National Campaign

What’s On 4 Kids is one of the most successful names in the UK early years and children’s activity sector and they sought to drive reach and engagement towards conversions. And for 15 years, their platform has established itself as the leading publisher of events for families across the UK.

They also lead the market in early years and children’s activities celebration event with the highly-regarded “What’s On 4 Kids” annual awards. And so, they commissioned Fruit Marketing to drive membership conversions to their website, as the sector reopened and lockdown restriction eased from the pandemic.

The Bigger Picture

We worked by tapping into the zeitgeist and a wider sense of a return to normal post-lockdown, we developed a creative around the call to action (CTA) of “We’re Buzzing!”.  So in deploying our in-house design and copywriting skills, we were able to develop a stunning creative that worked across multiple platforms for a concise and consistent integrated marketing plan that hit the mark.

It also exceeded the client’s expectations. With limited paid media budget, we were also able to generate strong organic reach and engagement. We utilised owned and earned media with our own content and user generated content. We also engaged several parenting influencers to form part of the campaign.

Audience Focussed

This was particularly effective in a sector where peer to peer communication is key to decision making for parents of young children. As always, we worked closely with the client and developed a multi-channel integrated campaign. Which included email, organic social media, search advertising, partnership marketing and influencer marketing.

Which meant that every element of the campaign was expertly project managed with a close working relationship with the internal team at What’s On 4 Kids and regular reporting to the client.  In all, our six-week campaign delivered:

  • Legacy strategies in influencer marketing and content marketing
  • Reached over 600k
  • Generated 1500 membership sign ups
  • New collaborations with 20 children’s activity suppliers
  • Over 300 pieces of user generated content

World Athletics are the international governing body for the world’s biggest Olympic sport. In 2021, they undertook their biggest ever consultation exercise in the sport’s history. This was named the Global Conversation. This was an ambitious survey to gather feedback from the sport’s global audiences. World Athletics were undertaking this exercise to inform the strategic plan for the sport going forward.

And so, they commissioned Fruit Marketing to develop content for World Athletics to prompt participation in the exercise from every affiliated nation including video, graphics and copy. A key objective was to engage younger demographics in the consultation to shape the future of the sport.

At that time, most nations were in lockdown or under social restrictions. So, there was very limited capacity to engage participation on the ground with in-person events or physical touchpoints in marketing activities. As a result, the campaign would be heavily dependent upon digital content was particularly important.

This meant, that Fruit Marketing led on an integrated multi-channel marketing campaign developing, identifying, and delivering content for the Global Conversation web platform. This included copywriting, video, image-based and graphic led content. It also meant careful communications with multiple athletics federations across Europe, Africa, Oceania, South America, North America and Asia.

It also required liaison with influencer figures, including elite athletes, agents, coaches and senior administrators to engage it the campaign and to grow reach and engagement.

Bearing in mind the breadth of the campaign and the multiple countries and cultures, it required a skilled approach. So, using our international experience, we used tact, diplomacy, persistence, resilience, and sensitivity throughout. This was to best leverage the support of stakeholders and influencers internationally. And beyond that, to reach multiple demographics and persuade them to take part in the survey. All of which meant the campaign exceeded expectations by:

  • Engaging 25,000 (exact) respondents in the survey.
  • 6729 respondents aged 24 or under.
  • Respondents across 178 territories or countries.
  • “Viral” hero-moments including gold medallist athletes Eliud Kipchoge (KEN), Beth Potter (GBR), Christian Taylor (USA).

In 2020, a small Accountancy firm called TH&Co approached us looking for strategic marketing management support. Their core objective was to develop their family run business into a larger, more sustainable operation but still retain the friendly, approachable and personable service that they had always offered their clients.

Our first priority was to work with the team to develop a marketing strategy which helped the team to better understand and formalise their business objectives, develop a clear vision and mission for the business. We assessed their current position and conducted market research before creating an actionable marketing plan that would help them to achieve the growth they wanted.

During the strategic marketing management process we identified some key limiting factors for growth from their reliance on key individuals within the team for their specialist knowledge and experience, to the lack of brand identity and accessibility of their office space.

Backed up by the insights garnered from the market research we advised a full rebrand complete with a Fruit Marketing Branding Day, a new name – Malt Accountants – to represent their core beliefs and service values as a team and new brand visuals which would help them to appeal to a wider, more brand conscious market place. We bought together specialists from photographers, to graphic designers, web developers to PR specialists to redevelop their website and business collateral before relaunched the business during lockdown, with a special virtual event complete with guest speakers, bespoke client packs and personalised digital content.

 

We supported the business  with a physical move to new, more accessible premises in a prominent location and set about promoting their business with the implementation of an integrated marketing plan comprising of social media communications, PR, lead generation, customer relationship management and partnership marketing.

 

Project outcomes:

  • Created a new brand identity, new name, look and feel
  • Managed a successful relaunch campaign
  • Developed brand presence across multiple platforms, through design
    and content
  • Driven 40% uplift in traffic to the new look website
  • Increased new visits to the website by 30%

 

For more information about our strategic marketing management services, contact us.

An important part of the worldwide water sports network, SeaSports Southwest, a highly reputable RYA accredited water sports centre recruited Fruit in early 2017 to create and deliver a full strategic sales and marketing plan, that could be easily integrated into the business.  With a broad breadth of offerings in sales, hire and tuition across most water sports disciplines and with a customer base ranging from child beginners to professional and instructor level adults this was an interesting challenge!!

A designated account manager worked as part of their small  team to immerse themselves in the business (including getting out on the water),  in order to create and activate a strategy covering product & proposition, resources, brand, and integrated marketing campaigns.  This activity has delivered 35% growth in income alongside increased efficiencies in reducing costs for advertising and marketing yet delivering a greater return on this investment.

From planning and review through to design and multi-channel activation at every level.

  • Social following has grown by 212%
  • Off season sales have grown by 200%
  • New clear branding and core look
  • New Website developed and launched with innovative new concept to guide the purchase journey.
  • Communications plan in place, including social media
  • Advertising and marketing plan in place driving increased return on investment
  • Regular review meeting
  • Work as an in-house marketing department

An award-winning baby swimming franchise company, Turtle Tots turned to Fruit to deliver their local marketing training and support for franchisees and national acquisition campaign work across UK and Ireland both B2C and B2B throughout 2019. This included a complete refresh of the content, digital strategies, and integrated marketing campaigns.

Since our partnership, Turtle Tots have increased their weekly client base by 8.4% and annual revenue by over £0.5m.

Turtle Tots co-founder Caroline Sparks: “Fruit Marketing have been able to offer us the experience and knowledge that our franchising business model requires. Not only do they have a vast amount of experience in the sector, they creatively put together and manage our consumer campaigns, and perhaps more importantly are able to produce meaningful statistics showing the ROI of our campaigns. Last year attended our annual franchisee conference and were able to help many of our franchisees with their local marketing. On a personal level, it’s a pleasure to work with Chris and Liz, and I would have no hesitation in recommending their expertise and services.”