Background

The early pioneer for Mexican food in New Zealand, Mexicali Fresh,  faced heavy growth of competition in the category of Fast Casual Foods. After over 10 years in business, and during a strong growth phase, Mexicali Fresh wanted to make sure they are still the cool pioneer brand, like when they once started off.

So they asked us, and together, we looked through a new lens and identity. Over the last years, their purpose helped the business to realign the leadership team, introduce new business practices, selecting suppliers, as well as overhaul the brand and communication practices.

One of the key projects this year was #freespeech.

Standing up for your values, your beliefs and having a purpose. These are the traits that modern consumers demand from their brands.

But for a brand to effectively communicate its values it needs to be credible and authentic. A challenge when tapping into a territory not normally occupied by corporates, but humans. How can a brand be authentic? The values need to derive from the people living, breathing and owning the brand.

For the founders of Mexicali Fresh, who emigrated to New Zealand from the United States in 2005, these core values are clear. Diversity, free travel and women’s rights. Founder and CEO Cindy Buell is not only a mother and a grandmother but an activist, organizing and supporting groups such as the recent Women’s March.

Using the family’s core beliefs to activate the brand was the basis of our idea. The time was right; a push for right wing politics around the world meant that many people were craving a counter movement. For us, it was a chance to shows what Mexicali Fresh and people behind it stand for: a culture of inclusiveness and tolerance. We needed to start a protest.

#freespeech was born.

We picked International Women’s Day for the launch. In an overnight stunt, highly disruptive protest signs appeared in front of the inner city restaurants. The design, size, material, colour and raw, handwritten style were all a perfect reflection of what any protester around the world might hold up. Key messages were well thought out, standing for women in leadership, equality and a culture of inclusiveness. The hashtag #freespeech animated the audience to share their thoughts and opinions via social media.

We hit a nerve. Passersby started posing and taking photos in front of the signs, leading to an increase in engagement and reach of the stunt in the digital world.  This resulted in a dramatic upswing in social media engagement from existing followers and reached a previously unengaged audience. 

Team members throughout their 16 branches posed with the signs and shared their affection with their employer’s brand through their networks. The passion of the team, many of them originally from other countries showed that we had not only judged the target audience right, but the staff as well – the company’s people adopted the message as their own and were proud to share it.

What’s more, new partners and suppliers of brands with similar values contacted the business owners to consider collaborations, opening them up to a whole new network.

Articles in leading marketing and innovation magazines increased the reach furthermore. And, the whole month even resulted in immediate increase in sales with 15% year on year.

The activation was an epiphany for the leadership and wider team, as the brand image of Mexicali Fresh converted overnight. It was followed by a number of other, similarly themed projects including a video series celebrating diversity through their Mexican staff members. Mexicali Fresh is on the path to become a truly purpose driven brand.

SERVICES: STRATEGY, BRAND, DIGITAL AND SOCIAL MEDIA, CONTENT MARKETING 

Celebrating Auckland’s entrepreneurs

GridAKL is Auckland Council’s entrepreneur and startup-hub Auckland’s innovation precinct in the city. The whole space was created and supported with the purpose to inspire people to become entrepreneurial, and build the country’s next generation of successful businesses.

How do you inspire people to become an entrepreneur, start up and build a business FROM SCRATCH?

We needed to showcase people on the journey, celebrating the passion, drive and core motivation of founders. Showing it in a tangible and authentic way - including the up’s and down’s of the journey itself - to inspire people set out to find their own start-up journey.

We brought these stories to life with a video series and a portrait series to feature Founders who build businesses #FROMSCRATCH.

WHY

OOOOBY’S success is based on its purpose – to support to local, organic food industry – combined with their delivery model – subscriptions. We helped them to re-focus and celebrate the basis of their success:

local growers and their produce.

HOW

THE FIRST EVER DIGITAL MARKET DAY

1. Story : We interviewed local Ooooby growers to establish a connection between them and their customers. We highlighted fruit and vegetable that are currently harvested, and available for local buyers.

2. Local: Micro location targeting a real time campaign, showing each user what’s available in their location, by which grower.

3. Culture: A loyalty programme was developed to improve retention rates

OUTCOME

The campaign drove a significant amount of subscriptions and helped increase the basket value of orders, as people started to order additional products. Return on Advertising Spend: 5:1 for every dollar invested

Supporting Kiwi Kids in need

The legendary social enterprise

Eat My Lunch asked us to help them sell their lunches and catering products through digital to increase their impact. Each lunch sold gives a school lunch to a kiwi kid in need.

We delivered a detailed digital marketing strategy to help get the most for their small budgets. We identified the best digital recipe based on a content strategy, social media and a programmatic buying - knowing the bigger the return, the more kids will get their lunches.

A comprehensive retargeting structure, constant optimisation of narrative, creative and targeting showed impressive results in a short time:

in only 10 weeks, we drove a 5x return of media budget and which helped feed over 1,000 kiwi kids in need. 

Celebrating food culture in Canterbury

Having been around for 20 years, this Christchurch social institution engaged us to review their brand and align their growing team. 18 months later, we have transitioned them to a purpose driven business, a team aligned behind one brand and an audience engaged in an authentic story. 

Together, we identified a new direction for the business, focusing on their unique values based their own story, origin and strong ties with the Canterbury region and its people. Putting these relationships, and the commitment to local high quality products at the centre, we re-launched their product as a whole new food category: #kiwipizza

We re-shifted the entire brand and communication strategy. Working closely with their Canterbury suppliers and farmers, we helped establish the restaurant chain as a role model for sustainable hospitality with a focus on local produce. Celebrating food and culture in New Zealand maximised their impact through organic reach through digital and social channels.

SERVICES: BRAND STRAtEGY and identity, COMMUNICATION STRATEGY, CONTENT MARKETING AND CONTENT PRODUCTION