CAN-OPENERS clinked into action en masse over the weekend as Australians voted with their feet in support of struggling food processor SPC Ardmona.
‘SPC Sunday’ echoed throughout the twittersphere and into the Nation’s zeitgeist thanks to a conscientious Newcastle consumer Linda Drummond, who tweeted the idea of SPC Sunday to a friend on Thursday night.
The idea quickly snowballed on social media and was trending on Twitter in Melbourne by Friday afternoon.
According to SPCA, sales of their signature products skyrocketed by 50 per cent in major supermarkets over the past week; however the significance of the campaign has not yet been measured.
Photos of Victorian premier Denis Napthine, SPCA Managing Director Peter Kelly and Shepparton mayor Jenny Houlihan were among those posted on social media eating SPC products in support of the company.
“The Shepparton community and our workers have been overwhelmed by this amazing support and have expressed their heartfelt thanks to everyone who has been involved,” Mr Kelly said.
“It means a lot to everyone at SPC who are all working so hard to turn things around.”
According to social media monitoring company Sysomos, at 5pm Monday afternoon there had been 7441 uses of #SPCSunday hashtag on Twitter.
Overall, Sysomos’ data indicated the hashtag would have popped up 14.6 million times in feeds of the tweeters’ followers.
Mrs Drummond said she was amazed how far her simple idea had reached.
“I’m still shocked at how quickly the support grew and am so proud of the awareness that this simple idea was able to gain” she said.
“I hope this encourages people to continue to support SPC Ardmona and check the labels to see where their food has come from.”
SPCA is currently in talks with the State government after their plea for funding was rejected at a federal level.