Summary of campaign:

Dole Tropical Gold is a new tinned pineapple range designed for home cooks to use as a cooking ingredient. Our challenge was to get passionate foodies to consider using tinned pineapple, particularly Dole Tropical Gold, as a cooking ingredient one extra time per year.

Though 53% of Brits tolerate pineapple on their pizza, most people don’t cook with it very often and don’t think of it as a cupboard staple. They think all canned pineapple is the same, and that it’s not as tasty or healthy as chopping up a fiddly fresh one.

With a modest budget of only £50k, including a small media budget of £20k, we couldn’t compete with big brand recipe inspiration campaigns and the plethora of online recipe content.

Instead, we took inspiration from the age-old debate about pineapple on pizza. Some people love it. Some people think it is a crime against humanity. And the more people argue about it, the more people hear about it and try it.

So, we aimed to stir up passions and deliberately upset foodie purists by messing with a beloved and sacrosanct national dish. And what could be more British than a Full English Breakfast!

Our campaign call to action was ‘Add Some Wow to Your Full English Breakfast!’

We targeted our ‘passionate foodie’ audience of course, many of whom were fans of the idea. But we also deliberately targeted some of the most outraged and opinionated parts of the internet in order to create vocal enemies as well.

By seeking out the haters who would spread their horror at the idea of pineapple on a Full English, we empowered a large minority to stand up for the idea and give it a go. And we could just sit back and watch the debate rage on!

Objectives:

We had the objective to gain awareness and buzz for Dole Tropical Gold pineapple, amongst consumers, retail customers and the internal Dole audience.

So we set the objective to generate a high number of comments, likes and shares of our branded content. Supported by a PR objective to gain national coverage of the controversy.

Strategy:

Upset food purists by messing with a sacred national dish.

We needed our budget to punch through expected serving suggestions and the plethora of online recipe content and drive real engagement and extra reach for the campaign. We aimed to stir up passions by playing with a beloved and sacrosanct national dish – The Full English Breakfast – and challenged Brits to give it a go, trusting that canned pineapple adds some wow to any dish.

Execution:

Animated social posts, interactive stories and polls running on Meta spoke directly to the people of Britain, encouraging them to “Add Some Wow” to their Full English Breakfast with grilled Dole pineapple. And boy, did we get some passionate comments in response, with fans and enemies alike letting rip at this latest manifestation of the culture wars.

Dole branded interviews delivered organically followed up from the streets of Britain, asking real breakfasters what they thought of the idea, with the people once again divided.

Paid foodie influencers on TikTok were tasked with cooking up their own Full English with pineapple. And national media picked up the story, including an endorsement from the English Breakfast Society who confirmed that none other than Charles II loved a bit of grilled pineapple in the morning.

The campaign drove traffic to the Dole Sunshine website, featuring more accessible ‘Add Some WOW Recipes’ covering everything from Hawaiian burgers to Pineapple Fried Quinoa. 

Results:

From 6 – 26 November 2023, the main branded animated post on Meta achieved:

·       1.1 million people reached

·       3,587,876 video views

·       511,756 engagements (comments, shares, likes and clicks)

·       Meaning a massive 45% of all people engaged!

Instagram Story poll gained 1,855 responders

·       37% yes it’s WOW!

·       63% no

Additionally, the influencer collaboration delivered:

·       200,000 video plays

·       15,000 comments, shares and likes

PR coverage reached millions in national press that ranged from the Daily Telegraph to the Daily Star, with everything in between. Plus we appeared on the ITV News, Good Morning Britain and BBC News and even got picked up by foreign media.

And overall, the campaign is seen as the most successful social campaign that Dole Sunshine Company has ever run. The debate will rage on in 2024, with fresh content and campaigns in the pipeline encouraging Britain to Add Some Wow to their Full English.