Who would have thought that native advertising could increase bell pepper sales with 22 percent?

Making consumers appreciate just how tasty vegetables are is not just a matter of talking nutritional value and the environment. By telling the personal stories behind local agriculture, Kaufland Hvrastka increased sales of vegetables.

The TG Studio team developed the “Ours taste the best” series based on 11 local farmers who supply Kaufland with products. Each story consisted of long-form articles, video segments, premium photography and interactive graphics. To optimize performance, all segments were designed to be visually uplifting and emotionally rewarding. Each story was told by a team of editors, journalists, photographers and designers.

To achieve campaign KPIs it was essential to tell unique and engaging stories. Not just of farmers who happen to be working with Kaufland, but farmers with moving personal stories. Many of the selected protagonists started from nothing or did a complete career change to enter agriculture.

The content’s guiding principle was “details, details, details”: of beginnings and challenges, of products and offerings, of lives and sacrifices By telling their stories well, the values of Kaufland were seamlessly connected to the lives of the local farmers.

All long-form stories were published on Telegram.hr with video segments and animated infographics embedded in the articles. The articles were promoted using premium editorial positions on the homepages of Telegram.hr and Net.hr with a targeted display and social campaign to boost reach.

On social platforms, the content was customized with real-time analytics and improvements to make sure audiences were responding to the campaign.

TG Studio developed a content-focused approach to move beyond traditional retailer promotions (discounts, leaflets etc.) The key insight behind the campaign was that local farming is such a potent and emotionally engaging issue that Kaufland’s story had to be told in an authentic way. What made this campaign so successful was the initiative to move beyond aggressive sales and instead position the client as a true partner and active supporter of Croatian agriculture.

• In order to achieve that, the editors at TG Studio decided that the best solution was to tell the farmers’ own stories - their humble beginnings and business challenges, their hard-earned success, their philosophy and product strategy. By shifting the focus from the sale of vegetables in a store to how they were produced, the campaign successfully established a strong emotional connection between farmers and consumers. This, in turn, established an emotional connection between consumers and the products found in Kaufland.
• The end result was that Kaufland Hrvatska was suddenly seen as an active partner to local farming and small agricultural businesses. Instead of just pushing their products to boost
  sales, Kaufland Hvratska is there for the farmers every step of the way, helping tell their stories and promoting their business. This also helped achieving a strategic B2B goal of the campaign, establishing Kaufland as the prime hypermarket partner for local farmers.
• The emotional nature of local agriculture as a theme and the quality of storytelling generated a lot of organic traffic, especially on social platforms with more than 14.000 Facebook interactions and 326 shares throughout the campaign. Additionally, Kaufland supported the native campaign with promotional activities in their stores, to optimize results and boost consumer interest in the content.