Sainsbury's to focus on in-store activity for Active Kids

by Ed Kemp, Marketing 09-Sep-08, 12:00

LONDON - Sainsbury's is to overhaul its Active Kids family and schools scheme, and has hired Initials to handle supporting in-store activity.

It hired the agency following a competitive pitch process involving several agencies including Wax Communications, the previous incumbent.

Sainsbury's claims it has donated more than £52m worth of sports, cookery and activity equipment to schools, Scouts and Girl Guide groups across the country since launching the scheme nearly five years ago.

Rob Crumbie, Sainsbury's head of sponsorship, said the scheme needed to be refreshed and developed to ensure it remained competitive in an economic environment where customer loyalty is becoming more important.

The supermarket extended its Active Kids offering earlier this year by launching food information packs called 'Active Kids get cooking'.

The booklets, which encourage children to eat more healthily, were made available to teachers in June.

The scheme, which launched in 2004, also provides instructors with tools on citizenship.

Rival supermarket Tesco has run a voucher-based 'Sports for Schools' scheme, but earlier this year announced that it planned to merge this with its Computers for Schools programme. From next year, consumers will be able to collect vouchers for both IT and sports equipment.