PRESS RELEASE

South Africa - South Africa’s apple and pear production is down by more than 20% year-on-year as a result of drought conditions which will impact the amount of Tru-Cape fruit available on supermarket shelves.

For Tru-Cape Fruit Marketing, the largest exporter of South African apples and pears, into more than 104 countries, this campaign - The Tru-Cape Quest promotion - follows a successful campaign five years ago when hail severely damaged crops and pockmarked fruit. Then, Tru-Cape’s #UglyPretty campaign asked supermarkets and end consumers to look beyond the superficial appeal of the fruit towards the goodness that lay beneath.

Marketing Director of Tru-Cape, Conrad Fick explains: “Here too, there is a need brought about by the impact of the severe drought in the Western Cape. As there is a shortage of fruit available in the market we are incentivising our customers to make the extra effort to find Tru-Cape apples and pears even when stocks are more limited than usual.”

The Tru-Cape campaign takes place from August 24 to the end of September and incentivises customers to search for the fruit in stores and photograph themselves with the fruit and hash-tag #staytruetotrucape and #trucapequest. “Entrants could win a R10 000 gift voucher or one of two R5000 gift vouchers. One of three iPad Air 2’s with branded covers are also up for grabs. There will  be spot prizes of 100 Tru-Cape Kidz soft toy sets for entrants,” Fick explains.

Tru-Cape commissioned interactive agency, Red Cherry to create a new television commercial and digital campaign to raise awareness and with a call to action. “We have used radio to support this campaign as well as limited print advertising but also linked the campaign to our first-of-the-kind game app, Fruit-Full, that educates players about the challenging process of producing, packing and marketing fruit.

“A separate competition that will run on Fruit-Full. Entrants stand a chance to win one of five iPad Air 2’s. To enter they need to download Fruit-Full, link it to Facebook and enter the code TruQuest in the game. To double their chances of winning they can enter the barcode of product purchased,” he says.

According to Fick, the campaign intrinsics will be entrenched through in-store tastings in 50 supermarkets like Checkers, Food Lover’s Markets and selected Spar stores and grocers. “The store environment is the touch point where we will be able to measure if our efforts to continue our market-leadership position, despite reduced volume and the concomitant risks that of out-of-sight-out-of-mind brings, have succeeded.”

Fick ends on a sobering note: “We are incentivising our customers and rewarding them for making the special effort. If the campaign doesn’t translate into sustained sales then the following years’ harvests become at risk - all growers are faced with making economic decisions whether to reinvest and replant or not. The pressures on growers in our current economic and political climate are already so great that growers need all the support we can offer them.”