Helping the world get Saucy through brand positioning

Saucy Fish

Illustration of a fish on a plate ready for a meal

The Saucy Fish Co. is on a mission to get more people cooking and eating fish at home. Its range of innovative fish and sauce combinations were an immediate success with hungry customers looking for minimum fuss and maximum taste. However, copycat products were soon hitting the shelves at discount prices. Saucy’s business challenge became one of reputation management and brand positioning, emphasising their premium quality and market leader status.

We helped create a £35m brand with 18 different products and launched in Australia, America and Canada.

Kin + Carta Connect was there from the start. Saucy had a brilliant idea and a delicious product, but they needed our help to launch their products into the market and grow their brand.

Our first major job was to define Saucy’s personality and tone of voice. Then we changed perceptions, built the consumer’s confidence in the kitchen and took on fixed attitudes towards cooking fish.

The key was using media relations and influencer marketing to tell the product story, animated TV creative to tell the brand story and social media and content marketing to define personality. Our integrated communications approach delivered a connected experience to consumers across multiple channels.

The digital heart of the brand is a content hub called The Dock. This is stacked full of videos, recipes and features with a monthly magazine taking inspiration from high quality food and drink editorial.

Feeding the audience

An ever-growing team of food and lifestyle bloggers and vloggers create and publish inspirational Saucy recipe content across their channels. The recipe content gives consumers a reason to engage with the brand and a reason to purchase products. Experiential and stunts were also used to introduce the people behind the brand and sample inspiring dishes.

For example, to demonstrate that cooking fish is child’s play, we delivered a restaurant takeover in Soho where all of the meals were prepared and served by six year olds. The ‘School of Fish’ stunt generated headlines, created a social buzz and converted 163 diners on the ease of cooking fish.

Getting chilled

In 2017 we took Saucy’s revolution to the freezer aisle of UK stores. Our integrated campaign – Frozen Just Got Cooler – targeted an entirely new shopper. We reached busy young professionals through a series of influencer partnerships, including sponsorship of Jamie Oliver’s Food Tube which reached 16 million Brits with a series of easy to cook recipes.

We used an insight that revealed the nation felt under pressure finding time to cook. Teaming up with celebrity influencer, Oliver Proudlock, we demonstrated how easy it is to cook Saucy’s frozen range under pressure

Screenshots of Saucy Fish site on different devices

Talking quality

We used tactical media relations to take on the discounters and protect Saucy’s distinctive brand identity as a mark of premium quality.

These efforts were justified when Saucy was awarded CoolBrand® status – the first fish brand to ever receive the accolade – positioning it alongside the likes of Burberry, Apple and Liberty London. We coordinated a series of brand partnerships that positioned Saucy with other original, desired and premium brands.

We couldn’t finish this brand positioning case study without outlining the results. In eight years, The Saucy Fish Co. has grown into a £35m brand. It’s listed in five major supermarkets, has expanded its range to 18 different products and launched in Australia, America and Canada. We continue to be a strategic partner leading the brand forward into the freezer aisle and beyond.

For us it’s an ongoing job to build relationships with media, influencers and consumers across the brand’s key territories. We ensure Saucy is continuously creating inspirational content and reaching new, engaged audiences internationally.

Our comms always need to stay one step ahead of the competition and continue to add splashes of colour into the sea of blandness in order to stand out from the crowd.

The whole team at Kin + Carta Connect continues to power ahead with our content marketing, their energy and imagination puts a smile on people’s faces but more importantly they balance the ambitions of the brand with content that consumers really care about.
Simon Smith - Managing Director of Seachill