Tuna launches a three-pronged attack on the American market
A lesson here for firms in the UK too . . . getting together can give you much more bang for your advertising buck
The campaign, under the umbrella of the Tuna Council, a unit of the US National Fisheries Institute, is also being supported by tuna processors in Thailand.
It is the first time that the leading tuna firms have teamed up for marketing purposes, pitching their common product in a general way.
The tuna brands - Bumble Bee, Chicken of the Sea and StarKist - will continue to market themselves separately.
The new tuna campaign is being created by Grey New York, part of the Grey division of WPP'. The theme is “Tuna the Wonderfish,” presented playfully, and intended to stress that eating tuna is fun rather than a duty.
Media budget is estimated at $15 million. There are television commercials, also appearing on a microsite, and on YouTube; print advertisements; ads online; and a public relations initiative.
Producers of agricultural products like avocados, cheese, milk and pork,have often taken part in joint promotions, but ads financed by makers of competing brands are not as common.
But a new campaign called Clear on Calories from rival soft-drink marketers Coca-Cola, the Dr Pepper Snapple Group and PepsiCo. promotes a voluntary agreement by all three to start displaying calorie counts on packages.
The decision by the tuna marketers to swim in the same direction comes as per-capita consumption of canned tuna has declined to 2.5 pounds a year in 2009 from a high of 3.4 pounds a year in 2003.