Potato Council’s latest campaign to encourage shoppers to trade up from generic whites to a named potato variety has been a great success.

Advertising, which ran from the end of September through to the end of October, reached a combined total of nine million mums through print and online platforms and the overall campaign resulted in a 6% point uplift in mums agreeing that Maris Pipers are ‘worth paying a bit more for’.

What’s more, although the campaign was specifically intended to target mums with young families, it has also helped to shift attitudes amongst those with older families, those whose children have left home and retired consumers, resulting in a positive knock-on effect across the board.

The activity peaked during Potato Week (7-13 October 2013), when celebrity chef and mum of two, Jo Pratt, shared personal recipe ideas and cooking tips to inspire shoppers. Coverage appeared on Channel 5’s topical debate show ‘The Wright Stuff’ and also in national press and consumer titles including The Sun and Daily Mirror, reaching over four million mums through print and over five million online.

Additional activity was undertaken with ‘Brit Mums’, Britain’s biggest collective of lifestyle bloggers and social influencers, to get mums talking about the versatility of Maris Pipers. As a result, a staggering 943,300 tweets using the hashtag ‘Maris Piper Brit Mums’ were sent.

Potato Council marketing manager, Kate Cox, said: “We focused on Maris Pipers for this campaign because they are the most popular variety with 88% recognition. But the good news is it has made consumers generally more aware of different potato varieties and their uses – with a 6% point increase in the amount of people agreeing that ‘some potatoes are more suited to a certain way of cooking’.

“The campaign has also helped to reinforce the messages behind our signposting initiative, which groups varieties with ‘smooth’, ‘fluffy’ or ‘salad’ characteristics together and encourages shoppers to pay a little extra to achieve consistent results. By promoting this simple messaging we have successfully shifted consumer attitudes.”