Asia Food & Beverages Report (May/June 2021 issue)

Branding &
Marketing News
SINGAPORE
Lambassador ‘Lamb’ Campaign
launched in April
MEAT
In mid-April, Meat & Livestock Australia
(MLA) officially launched its 2021 edition of
Lambassador, a lamb campaign celebrating the
amazing flavours of high quality and nutritious
Australian lamb in Singapore and Southeast
Asia. Wholly owned by MLA as part of its
True Aussie brand, Lambassador strives to
draw greater awareness to the versatility and
accessibility of Australian lamb in the market.
Singaporean celebrity Paul Foster will continue
to lead the campaign as the brand’s official
‘Lambassador’. Foster was first appointed in
May 2020 and will work to break down any
common misconceptions many Singaporeans
associate with the meat. With a personal love
for lamb, Paul wants to raise its profile amongst
consumers and celebrate its ease and use in
many well-known and loved dishes.
Lambassador aims to build a community to
bring together passionate people to share
their knowledge and expertise on True Aussie
lamb with Singapore consumers. As a market
that is discerning and appreciative of good
quality products, Singapore continues to be
an important market for MLA, and through
the Lambassador campaign, it looks forward
to providing a platform to educate and share
recipes and industry knowledge.
Australia’s lamb is proudly free-range, mildtasting
and naturally lean and tender. Its farmers
take a natural approach to sustainable farming,
working alongside the government to be an
industry that aims to be carbon neutral by 2030.
Boasting a reputation of trusted, high-quality
lamb, Australia is known for producing some of
the world’s finest red meat with comprehensive
food safety, quality assurance, and traceability
to ensure that only the best meat gets to your
plate.
Lambassador 2021 officially kicked off in
April with an intimate lamb and wine pairing
session at Burnt Ends restaurant. Hosted by
Lambassador, Paul Foster; Owner & Head
Chef of Burnt Ends, Dave Pynt; and Angharad
Onions, Butcher and Co-Founder at Bootle’s,
guests were guided through a live butchers
demonstration with a full lamb carcass, followed
by a 5-course menu celebrating different cuts of
lamb to showcase the adaptability of the meat
in popular dishes.
Throughout the year, MLA will also share
a series of inspiring and engaging content
through the Lambassador website and
Instagram pages. A new video series is set to
launch later this year, featuring episodes that
celebrate lamb as an easy-to-use, delicious
meat that can also play an important role in
ensuring a healthy and balanced diet.
THAILAND
SUPERFOODS
Nola Superfoods expands
marketing budget and focuses
on offering nutritious ‘Superfoods’
products
The pandemic has certainly done wonders to
some companies’ marketing plans, particularly
those that deal with health foods.
One such company is Thai-based Nola
Superfoods Co. (Nola) which is now aiming to
expand its distribution in the local and export
market for its new Superfood products with a
Bt 30 million (US$956,000) marketing budget.
The company is also seeking to boost its
R&D in the development of nutritious food
products by selecting rare superfoods from
natural sources to meet the growing health
needs of consumers, said Vises Rangsisingpat,
Managing Director of Nola.
Vises said, “For 2021, the company focus is on
events and promotions to educate consumers
on the benefits of superfoods and boost sales
throughout the year. The company also plans
to expand distribution channels to convenience
stores, totalling more than 10,000 outlets in the
country and begin exporting to international
markets like Laos, Myanmar, Indonesia and
China.”
Vises commented that during the past few
years, the superfood market in Thailand and the
world have grown significantly as consumers
become more concerned about their health.
“Consumers nowadays are paying more
attention to their health and are interested in
vitamins, food supplements and health drinks.
They have in-depth knowledge about nutrition
and are more selective with products. The
company therefore needs to develop beneficial
products to appeal to the consumers,” he
added.
In 2020, Nola made its debut in the health
drink market with ‘Nola Acai Berry Essence
Concentrate’. The company managed to sell
700,000 bottles of the new product within 6
months.
Nola has also recently launched a new drink
made from the nectar of the Manuka Tree, which
grows predominantly in southern Australia and
aims to market the drink to younger consumers.
Manuka honey is a ‘free-from’ (clean label) food
rich in nutrients with anti-bacterial and antiviral
properties and helps prevent the flu and
colds. With the growing pandemic concern,
consumers would be more willing to pay a high
price for such nutritious products.
The product is now available at leading
supermarkets, modern trade outlets, health
stores and online channels. Vises added that
Manuka honey also has a natural enzyme called
Methylglyoxal (MGO), which has antibacterial
and antiviral benefits. The prebiotic nature also
helps it to enhance the immune, excretion and
digestive system.
Vises said the company has seen 300%
growth in sales during the past 2 years and is
confident the new Manuka product will receive
good response from consumers.
PHILIPPINES
WATER
Water bottler launches campaign
to support Olympic athletes to win
Gold
As the Tokyo Summer Olympic Games will
soon start from 23 July, water bottler brand in
the Philippines, Summit Natural Drinking Water
owned by Asia Brewery, Inc. has launched
#ThirstForGold campaign, a call to Filipinos to
support the Olympic-bound Filipino athletes.
The drinking water supplier has adopted
a consistent position in supporting Filipino
athletes and the Filipino community in terms of
redefining their limits and making breakthroughs
that pushes Filipinos to claim renowned global
legacy. This year, the Philippines will bring
several athletes whom had won medals in
past Olympics or regional sports events like
Hidilyn Diaz (weight lifter) and Ernest John (EJ)
Obiena (pole vaulter) to compete in the highly
controversial Olympic Games, should this
event proceed as planned.
As a show of support to these local athletes,
Summit has released commemorative Summit
Sports Label Bottles where every Summit
natural drinking water bottle purchased
contributes to the training and hydration of
Filipino athletes.
Branding & Marketing News
Asia Brewery Inc. Marketing Manager Jill
Villanueva said, “We take pride in knowing that
despite the obvious challenges and hardships
today, the sheer Filipino spirit is proven to be
more than capable of breaking through these
barriers and emerging from them stronger than
they were before. HidilynDiaz and EJ Obiena is
a testament to this, and it is with this sentiment
that we take great honor in being a part of our
athletes’ pursuit to greatness.”
She said the Summit brand, which is also the
country’s No.1 mineral and purified packaged
water, has a lot of exciting plans for the sport
community and for Filipinos for the rest of
the year. Summit and the Philippine Olympic
Committee have been jointly supporting each
other for 16 years, while ensuring that Filipino
athletes get proper hydration they need while
in training.
Jill added that over time, Summit has
expanded to be the hydrating partner for every
active Filipinos, giving them the right minerals
and proper hydration they need in their daily
active lives.
This year, Summit Drinking Water continues
to be a part of the Filipino nation in vouching for
gold for the Philippines through its #ThirstFor
Gold campaign.
NON-CARBONATED DRINKS
URC utilises Facebook to develop
successful marketing campaign for
C2 Green Tea beverage
The ongoing pandemic has brought changes
to Filipinos consumption and buying patterns,
with many looking to buy their food products
conveniently in bigger quantities and at more
attractive prices for a longer storage.
Major snacks and confectionery producer
like Universal Robina Corp. (URC) have been
offering variants of their well-loved products that
meet prevailing requirements of consumers.
With the existing series of lockdowns imposed
throughout the past 12 months, getting
consumers to become aware of what on
offerings will be challenging. Fortunately, URC
can utilise many existing modern channels to
reach out to its mostly younger consumers.
URC Chief Marketing Officer Mian David said,
“At URC, we aim to meet consumers where
they are. And since the people we serve are
stuck at home, it made perfect sense to hero
our big packs.”
As many Filipinos are using Facebook, URC
considers it as the perfect platform to inform the
public about its C2 Cool & Clean Litro variant of
green tea beverages. David added, “Facebook
enabled us to offer the right pack, to the right
people, at the right time, at the right place, and
at the right moment.”
For its C2 Cool & Clean Litro, URC’s business
plan called for a nationwide advertising
campaign on Facebook, but it also wanted
to strengthen the brand’s performance in
key regional areas. To this end, Facebook
suggested implanting a pilot project that would
give the C2 Litro video ad a nationwide reach
over a 4-week period. Coupled with this was
the use of Facebook’s location targeting, which
would also double the frequency of the ad
placement in select regional markets.
This strategy has been developed by the
Philippines team at Facebook and has been
implemented first by URC. With calculated risks,
URC decided to go for it. As a brand, URC has
always embraced innovation, and this online
campaign also pushed the company further
along with its ongoing digital transformation.
With insights from Facebook, URC discovered
that this nationwide campaign with additional
focus on specific regions was a successful and
cost-effective way to drive consumers towards
its products. According to the results of the
Brand Lift Study attached to the campaign,
there was a 27% increase in ad recall in the
regional campaign (the areas where ads had
increased frequency), versus that of national-
21 Asia Food & Beverages