Sara Lee: High School Musical 3 Displays

Client: Sara Lee | Agency: Launch Creative Marketing | Role: Creative Director

Challenge

By continuing to leverage its relationship with Disney and the High School Musical franchise, Sara Lee needed to develop an in-store campaign to promote its Soft & Smooth bread while driving consumers to their website. Also, they needed to clearly encourage the consumer to see High School Musical 3 in theaters. As a result, we were asked to help further this promotional partnership throughout the marketplace. The overall promotional goal was to draw moms and kids into the Soft & Smooth franchise, motivate purchases and deliver joyful lunchtime answers and ideas. Also, the displays needed to communicate the opportunity for "your kid to win a DVD viewing party with Corbin Bleu." Our target audience for Soft & Smooth bread is moms with kids ages 6-11, which mirrors the demographic of the High School Musical series.

Strategy / Making it Happen

Sara Lee felt that while "win" was incentive to lure moms and kids to a display, a tie-in with a popular movie was a great way to target the Soft & Smooth demographic. Displays were designed to be fun and joyful (to parallel the "Joy of Eating" campaign) and play into the concept that "Lunchtime is Showtime." It had eye-catching Disney elements and the necessary communication to build excitement around the contest. The concept was an extension of the "joy of lunchtime" and the experiences seen in High School Musical. Specifically, lunch is the time that athletes, brainiacs, boarders and divas get together and share the joy of being a school-aged kid. They sing, dance, share secrets, eat and have fun. So we created display elements which included new header cards promoting the Disney movie and prizes. Existing corrugate bases were updated with eye-catching Disney graphics. Pennant flags with Sara Lee, Hillshire Farm, and Disney branding were developed to further draw attention to the lobby display set up. Lastly, a spectacular and standee were created, showcasing Disney characters. 

In order to draw attention from kids and their parents to the displays, a life-size character standee of the High School Musical 3 cast was designed. This created great opportunities for kids to take pictures in store next to the displays, giving great exposure to both the Sara Lee and Disney brands. Furthermore, the life-size display piece offered a variety of display set ups, making in-store use easy and simple. The retailer could showcase it on the floor with the easel back or by having it hang from the store ceiling. 

Finally, Sara Lee Soft & Smooth High School Musical 3 promotional bread packaging was merchandised on the displays.

Results

Consumer excitement generated by the display exceeded the marketing goals from the client. While specific sales figures for this display are confidential, Sara Lee reported an increase of sales while this entry was on display. Retailers across the country were excited to join the promotion by featuring displays in the main lobby areas of their stores, helping Sara Lee attain a very favorable response to the instant-win promotion.