Revealed: How MasterChef is boosting the sales of Coles products up to 1,400%

Coles is reporting sales spikes of up to 1,400% of ingredients featured in dishes on MasterChef, as the supermarket giant attempts to ride the home cooking wave and close the gap on grocery market leader Woolworths.

Coles’ sponsorship arrangement with Network Ten’s hit show is delivering immediate and continued sales boosts for the supermarket giant.

The company’s sales data reveals that it achieves massive sales increases on everything from pistachios (up 125%), red cabbage (up 89%) to fillet steak (up 56%) the day after the ingredients feature on the show. Sales of pink ling fish spiked by a mammoth 1,421% after it featured last month.

Coles, a subsidiary of Perth-based Wesfarmers, has revealed that its deal with Ten grants it access to a confidential briefing on one of the show’s recipes prior to an episode going to air.

Its marketing team then selects one recipe to feature in its stores that week, promoting it with in-store recipe cards the day after the recipe has aired.

The company’s recent “Feed Your Family for Under $10” TV commercials fronted by celebrity chef Curtis Stone have also been more heavily branded towards MasterChef.

A Coles spokesman said sales growth can be attributed to the increasing trend towards cooking at home as opposed to eating out.

“This trend began during the depths of the GFC. We began to see sales of cheaper meat cuts increase as people began watching their shopping dollar. At the same time, we saw sales of luxury lines, such as premium steak and high-end chocolate and ice-cream, also increase.”

Coles has also secured a sponsorship deal with the Seven Network for the next series of its hit cooking show My Kitchen Rules, with reports the supermarket giant edged out arch rival Woolworths to secure the deal.

Coles hopes that by increasing its sponsorship deals with cooking programs it can grow market share. It currently holds approximately 35% of the Australian grocery and liquor market, behind Woolworths, which holds around 40% of the market.

David Chalke, social analyst at AustraliaSCAN, says Coles has stepped outside of its comfort zone under the leadership of its relatively new UK marketing team and committed a significant slice of its marketing budget to MasterChef, which has paid huge dividends.

“Coles has really been getting its act together in a marketing sense in a big way under the new team,” Chalke says.

Nielsen data shows that Coles spent $23.1 million on advertising in mainstream media between January and May 2010, down 7% on the same period last year. Woolworths, meanwhile, spent $26.9 million, up 2% year-on-year.