Birds Eye Makes Lunchtime Steamy for Streamfresh Spot

Birds Eye is unveiling a new creative platform and multichannel campaign for its Steamfresh range of healthy meals. The campaign, developed by elvis and sporting the tagline 'Goodness That’s Steamy!', will exhibit a new, playful tone of voice for the Steamfresh brand, helping to drive awareness of the new Steamfresh Meals which launched in March this year.

Consumers are leading busy lives, and many are looking for nutritious meal ideas which are also easy and quick to prepare. With practicality, health, and enjoyment scoring as the top three most important attributes for consumers shopping in this space, Birds Eye’s Steamfresh Meals are catering to the nation’s tastes and providing a delicious and healthy meal in just 6-8 minutes.

The campaign seeks to change perceptions of steaming and frozen ready meals amongst a younger target audience of single or small households, providing them with a tasty, healthy option for the lunchtime occasion.

A hero 20-second TV spot, directed by Juliet May at Merman, sees a couple pausing for a quick lunch at home, only to be interrupted by an unexpected guest: the Steamfresh narrator. They talk through the everyday scenario unfolding before them in a comically steamy way, as if reading an excerpt from a romantic novel.

A series of 30-second radio spots have the same playful tone of voice, giving the listener the impression that they’re listening to a steamy audiobook to drive intrigue and humour. In each ad, the narrator tells a short story and builds up to a crescendo moment. The listener then hears the ping of a microwave, revealing the story was actually about the Steamfresh range all along.

Out-of-home and social executions feature irresistible product imagery accompanied by tongue-in-cheek taglines, intended to disrupt consumers and drive consideration of the range.

Jess Ali, head of marketing, Birds Eye brand, vegetables, potatoes and meat free, said, “At Birds Eye, the quality and taste of our products is at the heart of everything we do. The launch of our new creative platform for Steamfresh will help us bring some much-needed love to the lunch occasion and help transform perceptions of frozen meals by showcasing their premium quality and nutritional benefits. By reimagining Steamfresh’s tone of voice into something more tongue in cheek, we hope to welcome new fans into the brand and show them that lunchtimes no longer need to be boring.”

Neale Horrigan, executive creative director, elvis, added, “To make people fall in love with Steamfresh Meals, we harnessed the language of love and a playful, steamy tone of voice. This approach allowed us to position the brand in an exciting and unique way, distinct from others in the frozen food category, while also highlighting the quality of the products. Irresistibly quick, reassuringly nutritious and tantalisingly tasty. What's not to love about Steamfresh?”

The campaign is running across TV, radio, out-of-home, shopper, social and PR channels from 17th June. Production is managed by Hogarth, media planning and buying by Zenith, shopper marketing by Juice, and PR and social by Cirkle.

Steamfresh Meals are available now in Asda, Sainsbury’s, Morrisons and Iceland.