Cheese top 10 advertisers
MediaTOTAL CinemaOutdoorPressRadioTV
Brands Spend (£) Y-O-Y % % % % %
Mini Babybel £2,863,367 92.74% 11.10% 29.10% 0.80% 4.60% 54.40%
Philadelphia £2,291,141 -56.78% 0.00% 0.00% 10.50% 0.00% 89.50%
Saint Agur £1,762,263 41.46% 0.00% 0.00% 1.40% 0.00% 98.60%
The Laughing Cow £1,505,619 105.75% 0.00% 0.00% 3.20% 0.00% 96.80%
Cheestrings £1,464,263 15729.87% 0.00% 0.00% 0.00% 0.00% 100.00%
Le Rustique £1,036,971 95.47% 0.00% 0.00% 0.00% 0.00% 100.00%
Pilgrims Choice £793,775 -44.22% 0.00% 0.00% 3.60% 0.00% 96.40%
Castello £740,905 -68.70% 0.00% 0.00% 18.20% 0.00% 81.80%
Seriously £688,516 -56.22% 0.00% 0.00% 8.00% 0.00% 92.00%
Boursin £599,883 -16.31% 33.30% 0.00% 1.80% 0.00% 64.90%
TOTAL (Top 10) £13,746,703 -10.64% 3.80% 6.10% 4.10% 1.00% 85.10%
        
 Source: Ebiquity, 1 September 2017 - 31 August 2018       

The top 10 big spenders in cheese dropped a total of £13.7m on advertisements this year. That's 9.6% (£1.2m) up on last year's spend [Nielsen 52 w/e 16 September 2017]. 

Bel UK's Mini Babybel earned the top spot this year with multichannel marketing for its Organic variant and a 'Saving Snack Time' campaign in June.

By far the fastest growing brand in marketing spend, Cheesestrings, launched a new 'Choose Fun' campaign across TV and VOD in March. The brand teamed up with fellow Kerry Foods brand Yollies for the £1.5m campaign, and reported 75% of shoppers saw the advert more than five times in the six weeks it ran.

Cheese consumption occasions
Cheese consumption occasions 
  Occasions (m) % y-o-y
Breakfast 249.4 -3.2
Lunch 2627.3 2.7
Teatime 364.9 -4.2
Evening meal 2035.4 5
Snacks 418.3 2.5
     
 Source: Kantar Worldpanel, 52 w/e 15 July 2018  
Top ten cheese brands by value
Top ten cheese brands by value sales this year 
  Value sales (£m) % change y-o-y
CATHEDRAL CITY 263.6 1.1%
DAIRYLEA 91.8 2.2%
PHILADELPHIA 85.9 -4.5%
PILGRIMS CHOICE 73.8 -1.9%
SERIOUSLY 49.9 16.2%
BABYBEL 48.4 -1.6%
CHEESTRINGS 46.5 3.8%
DAIRYLEA LUNCHABLES 29.8 -5.9%
THE LAUGHING COW 27.0 -9.7%
CASTELLO 21.2 0.1%
   
 Source: Nielsen, 52 w/e 8 Sept 2018  

Category leader Cathedral City achieved £2.9m value growth this year despite volume sales falling 7.7%. The brand reports investment into added value innovations like The Big Slice has been integral to its success, helping to justify the brand’s 9.6% average price hikes this year.


NPD was also the main contributor to Dairylea’s sales growth this year, up £2m on volumes down 2.8%. Alongside three new SKUs, the brand launched an on-pack promotion over the summer holidays offering 1,000 instant-win prizes, supported by £500k of marketing spanning Facebook, Spotify and Quantcast. Fellow Dairylea brand Lunchables didn’t fare so well, with values dropping £1.9m year on year.


Philadelphia suffered the largest value loss in the top 10, despite being one of the few to avoid average price increases this year. The brand is hoping to recover its £4.1m sales losses with premium NPD launched earlier this year, as well as new pack designs across the entire Philadelphia range and continued marketing investments.


By far the fastest growing brand in the top 10 this year was Seriously. The brand achieved double-digit value and volume sales this year, driven by a major brand relaunch and “heavyweight” marketing support. Seriously also reported that its major listing in Co-op, gained in 2017, had been key to growth this year.

Cheese values by sector
Average price rises driving growth: Cheese values by sector
  Value (£m) % y-o-y
 Cheddar   1396.3 3.6
 Continental (ex. blue)   530.8 6.5
 Total Processed   291.7 1.7
 Total Soft White   231 -2.7
 Territorials (ex. blue)   230.7 7.5
 Mini Portions   114.9 8.7
 Total Blue   92.5 -0.7
Total     
   
Brands vs Own label  Value (£m) % y-o-y
Brands 1117 1.8
Own label 1770.1 5
     
 Source: Kantar Worldpanel, 52 w/e 12 Aug 18  

It's been a strong year for cheese, with value sales up 3.7%, adding a total of £104.1m to the category. 

This growth has been predominantly driven by price increases (volume remained fairly static at 0.6% y-o-y), which added a total of £85m (3%) to the category this year. All sectors excluding continental (down 0.6%) and soft white cheeses (unchanged since last year) have seen average price increases this year. 

A reduction in promotional activity this year also contributed to average price hikes. All forms of promotion, from temporary price reductions to volume deals, were in decline this year, leading to a 10% (£115.7m) loss in value sold on promotion, though sales not on promotion rose 13.1% (£219.8m).

Rising population numbers further contributed to value growth this year. The natural increase in UK population meant 1% more households bought cheese this year. That extra 1% added £27.7m retail sales to the category. 

In total, 98.9% of the population have bought cheese at least once in the past 52 weeks.

While both branded and own-label cheeses are in growth this year, when volume sales are considered it is private label that is driving growth forward, with volumes up 2%. In comparison, branded volume sales dipped 2.3% over the same period. 

Michael Ndukwe, Kantar Worldpanel