Dive Brief:

• Del Monte Foods launched a new marketing campaign, "Growers of Good," that spotlights the brand's close relationship with farmers, communities and people, along with its natural resources, per news shared with Marketing Dive. 
• The push includes TV ads, digital and social media content. TV spots will focus on themes related to the family-owned farms that grow the brand's fruits and vegetables, Del Monte's more than 100-year history and "nutritious meals, a healthy planet, and a more hopeful tomorrow." 
• The commercials will run on several networks, including TNT, TBS, Lifetime, Food Network, Cooking Channel, Bravo and TLC. "Growers of Good" is the first campaign created by Del Monte's new agency of record DonerLA. It is also the first major campaign for the brand since "Bursting with Life" in 2012. 

Dive Insight:

For its first campaign under CMO Bibie Wu, who took over the role in March, Del Monte is trying to position messaging around the company's heritage and to showcase its natural ingredients, which it said is an effort to reach millennials. In focusing on the farmers and communities it works with, the brand could connect with members of the age segment, who tend to care more about where their food comes from than older generations. Millennials also more frequently embrace healthier, natural food offerings over processed packaged goods. . 

Millennials are a key demographic for packaged foods brands, and many are looking for ways to communicate authenticity in their marketing to resonate with these consumers. Technology is also playing a larger role in engaging today's shoppers beyond creative and branding. Del Monte recently piloted a solution to connect digital ad impressions to offline purchase data. Like the current campaign, it was an effort to reach millennials on a variety of devices and across different points in their purchase journey.

For the solution, Del Monte leveraged Amobee's Sales Accelerator and Oracle Data Cloud, and was able to decrease cost per purchase by 63% and increase purchase rates by 2.5 times. Using video helped convert younger audiences, in particular, and the brand saw a 225% increase in purchase rate among millennials against transactions tied to the campaign's impressions. 

Del Monte has also launched new convenience products, including Del Monte Fruit & Chia, Grab and Go Fruit Cups and Plastic Fruit Cup Snacks, in an effort to appeal to younger consumers. The company generated $308.3 million in sales for its fiscal Q1, which ended in July, an 8% drop from the prior-year period, according to MediaPost Communications. The decline was reflective of lower volumes for private-label goods.