Mr Fruitness starts Phase 2 on a high

Mr Fruitness is winning another important challenge. The muscle-bound, health-conscious superhero is the brainchild of a European project funded by the Centro Servizi Ortofrutticoli, the European Union and the Italian government to curb childhood obesity in Austria, Germany, the UK, Poland and Sweden, by promoting the consumption of fruit.

The “Fruitness, enjoy it!” campaign is yielding extremely positive results one year since it entered Phase 2, during which time a number of initiatives have been implemented including the complete restyling of the campaign website - fruitness.eu.

An analysis of web traffic to the site has revealed some significant data: in the last year of the project, the number of unique visitors totalled 9,755, more than the number recorded in the first year of Phase 1 of the project. As regards the type of users, 80.26% of visitors to the site in the first year of Phase 2 were first-time visitors, while 19.68% were returning visitors. The superhero also has international appeal, attracting people from over 120 countries worldwide to the website, most of them located in the target countries of Austria, Germany, the UK, Poland and Sweden. In particular, the majority of visits took place during the period from July to September, coinciding with the launch of the revamped fruitness.eu website.

The latest mission awaiting Mr Fruitness is no less demanding than his previous challenges: in the five countries targeted by the project, the superhero will be appearing in large retail chain stores throughout the winter season in an effort to encourage children to eat pears and kiwifruit.

EU funding for the Mr Fruitness project was extended for another three years in September 2009 owing to the excellent results achieved in the first triennial campaign, during which the various awareness-raising activities starring the superhero in the green leotard generated 21 million leads.