The assignment was to persuade people to buy Smithfield Ham all year long, not just during the holidays. While that sounds good in theory, it's never that easy in practice. Long-held beliefs and buying patterns surrounding a certain product or category are simply to difficult (and costly) to change. So instead of coming up with an ad, I came up with an idea for a new product: The Summer Spiral.
The Summer Spiral created a whole new category for hams. Launched in 2011, the Summer Spiral was enthusiastically embraced by both the trade and the ham-eating public. In fact, the Summer Spiral is now more successful than the regular Smithfield Ham, an achievement few would have ever predicted.
The Summer Spiral spawned other innovative and creative skus and today is available in a variety of flavors and package designs.
The Summer Spiral spawned other innovative and creative skus and today is available in a variety of flavors and package designs.
Geting consumers to buy the Summer Spiral was the first goal. But now we want them to eat it. All of it. And fast. So they keep coming back for more. Billboards highlighted the ease and convenience offered by a Summer Spiral. This ebook (below) gave consumers dozens of ideas, all using common ingredients that most people already had in their kitchens. The ebook could be downloaded from the website. But it really took off when we offered a free download inside on of the rich media banners introducing and supporting the product.
We even enlisted sometime-Simthfield-spokesperson Paula Deen to sing the praises of the Summer Spiral, the ultimate convenience food for lazy summer days.
Spiral hams have a very "attractive ring," meaning the margins are much better than most other items in the store. Being able to sell hams outside of the traditional holiday period was music to a meat buyer's ears.
