Brand continues long-term partnership of popular cooking programme with additional €200,000 marketing investment
SPAR Ireland is to sponsor RTE’s hugely popular cooking programme, ‘Kitchen Hero’ hosted by Donal Skehan, when it returns to air on Tuesday 11th June. SPAR has been a sponsor of the show since it commenced in 2010, and will make an additional €200,000 marketing investment as part of this fourth series.
The theme of the upcoming season is ‘Home Cooked’ – based on the name of Donal’s food blog and upcoming book – and will feature recipes which are intended to be accessible, inspiring and encouraging for the everyday home cook.
Marketing & Communications Director, BWG Foods (owners and operator of the SPAR brand) Suzanne Weldon, said the last series attracted 300,000 viewers per episode, making it an enticing partnership for SPAR.
“We were keen to continue our long standing partnership with ‘Kitchen Hero’ as it provides a high visibility platform for the SPAR brand, and is aligned with our core market. Moreover, Donal appeals to a wide audience, in particular the hard to reach younger age profiles, allowing us to successfully augment a traditional sponsorship with our social media channels, such as Facebook and the SPAR App.”
“The focus of this series is on everyday cooking, which will resonate with the many people – SPAR shoppers included – who have become more value-conscious and more quality-conscious, but often still time-poor and therefore interested in learning how to be self-sufficient – as well as efficient – in the kitchen.”
Donal Skehan is a self-taught cook and food photographer, who at the age of 25 has an award winning blog, three cook books – with another one due out in October. The series has been created by TV food and travel specialists, Inproduction, their Managaging Director David Hare also produces other leading cookery programmes. Kitchen Hero goes to air on RTE One at 8.30pm Tuesday 11th June for six episodes before returning in November this year for an additional seven episodes.
There are 410 SPAR stores operating throughout the Republic of Ireland, providing employment to over 12,000 people locally and supporting many local Irish food and beverage suppliers around the country. SPAR Ireland, part of the BWG Group, incorporates the three SPAR formats of SPAR for convenience and neighbourhood shopping, SPAR Express for forecourt shopping and EUROSPAR for family and supermarket shopping. SPAR and its retailers have been recognised through international and local awards programmes for innovation and world class standards in retailing.
