Coles ads show how to make newspaper advertising work

There’s a cracking piece of newspaper advertising in today’s Sydney Daily Telegraph (and possibly the other News Ltd mastheads too). It will probably never win an award but it’s a great example of using the strengths of the medium to deliver on what is a really strong strategy.  

Coles ads show how to make newspaper advertising work coles recipe ad 350x262The brand is Coles, and the idea is incredibly straightforward, yet very well done. Five cut-out recipes that allow you to feed four people for under ten bucks. it’s also backed by having the receipes on the Coles website.

It’s the kind of unglamorous, but hard-working advertising that more agencies should be aspiring to – particularly in the current environment. I’m not certain, but I think DDB Melbourne is behind it. I bet the product flies off the shelves.

DDB is also, I think, the agency behind the McDonald’s promotion that also appears in the paper – offering a free copy of the Tele with every Breakfast McValue Meal. That’s another one with a good strategy and winners from both sides.

Yesterday’s execution was strong and topical: “The good news is your Breakfast McValue Meal now includes a copy of the Daily Telegraph. The bad news is the cricket (unless you’re South African).”

Today’s was too confusing though: “The bad news is it’s not Friday yet”. At first read, I took it to mean that the offer is only available on Fridays. But that’s not what they mean.

But that aside, it’s good to see print advertising that’s created for newspapers, rather than as an adaptation from the TVC. Maybe papers have a future yet.

April 16th, 2009 at 12:21 pm

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Comments


  1. Rowan
    16 Apr 09
    12:30 pm

    2. yep it’s great, this is exactly the sort of stuff they should be doing all the time. they have two seconds to grab someones attention this is very effective.

  2. Brad
    16 Apr 09
    12:40 pm

    3. It’s very similar to Jamie Oliver’s work with Sainsbury’s in the UK. Feed your family for under a fiver (₤), recipes and preparation in the TVC, cards instore and press ads to back it up. And you’re right, sales went gangbusters!

  3. Mr Corbett
    16 Apr 09
    1:00 pm

    4. Agree – and well done for highlighting it.
    Glamorous and interactive – no. Effective and highly efficient – almost certainly.
    It is probably the most read spread in the paper.

  4. Einstein
    16 Apr 09
    1:11 pm

    5. And Tesco’s work is very similar to the M&S campaign, dinner for two, main, dessert and a bottle of wine for 10 Inglish pounds. 10 is clearly the new magic number.

  5. Bryce
    16 Apr 09
    4:10 pm

    6. This is also the focus of this week’s catalogue, also this week’s catalogue is larger than normal – probably to grab attention in the midst of various catalogues delivered during the week.

    Also, from what I’ve noticed is that when catalogues have, I guess you could call them “invocations” – i.e ‘stock up for summer’ or ‘have a fantastic easter with Coles’ – sales of those products usually increase.

    Another notable thing is that in these ads, it is almost all Coles’ own brands being promoted.

    I’m working tomorrow night, so I’ll have to see if sales of You’ll Love Coles frozen peas increase :)

  6. Ellery
    16 Apr 09
    4:14 pm

    7. Ad agencies can get so caught up in having good ‘creative’ for their ads that they can lose site of the goals of a campaign (and us client side marketers are guilty of the same when we hear the agency’s pitch). Although I don’t think grocery campaigns have every been particularly glamourours, it’s really good to see a company (Coles) recognising the challenges / underlying problem they are trying to solve for their customer, and going out and solving that problem.

    Kudos to coles for this one.

  7. Adam Joseph
    16 Apr 09
    4:35 pm

    8. The recipe-based format is also a smart way for them to promote their private label ranges, such as You’ll Love Coles frozen peas and Coles $mart buy basmati rice. In fact, only 2 of the 5 recipes have a traditional FMCG brand in there – i.e. Ardmona tomatoes and Continental mix. And now I’m hungry …

  8. Steve T
    17 Apr 09
    1:20 pm

    9. There is no doubt that this is a great workmanlike execution of consumer insight of what the consumer is most likely to respond to in terms of activation message. The question is, is the consumer that is most likely to respond a reader of metro press or could a higher level of response be generated from a mixture of other platforms?

  9. Dicken Doe
    17 Apr 09
    1:34 pm

    10. Well, it is a bit more aggressive than their usual stuff, and nice to see Coles upping the stakes a bit.

    But familys that need to do dinner for less than $10 are doing it already, and have lots of ways to do it, the (vast) majority of customers that are not that price sensitive will not be especially interested, and the opportunity to be meaningful to them has been lost.

    It also sets Coles up, yet again, for a price war they cannot win against a much slicker and better organised competition with more buying power.

    If I were working at Coles I would be trying to use my strengths, for instance they tend towards broader range which means they can meet more needs for more grocery combinations.

    Tell you what though, nice to see something a bit different to the usual 10c off beans and two for ones carbonated drinks.

  10. Bryce
    17 Apr 09
    2:03 pm

    11. But familys that need to do dinner for less than $10 are doing it already, and have lots of ways to do it,

    Not necessarily, I think you’ll see a lot of mothers/fathers see the ad and think “wow, I never realised it’s that cheap to make Chicken Cacciatore, I’ll have to go in an check that out” and then when they get there they also notice the other weekly specials and might think that because they’ve got dinners worked out so cheaply that they can spend a little bit more on the more premium, higher margin product.s

  11. GTS
    17 Apr 09
    7:24 pm

    12. Unfortunately, this is not as genius or creative as one might think. Very similar campaigns (eg. a meal for 2 including a bottle of wine for £10) have been running in the UK for Marks & Spencer, Waitrose & Sainsbury’s for the past 12 months.

    It is good execution – but not a new idea.

  12. Zac Martin
    17 Apr 09
    7:53 pm

    13. Good article Tim.

    With the amount of bullshit we talk about marketing and advertising, it’s nice to be grounded by a successful yet not at all creative campaign like this one. Big ups.

  13. Simon Rush
    20 Apr 09
    12:06 pm

    14. I’m looking forward to the one featuring fish….comedy gold!!

  14. Selina Nisanyan
    22 Apr 09
    2:02 pm

    15. Also currently on outdoor.

  15. Susan Swann
    25 Apr 09
    12:57 pm

    16. Coles have also made this campaign work in PR with a fantastic piece in The Saturday Age. What makes the story is the revelation that the meals under $10 nearly didn’t work because of internal issues getting all stores to agree to the price cut. It’s unusual to see a brand admit publicly that there were internal challenges to be overcome, but that’s what makes the story. The fact that it all worked out in the end is strongly communicated and Coles comes across as having worked hard to deliver this value to its customers. It’s a great PR piece all round.

  16. Bryce
    25 Apr 09
    3:38 pm

    17. Susan: Do you have a link to that piece?

  17. Susan Swann
    25 Apr 09
    4:15 pm

    18. http://www.theage.com.au/natio.....tml?page=1