Taking the Biscuit To Win Marketer of the Year™  2011

18th November 2011

The marketer responsible for revitalising, popularising and developing some of Ireland’s most iconic biscuit brands has been named Marketer of The Year™ 2011.   Loretta Dignam, marketing director, Jacob Fruitfield, won the title – awarded by fellow marketing professionals - for what the judges (*1) said was her ability to lead Jacob’s biscuits into profit, get the marketing fundamentals right and allow new product development and marketing communications contribute to the brands growth. She was presented with the award by Michael Cullen, editor, Marketing.ie, in association with Alternatives, Ireland’s No.1 marketing talent house.

Loretta’s work is best illustrated by activity for the Jacob’s Masterbrand - focusing on “four pillar brands” (Fig Rolls, Mallows, Cream Crackers and Elite). And perhaps the best encapsulation of that work is with Fig Rolls. Faced with a declining market share, a sense of being irrelevant to today’s consumers and with competitors eroding share even further by mimicking the biscuit, Loretta faced the challenge head on.  With research concluding that the famous slogan of “How do Jacob’s get the figs into Fig Rolls?” no longer motivating consumers, this was an opportunity to really shake things up.  The brand was re-launched in 2009 with a new look in terms of packaging and aggressive plans to reclaim its position as market leader. The new “Taste Buds” series of TV ads created by DDFH&B-JWT this time last year had a big consumer impact and, combined with PR, Radio and associated promotion, built market share.  In-store, Fig Rolls had great impact with a new price proposition and merchandising.  As a result in 2011, a resurgent Jacob’s Fig Rolls has stormed back to reclaim both its market share and its newly restored place in the affections of the nation. 

 
In addition, Jacob’s Mallows range (Kimberly, Mikado and Coconut Creams) were also in decline.  Loretta’s solution to resolve this issue was to re-launch Mallows with the aim of making them a fun treat and using the ‘Playfully soft’ line to get people to buy again and motivate new consumers to purchase.  Once again, she got the formula right with a combination of engagement and empathy to deliver market results, stem the decline and build a new future for the brand.

Separately, a campaign got underway to extend the appeal of Jacob’s Elite among females who see the biscuit as an indulgent, me-time treat while in April this year, Elite Chocolate Mikado was launched and indications are very positive for its popularity. 

On the New Product Development front, the Why Not? range hit the market and is selling strongly.  Targeted primarily at women and with the proposition of “a treat I don’t need to feel guilty about” and at less than 100 calories per bar, it’s one of the early additions to a developing pipeline of new products.

With ambitious plans for the future, Dignam aims to build Jacob’s masterbrand even further with the ambition to become a top five Irish grocery brand by 2015.

Commenting on her win Loretta said: “Marketing played an essential role in re-connecting Irish people to their love for their favourite biscuits. The task for me and my team was to tap into that collective memory and give our consumers a reason to want to enjoy and experience Jacob’s biscuits once more.  That’s where the many disciplines within marketing played a key role - the success of the work can be seen in the sales we’ve achieved and the new markets we’ve grown. The Award is a terrific endorsement of this work and I’m delighted to have been chosen as the overall winner.”

This year, there were four Marketer of The Year™ finalists. In addition to Loretta, there were three other contenders (*2) - Julien Lelorrain, marketing director, Renault Ireland; Rita Kirwan, marketing director, Largo Foods for Tayto and Hunky Dorys and Walter Drenth, Heineken Ireland for Coors Light.

Award sponsor, Sandra Lawler, managing director, Alternatives, said: “Loretta fully deserves this award.  Her work is a perfect example of marketing talent in action as she deployed a broad spectrum of strategy, creativity, insight and sheer professionalism to restore lustre and vigour to some of Ireland’s most cherished brands.”
 
Michael Cullen of Marketing.ie said: “Marketer of The Year™ recognises and honours standards of excellence in Irish marketing, and in particular for work done in the last two years. The person is someone, who through the use of strategy, innovation, communications and impact on the target market, has been responsible for making their brand, product or service an outstanding success.  Loretta is that person for 2011.”

The Marketer of The Year™ Awards is now in its nineteenth year and is recognized as the definitive industry accolade, awarded by marketers to one of their fellow professionals who represents the epitome of excellence in this highly competitive business.

Judging Panel

Chairperson
Dr Damien McLoughlin
Professor of Marketing
UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School

• Pat Kiely, commercial director, TV3
• Carol Fanagan, business strategy director, RED C Research
• Debbie Byrne, marketing programmes director, Eircom
• Aidan Power, head of marketing, EBS Building Society
• Carolyn Odgers, marketing consultant
• Rosita Wolfe, head of marketing & communications, National Concert Hall
• John Mitchell, managing director, STRATA3
• Claire Cluskey, director, EMPIRICA
• Brendan Smartt, country manager – Ireland & Scandinavia, INNOCENT
• Jamie Helly, managing director, Dynamo

Marketer of The Year™ finalists. In addition to Loretta, the three additional contenders for the title were Julien Lelorrain, marketing director, Renault Ireland; Rita Kirwan, marketing director, Largo Foods for Tayto and Hunky Dorys and Walter Drenth, Heineken Ireland for Coors Light.

Julien Lelorrain / Renault Ireland

Lelorrain was nominated for Renault’s car scrappage scheme in Ireland.  
Two years ago, the Irish motor industry suffered its biggest downturn for 15 years and by July 2009, sales dropped by 65 per cent on 2008. Consumers could not afford to buy new cars, loans were hard to come by and people did not want to be seen making a sizeable investment in a recession. Renault aimed to be among Ireland’s top five car brands.  
Renault’s strategy was to devise a good news story and did that by putting pressure on the government to give the go-ahead to a scrappage scheme.

The campaign focused on Renault’s three core models – the Clio, Megane and Fluence. From October 2009 to April 2010, sales increased by 158 per cent, with the Megane in the top four.    

Rita Kirwan / Largo Foods

Kirwan faced the challenge of changing the fortunes of one of best loved brands, Tayto, through entertaining ads, world-class branding and innovative products. Ads were created which made Mr Tayto a household name among young consumers. Tayto grew by over 13 per cent since 2006 and outpaced its major rival Walkers by ten percentage points.
An election campaign, an autobiography and a new family theme park, which attracted over 300,000 visitors in under a year, were part of the brand’s success. Hunky Dorys made headlines with its risqué ads and sales were up by 12 per cent. Last year it was Ireland’s fastest growing crisp brand and it grew market share by a third to over 15.3 per cent.  It is now the leading crinkle cut crisp in impulse, sharing and multi-pack formats.  

Walter Drenth / Heineken Ireland

For Walter Drenth, faced with the reality that Coors Light was popular among women but far less so among traditional beer drinkers – men - Drenth developed a strategy to coax 18-34 year males to ask themselves, “Could this be the beer for me?”. 

It was seen as a “girly” beer because it was light and so the perception had to be changed to mean “light in refreshment”.  The brand owned the Rocky Mountains images which tied in with a rugged, masculine message.

As a result, Coors Light recorded average growth of 6.5 per cent in a declining market, on average down by 5 per cent over the last three years – thereby outperforming the market by as much as 11 per cent. It is now the top selling bottled beer in Ireland.     

SPONSORS: The award is run by Marketing.ie and is sponsored by Alternatives, Ireland’s No. 1 marketing talent house.  

Marketer of The Year™ is organised by Marketing.ie magazine and sponsored by Alternatives, the marketing talent house. Marketer of The Year™ is registered in the Register of Trade Marks in the name Marketing.ie under the Trade Marks Act 1996.  Any use of the Marketer of The Year™   title in the Republic of Ireland is strictly reserved and cannot be used without written permission.