Australia – Initiative Australia has announced the continuation of its longstanding partnership with Goodman Fielder, confirming it has retained the company’s ATL media, including strategy, planning, buying, implementing and reporting, plus BTL media including retail marketing planning.

Initiative was first appointed as Goodman Fielder’s ATL partner in 2020 and awarded its BTL retail marketing planning in early 2023.

Jo McAlister, CEO at Initiative Sydney said in today’s challenging market the strength of client-agency partnership and the trust a client must have in its agency’s strategy and capabilities comes to the fore.

“We are delighted Goodman Fielder has placed its business for a further 12 months firmly back in our hands, enabling Initiative to fulfil the brand’s ambition to take a more holistic approach to its media strategy and investment,” Jo said.

She added, “Since taking a more universal approach to Goodman Fielder’s investment, we have been able to ensure ATL, at-shelf and at-home work seamlessly together to deliver stronger results for the brand and create a true consumer-first end-to-end solution.  The results speak for themselves.”

Meanwhile, Christine Fung, CMO at Goodman Fielder, commented,  “Initiative is a forward-thinking agency with excellent account management that really create community with their clients. We are delighted to maintain our long-term collaborative partnership, with shared drive for learning as we continue our growth journey.”

Australia – Regional food company Goodman Fielder has expanded the remit of media agency Initiative to now include retail marketing business, traditionally the domain of the business’ sales division.

Previously, Initiative was the media agency of record for Goodman Fielder, where it focused on the company’s above the line (ATL) media, including strategy, planning, buying, implementing and reporting. 

Work on the retail marketing side of Goodman Fielder’s media account commences immediately with first campaigns expected in market by the middle of the second quarter.

Jo McAlister, managing director at Initiative Sydney said the fundamental shift in the way Goodman Fielder is approaching its brand and retail trade marketing is a gamechanger; and Initiative’s team is thrilled to have the ability to take a more universal approach to investment, allowing best practice of having ATL, at-shelf and at-home to seamlessly work together.

“Combining brand and retail has been proven to provide Goodman Fielder with the strongest integrated media product possible. The work we collectively delivered for the widely recognised ‘Wonder Recycling Rewards’ campaign shows the closer these two worlds are, the stronger the results,” he explained.

McAlister also commented that it has also astounded them that less than 5% of retail media investment is managed via media agencies, a statistic Australia is lagging behind mature markets, and they feel it’s an untapped opportunity for brands to create an unfair advantage.

“We will harness the full capabilities of Cartology, Coles 360 and others, while leveraging our ATL media partners, to create a true consumer-first end-to-end solutions,” he said.

Meanwhile, Christine Fung, chief marketing officer at Goodman Fielder, commented, “Taking a holistic approach to our media and retail investment strategy has proven to deliver results for us, and we are delighted Initiative is our partner on the next stage of our growth journey as we accelerate our approach. We can’t wait to see what amazing results we can achieve as a team.”