2022 OmniShopper Awards: In-Store Marketing

In-Store Marketing: Digital Activation

Campaign: Make The Trade

Brand: MilkPEP (Milk Processor Education Program)
Retailer Partners: Various
Agency/Solution Provider: The Mars Agency

At the start of 2022, MilkPEP (Milk Processor Education Program) set out to increase fluid dairy milk sales and modernize the perception of milk as a performance beverage for active lifestyles. Needing to stand out on shelf in a sea of non-dairy alternatives, MilkPEP decided to align milk with a modern technology that would appeal to young moms and their kids.

“Make the Trade” welcomed consumers into the futuristic world of non-fungible tokens (NFTs), a blockchain-powered cultural phenomenon that allows people to “own” digital assets such as videos, GIFs, images and even tweets. Three exclusive NFT cards were developed in partnership with NFL football players and sports card manufacturer Panini, with a unique feature allowing the NFTs to digitally rotate to show more content by employing both sides of the card.

An instant-win game and sweepstakes gave consumers the chance to win the cards by engaging with a dedicated interactive microsite. Activation included on-pack milk labels, in-store shelf signage, mobile push notifications, digital add-to-list apps, shopper-rich mobile ads, digital native display ads, and organic and paid social media. Additionally, in-store signage placed in the milk aisle and e-commerce ads on Instacart’s digital shelf helped drive direct conversion.

Milk sales increased by 591 incremental gallons per 1,000 households during the 15-week promotional period. Impressively, 100% of the total sales volume lift reflected increased sales by existing buyers versus new buyers, indicating that households already buying milk were consuming and repurchasing at a much faster rate.

In-Store Marketing: On-Shelf Campaign

Campaign: A Publicly Pubic Story

Brand: Gillette Venus Feminine Intimate Grooming (Procter & Gamble)
Retail Partners: Walmart, Target, Walgreens, Kroger, Meijer, regional food
Agency/Solution Provider: Grey

Gillette Venus was launching a new line of razors intended for the pubic area, an aspect of personal grooming that is rarely talked about openly in society. Despite progress in female body positivity, the pubic area is still stigmatized, and most women resort to using slang terms when referencing it.

Thus, in order to secure broad retailer acceptance of the entire product line and drive sales of the products, Venus created an omnichannel campaign to help destigmatize the subject. The brand featured “pube positive” messaging in various channels and platforms, including in-store merchandising, social media posts and optimized digital assets.

Venus also developed a Feminine Intimate Grooming (FIG) toolkit for P-O-P displays and social commerce. Retailers were required to accept the shelf tray and full portfolio of merchandising tools, which allowed the brand to communicate its message and deliver maximum product benefit to the shopper. FIG provided clear messaging at shelf and assisted shoppers within an area not typically discussed in the in-store environment.

Venus FIG was a success on all fronts. The campaign contributed 56% of Venus’s brand growth and 45% of Procter & Gamble’s North America total female shave care growth in calendar year 2021, driven by shelf wins particularly at Walmart and Target. There was broad retailer acceptance nationally of the new FIG regimen.

In-Store Marketing: Store/Aisle Reinvention

Campaign: Remember the Birthday Card, You’ll Be Glad You Did

Brand: American Greetings
Retail Partner: Meijer
Agency/Solution Provider: VMLY&R Commerce

Knowing that forgetting to give a greeting card is the No. 1 reason people do not give a card when they want to — and that this happens most often during birthdays — American Greetings wanted to motivate Meijer shoppers to stock up for future birthdays by treating the occasion like a holiday.

In Meijer stores, American Greetings store representatives wore campaign aprons and buttons to stop shoppers in their tracks. Card category endcaps and in-aisle cards were replaced by oversized billboard reminders, while secondary displays in complementary categories reminded shoppers to pair cards with wine, sweet treats and flowers. Finally, aisle violators promoted a limited-time Brand Rewards offer through the Meijer mPerks loyalty platform for shoppers to earn $5 when they spent $20.

Targeted emails promoting the offer and linking to the Meijer.com cards page let shoppers purchase for curbside pickup on their next trip. Social media 15-second video ads linked to a Meijer.com shoppable page; on-site digital banners at Meijer.com linked to an American Greetings shoppable page; and location-based mobile ads reminded shoppers to pick up a birthday card.

American Greetings helped Meijer grow the card category 7.9% more than any other retailer in their market during the birthday campaign. The Brand Reward had 2.8 times the
participation than previous mPerks mass one-time offer programs. Painting the store with reminder signage and blanketing the market with media proved successful, as baskets grew to 6.8% over 2019 (the baseline comparison because 2020 foot traffic was down due to the pandemic).

Campaign: Hershey’s Robotic Daypart Endcap

Brand: The Hershey Co.
Retail Partner: Convenience store partners
Agency/Solution Provider: In-Store Experience

Convenience stores (c-stores) are typically open 24 hours, but they have clearly targeted dayparts for specific products. The typical customer doesn’t shop for sweets in the morning or baked goods in the afternoon, yet the stores need to have space for both categories even though they sit dormant for various stretches of the day.

Hershey’s turned to the In-Store Experience team to find a way to satisfy customers with a unique approach to create excitement and engagement, save labor costs and offer valuable space back to the c-store operator. Its solution was a first-ever robotic endcap with moving shelves presenting different products at different times of the day.

With expertise in electromechanical engineering, In-Store Experience designed a system that swaps shelves of baked goods automatically two times per day. The system was designed to be reliable, safe and easy to maintain. A unique single counterbalanced drivetrain swaps all the shelves slowly and quietly via a custom-engineered microcontroller.

The robotic system serves up the right snack at the right time of day and does it without human interaction. The patent-pending shelf automation system creates twice the merchandising opportunities in a single display footprint. Consumers are drawn to the product variety and bold graphics. Retailers also benefit from the reduced waste of perishable baked goods.

The unique endcap combines two food categories into one footprint, creating more than 18-linear-feet of new usable space for c-store operators. Early results showed that consumers are drawn to the endcap, adding both incremental sales and reduced waste to the bottom line.

In-Store Marketing: Product Display (Temporary)

Campaign: Dr. Squatch Walmart Launch Family

Brand: Dr. Squatch
Retail Partner: Walmart
Agency/Solution Provider: WestRock

Dr. Squatch is an emerging brand of skin care and hair care products for men. To promote the retail launch of the Dr. Squatch line at Walmart, WestRock needed to create a family of displays that would bring the brand to life for shoppers in the new natural and organic health section of Walmart stores.

Dr. Squatch appeals to the organic shopper and “wilderness-inspired” side of male consumers by emphasizing the brand’s all-natural ingredients. The products carry masculine scents and are free from estrogenics, which helps alleviate fears that hormones may be in some of today’s personal care products. Dr. Squatch reinforces its male-dominated message on the shelf with the brand’s tagline “Feel like a man, smell like a champion.”

The main components of the display program were an endcap, power wing, four-way display and an inline shelf display. An impactful corrugated endcap utilized humorous elements from the brand’s video ads for strong visual appeal. Walmart allowed Dr Squatch a 48-inch inline section in the category, and WestRock designed a permanent unit that replicated a quarter-section of a fallen log to support the brand’s natural, outdoors identity.

Die-cut hand graphics act as aisle violators, and a removable corrugated graphic block allowed additional product to be loaded, providing flexibility   and futureproofing of the unit. Two versions were produced of the  inline unit — a 10-inch-deep version and a  12-inch-deep version — to accommodate different retail shelf dimensions.

Dr. Squatch became the top-selling soap brand at Walmart during the launch period, and store personnel found it a challenge to keep the displays stocked as a result of the popularity and strong sales of the product.

In-Store Marketing: Product Display (Long-Term)

Campaign: Meijer Cync Display

Brand: GE Lighting, a Savant Company
Retail Partner: Meijer
Agency/Solution Provider: Frank Mayer & Associates

GE was looking for a merchandising solution for its Cync Smart Home products line that would increase awareness and consumer engagement with the products at Meijer stores. The company settled on an idea for a powered lightbulb display that would fit into the Meijer shelving system while featuring a crown molding header that would match the store decor.

“Experience Cync” was the theme designed to showcase a smart home experience that goes beyond lighting, with new products like an indoor smart camera and outdoor smart plug. The display calls attention to the simplicity and flexibility of the Cync products, while a digital monitor plays an educational video loop until a button is pushed for sound. The Cync displays were installed in 275 Meijer locations during the last week of August 2021.

Moving the Cync 4-foot section to the front of the aisle was a way to engage shoppers who were interested in experimenting with smart products for the home that work with a voice assistant or with the Cync App. Since the GE Lighting Cync Display formally debuted in September 2021, the POS sales for the Cync Smart Home Products increased 127%.