The Background
Philadelphia entered 2025 as the clear leader in the Soft White Cheese category, holding 73% Share of Voice (Nielsen, Jan–Dec 2024). Yet despite this dominance, Philadelphia began to lose market share for the first time. The catalyst was Kerrygold’s arrival in cream cheese. While butter remains their core business, their Irish provenance and emotional equity created immediate competitive pressure in a category historically dominated by Philadelphia. The wider context intensified the challenge. Total advertising investment grew by +7.7% in 2024, with +7.3% forecast for 2025. The category was growing at +3%, but Philadelphia was underperforming at +1.6%, and our media budget was originally static year on year.
Crucially, early share erosion signalled a tipping point: waiting risked forcing us into a prolonged defensive cycle, requiring significantly greater investment to regain lost ground. Acting quickly was both commercially responsible and more cost-efficient than attempting to recover scale later. Core needed to pivot fast and use TV tactically to stabilise share, protect leadership and reassert category dominance.
This campaign won for the Best Tactical Use of TV at the 2026 TAMI Awards
The Challenge
To enable the shift, Core secured incremental investment (+119%) and restructured the TV plan around cultural embedment, contextual relevance and high-attention environments. Kerrygold’s entry transformed the competitive dynamic overnight. This was no longer a battle of scale alone; it was a battle for cultural legitimacy.
Kerrygold owned Irish provenance.
Philadelphia owned category authority.
To defend leadership, Core needed to close the cultural gap fast – and do it with smarter TV tactics, not simply more TV weight.
The strategy was to outmanoeuvre Kerrygold by turning TV from a broad reach channel into a precision tool: placing Philadelphia in the highest-attention moments, the most relevant contexts, and the most Irish-feeling executions, so the brand could feel locally embedded while retaining its authority as the original cream cheese. The team rebuilt the approach around three pillars: finding efficiencies, improving delivery quality, and using TV formats beyond standard spots.
1) Localisation to drive cultural legitimacy
Historically, Philadelphia relied on UK-developed creative. Against Kerrygold’s heritage, that risked feeling generic and “imported” at the exact moment consumers were being reminded of a powerful Irish brand. Core therefore advised the creation of bespoke Irish TV stings with Irish voiceover and culturally fluent messaging, deployed inside Irish programming and sponsorship environments. The goal wasn’t just recognition – it was belonging: Irish voices, in Irish shows, around Irish food behaviours. This made TV work harder than pure reach by building relevance and trust at speed.
2) Attention-led TV deployment as an efficiency lever
With a constrained budget baseline, the team couldn’t rely on weight alone. They shifted the buying model from “always-on recency” to “attention as a multiplier,” concentrating investment where ad impact is strongest. Guided by attention research (Nelson-Field / Amplified), they prioritised tactical levers that improve TV efficiency:
- Premium centre-break positioning
- Peak, high-attention programmes
- Appointment-to-view cultural moments
- Top-and-tail dominance around high-engagement shows (e.g., The Traitors Ireland)
- High-indexing programming for Adults 25–44 to reach viewers with natural category affinity
This was a deliberate move away from spreading budget thinly across lower-attention inventory. Focusing on fewer, better contexts – improving the quality of reach, not just the quantity.
3) Contextual food authority through integration, not interruption
TGI showed cream cheese purchase intent over-indexed among cookery viewers (Index 165). Those with purchase intent also over-indexed for liking Donal Skehan (Index 117). That insight created a tactical opportunity to use TV beyond a standard spot plan: embed Philadelphia into trusted Irish food content, at moments of inspiration and planning.
The strategy therefore connected cultural attention (big talkable viewing) with everyday authority (cookery integration), using TV placements and sponsorship to make Philadelphia feel both culturally present and practically indispensable.
The Strategy
The original plan was low-weight, recency-led and asset-limited- fine for maintenance, but not for defending against a culturally dominant Irish challenger. The pivot was to lead with two high-impact TV “tentpoles” that could quickly rebuild cultural relevance, then use an always-on pulse to sustain momentum through the heaviest food months.
1) Cultural Entry Point: The Traitors Ireland (top-and-tail concentration)
Rather than relying on standard spot delivery, Core inserted Philadelphia into one of the most culturally charged viewing moments of the year. The Traitors Ireland was appointment-to-view, socially amplified and emotionally intense, the kind of programme where attention is high and viewers watch with minimal distraction. They secured top-and-tail placements across the launch season to ensure Philadelphia owned the moment audiences tuned in and the moment they processed each episode’s reveal. This was a conscious efficiency tactic: concentrate budget into a single, high-attention property to accelerate mental availability quickly, rather than dispersing spend across lower-attention schedules. It also created a clear tactical “TV story” versus Kerrygold. While Kerrygold could rely on passive heritage cues, Philadelphia actively engineered cultural presence through a high-engagement platform mix (broadcast + RTÉ Player).
2) Culinary Authority: Donal Skehan sponsorship and integration (TV beyond spots)
To close the provenance gap, the team needed credible Irish endorsement in a setting that naturally drives food decisions. TGI data confirmed cookery viewers were high-intent (Index 165) and that Donal Skehan affinity over-indexed among those intending to purchase cream cheese (Index 117). Core therefore secured a fully integrated sponsorship of Donal’s Real Time Recipes, using TV in the way the category is designed to reward, not just ads, but integrated product presence and contextual storytelling.
3) Rebalanced Always-On Linear: pulsed recency that supported the tentpole moments
To sustain presence through food-centric months, Core ran a week-on/week-off pulsing strategy from August to December. The difference versus the original plan was role and placement: linear TV became a stabiliser around cultural and culinary tentpoles, not the primary growth engine.
Weight was concentrated around moments when food planning peaks: Back-to-school routines, Autumn hosting, Festive preparation
By sequencing TV this way, Core built a coherent story: cultural visibility first (Traitors), everyday authority second (Donal integration), and sustained salience third (pulsed linear) — all designed to protect leadership efficiently, rather than simply increasing exposure.
The Results
At the start of 2025, Philadelphia was underperforming the category: Category growth: +3% but Philadelphia growth: +1.6%
Following the tactical TV pivot, performance accelerated.
Commercial impact (end of 2025)
+15% growth in final 12 weeks
+22% growth in final 4 weeks (more than 2x category rate)
Market share increased to 77% (+4.6pp)
Mondelez returned to growth share (+11%)
We did not simply defend leadership – we expanded it in the face of a beloved Irish challenger.
With media inflation rising and an iconic entrant, we used TV differently: localised executions, premium placements, and integration-led sponsorship -shifting from passive maintenance to active market defence. Yes, we secured +119% incremental budget, but the growth came from deploying TV more tactically: concentrating attention, improving placement quality, and embedding the brand in the moments that matter most.
“ When Kerrygold entered the cream cheese category, we knew we were facing a uniquely Irish and emotionally powerful competitor. Simply increasing spend was not the answer. What impressed us most about this approach was the strategic clarity behind the TV pivot- it wasn’t about doing more TV, it was about doing TV differently.
The team quickly built a compelling commercial case for incremental investment that we could go to the business with and, crucially, this plan of action demonstrated how that investment would work harder. By concentrating weight into high-attention cultural moments like The Traitors, embedding the brand authentically within Donal Skehan’s cooking show, and improving placement quality , we transformed TV from a maintenance channel into a growth engine.
The results speak for themselves: we not only arrested share decline, we expanded leadership in a highly competitive year. This plan combined speed, cultural intelligence and tactical precision- delivering both commercial impact and improved media efficiency.
It was a bold pivot at a critical moment, and it paid off.”
Mercedes Maria Zarich Juaristi, Brand Manager for Biscuits & Meals at Mondelez
Credits
Brand:
Philadelphia
Media Agency:
Spark Foundry, Part of Core
Award:
TAMI Awards Winner of Best Tactical Use of TV at the 2026 TAMI Awards