Bold new brand relaunch delivers record results

Pilgrims Choice is Britain’s no.2 cheddar brand – the cheesy challenger to Cathedral City.  In a category where shoppers tend to pick from the cheese chiller on autopilot, (with over 80% of branded cheddar bought on promotion)  Pilgrims Choice needed marketing as strong as their cheddar.

With a bold new creative idea in development, we reframed the media strategy too, driving efficient use of the budget and engaging a new foodie audience.

Firstly, we did away with a single burst of TV in favour of a pulse strategy that would keep Pilgrims Choice on air, with higher ad recall keeping the brand top of mind, for longer.

Secondly, we diversified media selection, taking the campaign into interest-based targeting in online video and social media, with gifs, stories, carousel ads and a canvas.

We then engaged the community and kept the conversation going around the subject of cheese-fuelled dreams, even turning the dreams of 16 lucky winners into our next round of advertising. The winning customers could see their dreams immortalised in our social and Outdoor ads, just like the original cheese dreams ad which was made for TV.

The campaign delivered a 50% increase in consideration, and the strongest brand scores for 3 years. Sales reached record levels with more cheese bought at full price than any other period in the last five years.