The fruit and veges Wonky Box saves from the scrapheap don’t fit conventional standards of the fast-moving consumer goods market – they’re quirky, unusual and small. So is the campaign to promote them.
Wonky Box is on a mission: to fight food waste and support growers. Its business model is deceptively simple – selecting odd-looking produce about to end up in the waste stream and selling it to consumers who value taste over beauty.
Wonky Box has only been around for two years but its TV commercials in early 2024 caught the eyes of consumers as well as research and data insights agency Kantar.
The ads left viewers with a “great impression of the brand”, earning Wonky Box Kantar’s February Ad Impact award.
The brand fits within the FMCG market, competing against New Zealand’s biggest and most profitable brands, among them Woolworths and Pak’nSave.
But the playing field isn’t level when you’re the little guy, so Wonky Box has to work harder than most to keep up with the big guns.
In order to stand out, the brand took a different approach to most others in the industry, says Marketing Lead Claire Belford.
“What Wonky Box does differently is probably that in our marketing, we’re very much about shining the light on the food system in New Zealand and giving consumers more insight into the journey that produce goes through to make it to their doors,” she says.
“Our marketing gives them the tools to help them think a little bit differently, make informed choices about where they’re buying their produce from, and flow on effects to where they shop for their food in general.”
Already, Wonky Box has the advantage of offering something different: imperfect-looking fruit and vegetables from local growers.
That’s a USP their large competitors don’t have, Belford points out.
Wonky Box is making the most of its products’ back story, because your average supermarket shopper can only take produce at face value.
“Supermarkets have so many suppliers, so many different brands, so how do they pick the stories to tell? It would definitely be a bit trickier. We’re quite lucky in that way that it’s a bit simpler for us,” she says.
Even the fact that customers don’t know what will be in their the box until two days before it arrives – which might be challenging from a marketing point of view – is framed as a fun surprise.
The award-winning TV commercial mixed social impact with sustainability messaging, which, in other hands, could have been a recipe for doom and gloom. But when tackling this campaign, production company ODV and Wonky Box leaned into quirkiness and positivity, framing it as a “little bit wonky” to share their mission.
“We really discussed humour and how that has been found to be one of the biggest enhancers of cutting through and making people remember your brand. So, it was really: how can we combine purpose and playfulness? That’s where the magic happens, when you can do both and talk about a serious subject matter in an accessible and engaging way,” Belford explains.
“We created this sort of Wes Anderson-style world out of cardboard for that TV ad. We didn’t even leave our warehouse. We had the cardboard tree, and we used our Wonky Boxes to build a house, and then those same Wonky Boxes were put back on the production line and sent out to customers that week.”
Though it may not be a flashy ad, it got the job done in the most Wonky Box way ever. And, says Belford, this is only the beginning.
Wonky Box, which has a budget half the size of the bigger players, is dabbling with new channels like social media and trying different approaches.
“In the FMCG world, there’s obviously very plush budgets out there for people to work with, and we operate a bit of a leaner machine. We’re all about turning our limitations into opportunities. It’s about picking our moments.”
Belford adds Wonky Box decided to “gather our pennies” to push a TV commercial at the beginning of the year because it coincided with the launch into the South Island, and the time of year when the market would be responsive as people returned from summer holidays.
But as a subscription service, selling one box isn’t enough – the challenge is how to keep customers coming back week after week and month after month.
“The fun areas for us now are playing with that customer retention. What are some fun and funky ways we can keep these customers engaged, or the people that we’ve made warm to our brand. How can we continue to leverage that and keep them interested?”
It’s only been around for two years, but Wonky Box has built momentum in the fiercely competitive FMCG arena
by making its marketing strategy just like its produce: a little bit wonky.
This was first published in the 2024 June-July NZ Marketing Magazine issue. Subscribe here.