San Antonio, Texas, U.S.A.-headquartered grocery chain H-E-B recently completed a successful launch of its collaboration with Seafood Nutrition Partnership’s (SNP) “Fall in Love with Seafood” campaign.
As a result, the chain enjoyed a double-digit sales bump compared to the previous 12 weeks for seafood products featured in the campaign across its 420 stores, it revealed at a joint panel with SNP at Seafood Expo North America in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A. on 12 March
The retailer also realized an 18 percent increase in seafood unit velocity – which is two and a half times greater than the national average – and saw a 6.2 percent U.S. seafood category share gain during the January campaign.
For each USD 1.00 (EUR 0.92) invested in the campaign, H-E-B got back USD 4.24 (EUR 3.88) in additional seafood sales.
“If you eat seafood and live in Texas, it would have been hard to miss the Fall in Love with Seafood campaign, as it was seen 20 million times in the H-E-B trade area in January,” SNP Vice President of Marketing and Communications Sarah Crowley said.
H-E-B Seafood Vice President Jason Driskill, meanwhile, said he was thrilled with the campaign’s results.
“We're always promoting seafood, but this campaign was really an extra piece that got people to pay attention,” he said. “Attention spans are limited these days, and getting people's eyeballs on marketing these days is tough. This campaign really feels like it was a very effective way to do that – probably the most effective that I've seen.”
Driskill said he’s excited to see the industry uniting behind a “cool, catchy message around seafood” that gets more Americans to think of seafood as nutritious and simple to cook.
“We've been close to this mission for a long time and have worked together with SNP on it for at least five years,” Driskill told SeafoodSource. “This campaign is a fun way to remind folks that they’ve got to eat more seafood and that it’s a great part of [consumers'] everyday diet.”
The creative campaign featured “mouth-watering seafood dishes coupled with engaging, cheeky headlines” and ran on social, digital, and email channels throughout the H-E-B website, as well as through in-store signage, according to Crowley.
“We really want to hit consumers where they are consuming media, and with the great visuals and sassy headlines we have in this campaign, we’re getting them in store and on YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook; we’re trying to employ all the tools we can to create awareness and then drive them to go buy seafood,” Crowley said.
Along with seafood photos and recipes, H-E-B offered savings and deals throughout January, including digital coupons on H-E-B Fish Market rainbow trout fillets, as well as specials on fresh Atlantic salmon, Blue Circle frozen salmon portions, Great Catch tilapia, raw and cooked shrimp, surimi, sushi, poke bowls, and other items.
In 2023, H-E-B ran a similar but smaller campaign in collaboration with SNP and “saw great results that grew our seafood sales,” H-E-B Vice President of Seafood Jason Driskill told SeafoodSource in January.
“With this marketing plan, we want to demonstrate that a collaborative campaign can drive sales for our business, as well as supplier products that are supporting this effort,” Driskill said.
SNP’s primary target for the Fall in Love with Seafood campaign was seafood consumers ages ...
