the family expedition.
Dole’s growth far outpaced the eight-percent increase in the $1.8 billion canned/bottled fruit category, reports Information Resources Inc., Chicago. Dole’s pineapple sales rose 26 percent to $146 million for the 52 weeks ended Jan. 30, thanks in part to Fun Shapes. Dole holds a 51 percent share of the $289 million canned pineapple segment, per IRI. Fresh-cut salad sales rose 27 percent to $479 million, a 36 percent share of the $1.3 billion segment, IRI reports.
