Ad students tend the Gardenburger

A team delivers its pitch to instructor Greg Wagner and Stephanie Rupp, Gardenburger marketing manager.

This is an edited version of a story by intern and News-Editorial senior Katherine Crowell that originally appeared in The Denver Post on April 9.

By Katherine Crowell ('06)

The original veggie burger had few competitors when it was developed by Paul Wenner, founder of Gardenburger Authentic Foods Co., 23 years ago.

Once considered a staple by vegetarians and the diet-conscious, frozen burgers from Clearfield, Utah-based Gardenburger and its competitors were left to organic food stores and were virtually impossible to find in mainstream restaurants.

Those days are over. Veggie burgers are available on menus, in major supermarkets and, increasingly, in college dining halls.

With young people devouring the burgers for health and social reasons, Gardenburger is leaning on college students – perhaps some in Boulder – to spearhead and drive its upcoming marketing campaign and to give the company a fresh outlook.

The University of Colorado at Boulder is one of five universities nationwide vying to win an account from Gardenburger to promote veggie burgers to college students.

College students are a "natural target," Gardenburger spokeswoman Melanie Flaherty said. "They eat the products because they are vegetarian, or for health reasons, or for environmental and compassion reasons."

Rachel Sanders keep the product image in the forefront of their team's presentation.

Gardenburger plans to use ideas from at least one university for a new marketing campaign scheduled for the fall.

"We're doing it for free, and it gives our students real-world experience on a real client, not some assignment out of a textbook," said Greg Wagner, adjunct professor of advertising at CU.

In previous years, CU advertising majors have worked on campaigns for Izze soft drinks, Quiznos, Crocs, Frontier Airlines, Mania TV, and Noodles and Co.

The growing market for vegetarian and organic foods nationwide has brought increased competition for Gardenburger, with food giants Kellogg Co. and Kraft Foods Inc. gobbling up small veggie burger manufacturers such as Boca Burgers and Morningstar Farms.

Last October, Gardenburger filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, citing deep discounting from competitors and continued debt.

On March 30, the company emerged from bankruptcy and is now controlled by New York investment firm Annex Capital Management. The company returned to its original name, Wholesome & Hearty Foods Co.

Through the reorganization, the company has introduced a business strategy focusing on its core customer base – the health- and environment-conscious, Flaherty said.

In addition to supermarkets, the company will introduce Gardenburger in new places such as "sandwich chains, K-12 schools and colleges and universities," according to its 2005 annual report.

To those ends, Wagner's 15-student, senior-level class called Advertising Campaigns brainstormed ways to get students at CU-Boulder to eat Gardenburger products and hopes to implement some of its ideas before the semester is over.

Wagner divided the class into three teams, and on April 27 they presented their ideas to Gardenburger's marketing manager, Stephanie Rupp.

"Stephanie commented to the class that the work she saw was breakthrough creative and that it was the best presentation she has seen vs. ideas presented previously by other university journalism schools," Wagner said.

"I told my students that if this was a new business pitch in the real advertising world, I believe they would have taken home the account."