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In addition to his brand strategy work agency-side advising brands like The Keg, FreshCo Sporting Life, and Canadian Cancer Society, Ben is a fully-fluent Mandarin speaker, holographic light artist, and cat dad to Rufus and Tesla. His unique approach to strategy is rooted in his cross-cultural experiences as a translator and consultant, where listening, understanding, and gently probing closely held assumptions are key. He was a finalist in the Account Planning Group’s “Diamond in the Rough” award, for strategists with under 5 years of experience. Email: benpercifield@gmail.com
Problem: Coming out of COVID, The Keg’s guest counts were down in their urban markets while traffic in suburb markets continued to remain strong. The challenge: attract a younger urban guest without alienating our older current guest-base. How do we protect the core and grow the more?
Audience Love: Speaking with young people all over Canada, it became clear that our status as a hallmark brand had actually become a weakness. The Keg was a place your parents loved to go, an institution that felt like was always there. It was reliable and trusty – but not exciting. In other words: to younger Canadians, The Keg wasn’t for them.
The Strategy: We turned our ubiquity into our greatest weapon: the truth is, just about everyone has had a great time at The Keg. We revitalized a classic brand tagline – See You Tonight – by shining a light directly on the people that visit The Keg… with extra emphasis on our young growth audience.
Results: Our campaign increased intent to go to The Keg at 2X industry benchmarks. And most importantly, during an inflationary period where Canadians tightened their purse strings, The Keg was the only brand in the category to grow sales.
The Output:
Turning This...
Into This...
The Challenge: Moroccan Oil has expanded from its iconic hair treatment to skincare. Its original innovative argan oil drove meteoric growth in the early 2010’s – and that’s just the problem. To many people, and even most of its fans, it feels like they’ve declined in relevance. In the words of their audience, if Moroccan Oil were a person, they’d be like “Paris Hilton” – once hot, but now “next.”
The Strategy: Make the Moroccan Oil brand feel like a modern luxury across all its products by showing that Moroccan Oil transports you to a far-off mediterranean locale.
The Output:
The Challenge: In a category where sporting retailers often carry the same merchandise, Sporting Life has carved out a niche for itself as a destination for sporting lifestyle gear & wear. So how could we refresh the brand with a campaign that highlights the 1+1=3 magical ingredient feeling of combining sports with style.
The Strategy: Show Canadians that head-turning looks for their head-turning moves on the slopes, court, or streets start at Sporting Life. That they don’t have to compromise between sports or style, because they can get both at Sporting Life.
The Output:
The Challenge: Lawtons Drugs is the oldest pharmacy in Atlantic Canada, with 115+ years of experience. But, it has grown stale with younger generations: “I go to Shoppers. Lawtons is a store my mom or grandma would go to.” We needed to build back brand relevance and preference, as well as awareness of its newly launched wellness department.
The Strategy: Help Atlantic Canadians find their better. Build awareness of and credibility in the “Atlantic Canada’s Family Wellness Partner” position to build relevance with the next generation of wellness-seekers.
The Output:
E-mail me: benpercifield@gmail.com