Hy-Vee is a regional supermarket chain operating more than 240 stores across eight states.
Creative Development / Broadcast Production / Media Planning & Buying / Campaign Evaluation Research
Hy-Vee has always strived to help make customers' lives easier, healthier and happier. Staying true to this promise, Meyocks helped develop a series of television spots that provide helpful tips and recipes — as demonstrated by charismatic celebrity chef Curtis Stone.
Hy-Vee — one of the nation's top 25 supermarket chains — has always been about helping their customers, as exemplified by the "helpful smile in every aisle" theme that has permeated its advertising for decades. And while the friendliest employees you'll find go a long way toward encouraging customer loyalty, the time had come to take being helpful to a higher level. Their television schedule afforded an opportunity to not just market to their customers, but to inform them.
Meyocks worked with Hy-Vee to create a series of television spots that expanded the brand's helpful attitude beyond the store experience by providing actionable ideas for making healthy, fun and affordable meals at home. Hy-Vee's belief in the importance of daily family mealtime fit well with the similar philosophy championed by celebrity chef Curtis Stone. Using him as a spokesperson provided additional credibility and gave customers confidence in the quality of the recipes being demonstrated. (Stone's natural charisma certainly didn't hurt our attempt to capture the attention of our target audience either.)
Liberating the concept of helpfulness from being bound to the store environment — and leveraging the equity of a celebrity whose beliefs aligned with the Hy-Vee brand — proved to be good for business. Research conducted by Meyocks to benchmark attitudes toward the Hy-Vee brand both before and after the spots aired demonstrated two major findings. First, there was a strong connection among our target audience between the Hy-Vee brand and Curtis Stone. And second, those who saw the commercials expressed an increased brand preference for Hy-Vee.
