2023 OmniShopper Awards: In-Store Marketing
In-Store Marketing: Digital Activation
(Non-Retail Media)
Campaign: Sour Patch Kids Fruit Fight at Circle K
Brand: Sour Patch Kids (Mondelez International)
Retail Partner: Circle K
Agency/Solution Provider: Phoenix Creative Co.
Circle K and Mondelez International needed to revive sales of the Sour Patch Kids brand at Circle K stores, with particular attention being paid to the c-store chain’s core audience of digitally connected, on-the-go Millennial and Gen Z shoppers (ages 18 to 34). The partners turned to one of Circle K’s best assets — the Froster — for a unique in-store activation.
Given strong sales of the new watermelon and strawberry fruit flavors of Sour Patch Kids, Mondelez decided to extend the brand equity with the summertime introduction of a limited-edition strawberry watermelon-flavored Froster available only at Circle K stores. A promotional offer further incentivized co-purchase of the candy and Froster pairing.
The program leveraged GSTV media at Circle K gas pumps to remind shoppers of the bundled offer. In stores, the program caught shopper attention with candy-aisle signage and displays around the Froster machine. At the register, LIFT screen digital engagements drove impulse purchases. Out of store, a mix of streaming radio spots, targeted digital activations and a paid social campaign helped build anticipation and excitement for the new offering at Circle K.
The campaign blew away projections with a 177.48% increase in category sales during the 2022 campaign period versus 2021, as well as a 95% lift in Sour Patch Kids brand sales versus the prior period. A whopping 340,000 incremental display units were sold during the program. Overall foot traffic at Circle K stores was also up 2.4%, offsetting some of the early losses from the COVID-19 pandemic.
In-Store Marketing: On-Shelf Campaign
Campaign: Betr Remedies Mixed Signage Kits
Brand: Betr Remedies
Agency/Solution Provider: Vanguard Companies
Betr Remedies, a socially conscious company that produces a variety of over-the-counter (OTC) medicines, teamed up with Vanguard Packaging on an in-store merchandising solution to help simplify the OTC space. Betr wanted to focus the program on high-quality products that alleviate common ailments — starting with pain and allergies — while reflecting the values that consumers have come to expect from the brands they buy.
At the heart of this effort was a charitable give-back program directed at the 1 in 4 Americans who cannot afford the life-saving drugs their doctors prescribe. For every box of OTC drugs that Betr sells, the company covers the cost of one month of prescription medication to someone who would otherwise have to go without it.
Throughout the program development phase, design and product teams at both companies went through an extensive sampling and revision process. In the end, Betr created the graphics, while Vanguard designed the complementary structure. The colorful, eye-catching branded signage was digitally printed on both sides of 1/8-inch foam core utilizing the HP C500 digital press. Signage was developed and color-coded for their four main SKUs.
In addition, Betr carried over the design elements and messaging from their website to this signage and their social media campaigns on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and X/Twitter.
The signage kits were designed to provide turnkey installation and were cost-optimized to meet the program objectives. From materials and design to printing, fulfillment and execution, the mixed signage kits met their budget expectations and maximized ROI.
In-Store Marketing: Product Display
(Temporary)
Campaign: Dunk into the Oreoverse
Brand: Oreo (Mondelez International)
Agency/Solution Provider: Eastwest Marketing Group
By leaning into the metaverse and the playfulness of its Oreo brand, Mondelez International looked to capture the 80% of 18- to 39-year-olds who agree it is possible to spend meaningful time with others in virtual worlds. Within this group, 60% say that when a brand interacts with them during those virtual experiences, they’re more likely to purchase that brand.
The effort began with a new limited-edition Oreo cookie that featured the two traditional chocolate-flavored base cakes packed with extra levels of creme (which, for the first time, had real ground Oreos mixed in). The “Most Oreo Oreo” was so stuffed with itself, or so the idea goes, that it twisted open a space in the metaverse for Oreo lovers: the Oreoverse.
The Oreoverse — which could be accessed through Meta Horizon Worlds, a dedicated website or by scanning an Oreo package — invited fans to play multiple levels of cookie-themed games with the chance to win deliciously unexpected prizes, including a $50,000 grand prize.
Oreo kicked off the campaign with longtime brand fan (and admitted metaverse novice) Martha Stewart. The homemaking icon hosted a livestream of her Oreoverse experience to show how much fun Oreo fans could have. Supporting POS was designed to look like shoppers could enter a portal to the Oreoverse by shopping the display and featured large images of the new Oreo cookie with the call- to-action, “Dunk into the Oreoverse.” A variety of paid media and organic content creation also supported the effort.
The Oreoverse was a sweet success with 1,500 display placements and more than 4.7 billion total earned media impressions. Sweepstakes entries more than doubled projections to hit over 1.6 million, while Oreo sales jumped 19% in February 2023 on the strength of the promotion.
In-Store Marketing: Product Display
(Long-Term)
Campaign: High Noon Universal Suction Rack
Brand: High Noon
Agency/Solution Provider: Select
Cooler sections across convenience, drug and grocery channels are an untapped area for many beverage brands. Given the variety of cooler units that exist today, E. & J. Gallo identified the space as ripe for promotion for single-serve cans of its popular High Noon hard seltzer brand.
Select was tasked to bring additional visibility and shopability into the cooler section while maintaining the High Noon brand equity and optimizing for as many cooler and store types as possible — all while creating a display that was cost effective and easy to implement. The unit had to allow for quick setup of under five minutes and provide ease of restocking and placement flexibility within the store.
The resulting High Noon universal suction rack has multi-directional suction cups that allow it to be affixed to the inside or outside of a cooler door, or on the right or left side of open cooler endcaps. The High Noon logo is weighted to auto-rotate, so the logo is right-side up regardless of the rack’s orientation. The rack can be rotated to fit vertically, horizontally or angled. The right side holds five 24-ounce cans, while the left side holds five 12-ounce cans.
As part of a larger, ongoing brand equity and visibility, this piece’s purpose was to bring the campaign to a physical place it had not been before. Supporting the brand equity campaign, this universal suction rack provided flexibility to place in a variety of cooler setups and at a variety of orientations, which allowed High Noon single-serve cans to be available chilled in places where they have never been made available to consumers before.
Select concepted, engineered and produced the solution, which has resulted in more than 2,000 units in the market to date.
Campaign: Mondelez Digital Display Test
Brands: Nabisco — Oreo, Ritz, Chips Ahoy, belVita (Mondelez International)
Retail Partner: Walmart
Agency/Solution Provider: MOjO Marketing
Much of the growth in the snack food category comes from female Gen Z consumers and young Millennials ages 25-34. Often referred to as digital natives, these shoppers expect businesses to use technology to enhance experiences in-store and online.
Recognizing this, Mondelez International launched a five-store digital screen test on its 4x4 product displays at Walmart in May 2022. More than 3,000 stores currently have these displays and plastic panels are printed for the displays on a monthly basis. The plastic panels were not sustainable, cost efficient or executed at a high rate in-store, and if programming shifted it was not easy to pivot due to production timelines. Replacing these panels with digital screens would not only eliminate waste, but also the cost of printed panels, reduce production complexity and drive shopper engagement in a prime, permanent store location.
Digital content was developed each month to support shopper marketing activations, seasonal products and savings promotions. Pivoting to digital screens allowed Mondelez brands like Oreo, Chips Ahoy and Ritz to include multiple brand messages in one location and provided engaging content featuring new usage occasions and recipe inspiration.
In order to increase engagement with Walmart shoppers, Mondelez utilized QR codes to drive shoppers to Walmart.com, brand sweepstakes and recipe content. Spanish translations were also added in applicable markets to resonate with bilingual shoppers.
Overall, the results were strong and Mondelez and Walmart elected to roll out the test to 100 additional stores by Q4 2023. The digital display stores currently have a 4.9% average incremental lift worth an incremental $668.23 per store per week. If the lift average is maintained, it will be worth $3.5 million incremental sales per year in the 100-store rollout.
In-Store Marketing: Store/Aisle Reinvention
Campaign: Saucony Store-in-Store
Brand: Saucony
Agency/Solution Provider: Select
Saucony wanted to overhaul its approach to aisle reinvention in a way that would give the brand significantly more retail presence, while also advancing placement equity at footwear retailers across the country. Working with Select, Saucony chose a modular store-in-a-store experience that allowed each retail account team to decide which pieces to include and how big the overall design footprint should be.
Select’s modular system created options for accounts to promote Saucony products from footwear to apparel using lightweight elements, including racks, stands, tables and benches — all aligning with the same clean, sleek look that Saucony’s brand represents.
Each element has been specially designed to live together as a set or as individual elements, and anywhere in between. With interchangeable magnetic panels, graphics can be updated from brand equity visuals to campaign- or product-specific art with ease. Pieces were engineered to transition from slatwall to standalone rack easily, and many elements (like tables and benches) nest to save space while still allowing for functionality and usability.
The creation and delivery of more than 10,000 units across the U.S. and international locations allowed for long-lasting flexibility for retailers and guaranteed Saucony placement as campaigns were updated and new products were launched.
Campaign: Evo-izing the PC aisle
Brand: Intel
Agency/Solution Provider: Arc Worldwide
Intel’s surveys suggested that Gen Z and Millennial PC buyers would pay more for a laptop that was superior in terms of connectivity, battery life, productivity and creation features. Yet 74% of these buyers didn’t know that Intel’s premium Evo laptop existed upon entering the store.
Intel’s solution came in the form of new interactive displays, dubbed Immersion Zones. These units were designed to break through a sea of sameness in PC aisles and demonstrate the full extent of Evo’s innovative features, for which customers would be paying at least $200 more per device. Since PC shoppers usually take weeks or months to make a purchase, Intel needed to take customers through the entire decision funnel in a matter of minutes.
Hologram-like imagery in the display’s transparent base appeared to push images out into the aisle to meet shoppers as they approached. Each PC came loaded with point-of-sale software that detects the device specs and generates a custom interactive demo for a real-world test drive experience. Next, an interactive touchscreen with a few key questions about how the customer will use the laptop produced a recommendation for the best version for that buyer.
To seal the deal, Intel created an in-store first: a one-button prompt connected the shopper to a live on-screen advisor to answer questions, help shoppers make their initial device selection and guide them to check-out.
U.S. retailers vastly exceeded program objectives by achieving a massive 40% increase in Evo PC sales after installing the Immersion Zones. In addition, the price shoppers were willing to pay for Evo devices increased 19%, equating to an average of $250 per device.