Why is this work relevant for PR?

A PR campaign carried out on social media, executed during the COVID-19 pandemic. With no PR budget, the campaign was organically featured on a major morning news TV show for a whole 2 minutes. The results of the campaign were spectacular. Zespri recorded its highest sales ever, overall brand recognition reached its highest level of all time, and unaided brand recognition grew from 12% to 30%. The campaign created an atmosphere of optimism both online and offline, that led to brightening the days of people during the pandemic.

Background

The fight against the COVID-19 hazard is taking place in hospitals, in homes, and without a doubt, in packed grocery stores too. Zespri wanted to support its business partners in these unprecedented times in a creative, heart-warming way.

Describe the creative idea (20% of vote)

Using a Zespri kiwifruit, we wanted to generate an atmosphere of gratitude by connecting the people of the community with local supermarket heroes. We called on people on Twitter to nominate a supermarket to thank, using the hashtag #KiwifruitCarePackage. With a message card, a box of kiwifruits was sent to every single supermarket nominated. Supermarkets that received the package posted heart-warming “thank you to you too” responses on twitter. Optimism was shared, brightening the days of people during the pandemic.

Describe the PR strategy (30% of vote)

Make people recognize the gratitude for their local supermarket workers, and connect the people of the community with their supermarket heroes using a Zespri kiwifruit. We also wanted to increase brand love for Zespri amongst the supermarket workers.

Describe the PR execution (20% of vote)

For the launch of the campaign we called on people on Twitter to nominate a supermarket to thank, using the hashtag #KiwifruitCarePackage. Along with a message card, a box of fresh kiwifruits was sent to every single supermarket that was nominated by users between April 18th to April 29th. In response to the thank you messages and kiwifruit carepackages received, supermarket workers also started sharing “thank you to you too” photos and messages on twitter using the hashtag #KiwifruitCarePackage. An atmosphere of optimism was shared, brightening the days of people during the pandemic.

List the results (30% of vote)

Based on Twitter nominations, 1,119 supermarkets received a Zespri care package. With no PR budget, the campaign was organically picked up by a major morning news TV show "Mezamashi-TV." Not only consumers responded positively to the campaign, but supermarkets who received the package posted their heart-warming responses with pictures of the thank you letters. Furthermore, Zespri recorded its highest sales ever with 29,890,000 trays, 105% of the previous year's 28,359,571 trays. Unaided brand recognition grew from 12% to 30%, and overall brand recognition reached its highest level of all time, from 73% to 82%.