Campbells Wholesale
Winning back customers in a disrupted industry.
*White labelled services as part of Paper+Spark.
Challenge
Campbell’s Wholesale, formerly Campbell’s Cash & Carry, was a big deal in the 90s with 30 outlets across Australia and the iconic Delilah TV commercials cemented in the nation’s collective memory.
The wholesale foodservice industry has since undergone major disruption, driven by supermarket-led vertical integration - most notably Woolworths’ acquisition of PFD Food Services in 2021 - and increased competition from bulk retailers like Costco.
Fast forward to 2024, when we started working with them, and Campbell’s footprint had shrunk to 16 stores and a focus on independent single-site operators (SSO’s).
Despite a post-COVID recovery in food services, cost-of-living pressures have taken a toll on SSOs. Many have closed in the past year, replaced by chains that are typically serviced by other businesses.
Campbell’s advertising has focused on price to match customer sensitivity but lacked the emotional resonance and distinctiveness to increase market share.
Our brief was to increase eCommerce purchases and rebuild the Campbell’s brand.
Insight
We learned that life was tough for SSO’s:
61% work more than 40 hours a week
55% earn less than the average national income
40% will experience business failure, and
75% are too busy to innovate in their business.
Although price remains a key factor, the convenience and friendly service SSO’s offer their customers is rarely a luxury afforded to themselves.
In a price-driven market dominated by larger players, Campbell’s could differentiate by positioning itself as a supportive partner who understands SSO’s challenges and helps ease the day-to-day burdens of running a business.
Strategy
The first priority was to optimise the performance end of the campaign. We cleaned up the MarTech and Analytics setup, ensuring the campaigns could optimise accurately towards high-value actions.
Over three months, we introduced a new bottom and middle-funnel content strategy, expanding messaging to include service and customer support, not just price and product.
This laid the foundation for the launch of the ‘We’ve Got You’ campaign and hero videos, aimed at rebuilding Campbells’ brand identity.
Content became the key variable, and we used performance insights to refine and optimise the creative output. This data-driven approach has helped us build a library of high-performing assets across the full funnel.
The client was also given executive-level dashboards to communicate the success of the campaigns internally.
Results
84%
Increase in eCommerce revenue
201K
eCommerce Purchases
20.3K
New member registrations
69%
Increase in brand aware traffic
Outputs
Strategy
Ethnographic research
Desktop research
Search analysis
Audience personas
Creative
Creative insights
Creative platform
Content pillars
Creative Briefs
Media
Google Search
Google DemandGen
Google PerformanceMax
Meta
TikTok
Radio
Analytics
Pixel set-up
Report automation
Executive-level dashboard
Marketing Mix Model
Get in touch.
Send us a few details about your business, audience and the problems you’re facing, and let’s catch-up for a 30-min, no obligation chit chat.