Creative impulse

The New Covent Garden Soup Company is out to consolidate its position as pioneer of the fresh soup market with a vibrant new print campaign. Three executions are currently to be seen in the national press and on the London Underground, each bearing the slogan "You can't buy a fresher soup". The first features a greenhouse in the shape of the brand's distinctive carton; the second depicts a carton of the soup growing out of the ground; and the third shows a pack being tended with a watering can.

The client: New Covent Garden Soup Company

Kate Raison, marketing manager

We pioneered the fresh soup market back in 1988. At that time there were a lot of people who loved soup but not the tinned stuff. Our founder spotted this gap in the market and we've been making the soup in the same way as you would at home ever since - only nowadays on a much larger scale. But, needless to say, the supermarkets have jumped on the bandwagon and now have their own fresh soups, although they vary enormously in quality and mostly they taste quite mass-produced.

As market leader we wanted a campaign that reinforces our position and gives us a really strong point of leverage over own-label. We only put things into our soups that you might find in your own home and that means adding no modified starch and no preservatives or other nasties. We wanted to get this message across to both existing fresh-soup buyers and those who may previously only have been familiar with tinned soup.

The agency: Bean Andrews Norways Cramphorn

Robert Bean, chairman

This advertising had to do three things. First, the very essence of this brand is that it is slightly different from the norm: it is not made by a corporation, and we had to capture the spirit and passion of the company. Second, we had to deal with the threat of supermarket own-labels; because they own the distribution channels, it is much easier for them than us to make their presence felt on the shelf. Third, we had to make the brand appeal to more people, while still making each individual believe it's a brand especially for them.

The important thing in this sector is the soup's freshness, so the advertising had to be fresh too - but not too Soho or, dare I say it, Covent Garden. It's natural, with no preservatives, and that was an important point to feature, but the single most compelling thing about it is that it's the nearest thing to home-made you can buy, and therefore fresh.

Visually, the advertising has a light, airy, open look, and we also register the packaging as a point of difference; no other brand has a pack like that. We can legitimately lay claim to the high ground of freshness and, in doing so, try to hijack the market and put some distance between this and other soups.

Scott Hughes