Birds Eye overhauls chicken offering with major £7.1m relaunch

-Frozen food giant on a mission to reassure mums about quality of its frozen chicken-

Birds Eye has today announced the relaunch and improved quality of its entire chicken range, which will communicate that all Birds Eye Chicken is made with 100% chicken breast. A vibrant design will put food at the heart of the packaging, along with a new chicken logo supporting the 100% message. The £7.1m integrated marketing campaign aims to remind and reassure UK mums about the quality and nutritional benefits of Birds Eye frozen chicken and will be supported with the launch of a brand-new premium range, Birds Eye Inspirations Chicken Mini Fillets.

Driving trust back into the frozen chicken category:

Chicken is the UK’s no.1 growing protein and Birds Eye’s goal is to see this growth replicated in frozen, by directly challenging common category misconceptions. In addition to the central 100% chicken breast message, the new packaging and supporting campaign will communicate that:

• Birds Eye Chicken has no artificial colours, flavours or preservatives.
• All Birds Eye Chickens are Barn reared.
• All chickens are traceable to the farms where they are raised.
• We can trace all our feed back to the farm where it was grown.

An integrated communications campaign will roll out from 3^rd of April until late November with strong TV coverage, outdoor and Birds Eye’s biggest ever investment in digital. A partnership with the UK’s most popular parenting site, Mumsnet, will underpin online comms and will be a key factor in reassuring mums about what’s in frozen chicken, as well as showing them modern and delicious ways to serve it to their families. The six-month partnership will feature across the entire Mumsnet platform and will include recipe inspiration, forum Q&As, ‘Facebook Live’ and Instavlogs – a first for Mumsnet.  Outside of the Mumsnet activity, the online campaign will be bolstered by influencer partnerships and substantial social spend to support Facebook video content inspired by the TV ad.

Introducing Inspirations Mini Fillets:

Birds Eye will also expand its chicken portfolio with the launch of Birds Eye Inspirations Chicken Mini Fillets range. Having successfully created a premium tier within the Inspirations range with its fish offering, Birds Eye is aiming to replicate this within chicken. The new Chicken Mini Fillets are made from succulent whole inner-fillet strips with a variety of different breadcrumbs and capitalises on the growing trend for casual and versatile adult dining options.

Birds Eye’s Chicken Mini Fillets will retail in store at RRP £3.00.

Speaking about Birds Eye’s chicken campaign. Adam Draper, General Marketing Manager said:

“It’s an exciting time for Birds Eye, as we have a huge opportunity to lead the renovation of a huge category that has been unloved for years. Our intention for this relaunch is to address misconceptions about frozen chicken, focusing on the fact that Birds Eye is always made with 100% chicken breast and highlighting that it is a versatile and great tasting option for weekday family mealtimes.

The introduction of our new Inspirations Chicken Mini-Fillets and Inspirations Kievs further illustrates our commitment to quality and this too will be supported with an extensive TV-led campaign from May.

This is Birds Eye’s biggest ever advertising investment focused purely behind our chicken business, spending £7.1m. With extensive communications, product improvements to our core range, premium innovation and new packaging, we are confident that Birds Eye will change perceptions and drive growth for brand and category in 2017.”