Swedish retailers ICA scooped the London Produce Show’s International Award for Marketing Fresh Produce to Children following their successful Halloween range.
The supermarket created novel descriptions for fruit and veg with Halloween inspired packaging to appear to younger ages, and get them eating healthily
They branded beetroots as “Dracula hearts”, purple carrots as “witches fingers” and cauliflower as “zombie brain”, and went on sale in October last year.
Accepting the award ICA’s senior category manager Maria Wieloch, said getting children into eating better was an issue “close to my heart”.
“Halloween drives sales of snacks and candy we thought we have to counter this by giving the chance for a fun exciting alternative to drive sales of fruit and vegetables. We thought about how can we make this exciting for the kids,” Wieloch said.
“This is one issue that is close to my heart, children are the starting point. As early as the age of two years old you preferences are being set, and by the age of five if it’s not on your pallet it’s difficult to change.
“We need to make it fun with vegetables, as an industry we really have a responsibility to develop good tasteful products that really appeal to kids.”
The awarding jury broke tradition this year by giving two runner-up places. Dutch importer-exporter Hillfresh came second for their packaging featuring an array of popular characters from the kids TV network Nickelodeon.
In joint second the Fruit and Veg Kids Awareness Campaign picked up a certificate of commendation for their educational work through entertainment.
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