In the summer of 2014, global giant Streets was launching a major new product – Fruttare – that was aimed directly at Fruju’s market share.

With no new product development in the pipeline and a fraction of Streets’ budget, Tip Top was unprepared - a bit like a rabbit in the headlights. But only for a second.

After some ducking and weaving, Fruju Tropical Snow was brought back in a way only Tip Top could achieve. Marketing directly to those whom they knew had loved the product in the past, they hoped to rekindle the love they had had with their old flame. To achieve this, the most passionate fans were made the stars of the communications as others were much more likely to pay attention and listen to their contemporaries sell a product rather than a global mega-brand like Streets.

Fans signed up through a newly-created Facebook app to be one of the first few to re-try the Snow. The first Snows were hand delivered to the 1000 biggest fans who were asked to share a video or a photo of their re-acquaintance experience. From their footage, a 60’ video and cut-downs of their genuine excitement were created and shared via Facebook and on prerolls.
Snow fans became pivotal to the launch; they were helping to sell it to the rest of New Zealand and their newfound 15mins of fame made their desire to share and spread the message even greater.

By the conclusion of summer, Fruju Tropical Snow had outsold the entire Fruttare range on a fraction of the budget. 

This is the story of how targeting Snow loyalists allowed their excitement to be leveraged and used to sell the Snow, turning a threat into an opportunity.