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Case Study

McCain Foodservice Solutions

Rethinking emotional storytelling: Converting brand love into hard KPIs for B2B growth

Services

Brand
Strategy
Advertising
Content Marketing
Demand Generation
Creative
McCain Foodservice Solutions has been supplying Australia’s hospitality venues with frozen potato products since 1968. Behind every straight-cut fry is a network of 125 farming families and 1,179 local employees who plant, harvest and process potatoes in Victoria and Tasmania before they reach pubs, clubs and cafés nationwide. This tight, on-shore supply chain means spuds travel one week versus up to 12 weeks for imported alternatives, giving chefs fresher fries, fewer stock-outs and a proven ‘grown here’ story to share with patrons.
The 2022–23 drought hammered domestic yields and opened the door for cheaper European imports. With frozen chips now treated as an interchangeable “commodity”, McCain’s flagship 10 mm and 13 mm fries were slipping off chefs’ mental short-lists. That matters because, according to Green Hat’s APAC B2B Buyer Journey study, 82% of buyers finalise their requirements before speaking to suppliers—and the same 82% contact their preferred vendor first. In hospitality that hurdle is even higher, because chefs order through distributors rather than direct from manufacturers, so McCain had to get operators asking for “McCain fries” by name. Put simply, if you aren’t top-of-mind early, you never enter the conversation. To beat this “Double 82” pinch, and reclaim the short-list, McCain needed an idea that stirred hearts and ticked hard-nosed procurement boxes.

Green Hat transformed a simple insight—chips are grown, not manufactured—into a unifying brand engine, and a national provenance story. Under the “Grown Local, Loved Local” platform we dramatised a potato’s real-world trip from paddock to plate. In every hero spot, an Australian grower tosses a freshly dug spud out of frame; a chef (or server) in another state snatches it mid-air, knitting two communities together in a single, satisfying beat.

“The moment we saw that shot we knew we’d captured our provenance story in a single frame.” Meg Wise, Marketing Manager, McCain

To add to the charm, every headline twins two places that share the same initial—“Ballarat to Barossa” the playful alliteration bridges paddock and pub and hints at an ever-expanding map of local stories; “Penola to Pottsville”, “Burnie to Byron”, New Zealand next, from “Timaru to Taupō”.

“Linking a farmer in Ballarat to a chef in Barossa in one headline turns supply-chain data into a human story our customers want to share.”Kelly Dunlop, Brand Manager, McCain

 

Multi-format rollout. We produced 30-, 15- and 6-second films in 16:9, 1:1 and 9:16, plus stills, print and autoplay posts across LinkedIn and Meta, each built natively for its channel to maximise recall.

Story extensions. Two three-minute “McCain Local Stories” mini-documentaries reconnect buyers with the growers and chefs, linking paid ads and trade-press articles to landing pages.
A library of farm-to-plate photography, day-in-the-life reels and illustrated route maps add visual variety and avoid a “matching-luggage” look.
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Full-funnel traction. Top-of-funnel brand ads warmed the 95% out-of-market audience, while bottom-funnel sampling, and local-sponsorship converted interest into orders.
  • Ad impressions
    Exceeded planned ad impressions by 30% over a three-month period
  • Click-through to McCain Food Service landing pages
    Exceeded planned webpage visits by 130%
  • Top-of-funnel video 

    Most-watched B2B video in McCain ANZ history (30s hero)
  • Consideration and Decision
    Exceeded planned lead delivery by 40% across the entire duration of the campaign