2025 OmniShopper Awards: Digital
Digital
Digital Media Activation (Non-Retail Media)
Campaign: Defense Codes
Brands: Tums, Nexium (Haleon)
Agency/Solution Provider: VML
Haleon’s heartburn brands at Walmart faced a major challenge. While Tums’ performance was strong, premium Nexium was tanking, down 13.7%. This dichotomy reflected a consumer mindset toward heartburn as a condition to be managed, not prevented, and one that Haleon needed to change in order to reverse the Nexium sales slide.
A logical playing field to do this was the "Walmart Football Feaster" — 38.9 million Americans for whom weekend college football is a ritual of consuming spicy foods and beer. For this crowd, buying antacid in advance feels like admitting defeat before the game even started. This mindset naturally favored the impulsive, “buy-it-when-it-burns” nature of Tums, but made the planned, preventative purchase of premium-priced Nexium a non-starter.
Defense Codes used unique promotional codes comprised of college football defensive players’ last names to deliver $5 savings, turning the defensive chore of buying antacids (Tums) and a proton pump inhibitor (Nexium) into a strategic and offensive part of the gameday ritual.
A full-funnel digital commerce program included influencers who delivered pregame “pep talks” and targeted ads that intercepted shoppers as they browsed recipes and scrolled sports content, driving them directly to the DefenseCodes.com engagement site. There, an interactive challenge with a $5,000 sweepstakes incentivized shoppers to enter the name to unlock their $5 offer.
The program reversed Nexium’s decline and grew the total portfolio, achieving a 5% increase in dollar sales versus the prior year. This lift was especially significant as it sustained Tums’ 10% momentum while increasing trip frequency by 9.2% and the entire Digestive Health category at Walmart by 3%.
Mass Media Activation
Campaign: Inmar and Sweet Loren’s: Follow Your Heart
Brand: Sweet Loren’s
Agency/Solution Provider: Inmar Intelligence
In January 2025, Sweet Loren’s partnered with Barbie to create a pink heart-shaped cookie dough. It was a timely, playful innovation that invited shoppers to indulge without compromise, given the product’s gluten-free and allergy free ingredients. Thus, joyful indulgence became the main theme in a "Follow Your Heart" campaign, developed by Inmar working with Barbie, that ran from product launch through Valentine’s Day.
The campaign leveraged a combination of CTV, rich media banners and interstitials, static banners, DOOH and custom ad units across the path to purchase to build awareness and drive conversions. Inmar’s MomentsAI engine helped identify the right time and mindset to deliver messages, using demographic, behavioral and location-based data to serve ads during moments like “morning scroll” and “running errands.” These were aligned with retailer proximities to encourage in-the-moment decision-making.
On social platforms, creator content from lifestyle influencers was used to deepen emotional resonance and extend campaign reach. These tactics reinforced Sweet Loren’s position as a clean-label brand that celebrates both lifestyle and indulgence through inclusive, values-based storytelling. The campaign’s central theme of bold, inclusive joy was expressed across creative formats and audience segments, bringing the Barbie collaboration to life with vibrant visuals and messages that invited shoppers to “follow your heart” and embrace joyful indulgence.
The campaign exceeded benchmarks across all major KPIs, including a 9.2% total sales lift that nearly doubled the 4.7% benchmark for the snack category. Attributed sales totaled $6 million, including over $500,000 in incremental revenue, and ROAS reached an impressive $7.99.
Mobile Activation
Campaign: Irish Spring Uncap A Fresh Adventure
Brand: Irish Spring (Colgate-Palmolive)
Retail Partner: Walmart
Agency/Solution Provider: Arc Worldwide
Consumers of a certain age may recall those iconic Irish Spring TV commercials featuring thick-accented men toiling away in the countryside to a whistling tune. The campaign for the new Irish Spring Body Wash National Parks scents at Walmart has been reimagined for the modern consumer — Gen Z and Millennial men who are either lapsed buyers of Irish spring or new to the brand or category.
Uncap a Fresh Adventure targeted “armchair adventures” who get their daily dose of exhilaration through routine tasks like showering — an escape where the right scent and temperature can transport them to a meditative state. Since Irish Spring is not known for scents of adventure or discovery, the mobile campaign needed to change perceptions of the brand.
Meta and TikTok ads enabled an augmented reality portal, accessible exclusively via mobile, that invited viewers to virtually “step into” iconic national parks. The portal wove together scent exploration, branded social filters and instant commerce, enabling users to seamlessly add products to their Walmart carts within the AR experience.
Mobile-first content, brand posts, memes and users’ ability to generate clips via postcards fueled amplification across social media. It was further boosted by Walmart Connect’s precision targeting, shoppable amplified search, and banners guiding shoppers to a bespoke mobile brand shop.
The campaign met all three major KPIs: 89% of seasonal incremental sales came through new-to-brand shoppers, while 23% were previous competitive brand buyers and 27% of buyers exposed to ads on Walmart’s retailer media network were new to the product set. The success also spurred strong category growth, with 66% of gains coming from people new to the body wash category.
Retail Media Activation
Campaign: AD Retail Media x Mondelez Post Malone Oreo Taste Twist Omnichannel Campaign
Brand: Oreo (Mondelez International)
Retail Partners: Food Lion, Hannaford, Giant Food, The Giant Co., Stop & Shop
Agency/Solution Provider: AD Retail Media
Mondelez wanted the campaign for its new limited-edition Post Malone Taste Twist Oreos to have as much personality as the Grammy-award winning artist himself. It sought a full-funnel approach with a strong digital presence to leverage the collaboration’s built-in appeal to Gen Z and Millennial consumers, many of whom live online.
Yet Malone’s broader fan base, comprising nearly 40 million social media followers, also includes women, parents and even some older demographics. The commingled audience was a perfect fit for the unique “twist” flavor of the new salted caramel and shortbread Oreo cookies, with swirled creme and cookie wafers.
Anchoring the effort was a coordinated ad campaign across digital and audio platforms within Ahold Delhaize's retail media group. High-impact online video placements, on-site/off-site banner ads, immersive in-store audio powered by Vibenomics, and EV charging screens located in Ahold store parking lots all worked together to create a cohesive campaign with long-lasting impact. Creative fused Malone’s iconic style with Oreo’s playful vibe, resulting in an irresistible combo that fans couldn’t ignore.
The results were music to everyone’s ears, with a total of $1.9 million in SKU-attributable sales. Mondelez and Malone brought more than 138,000 lapsed customers back into the fold who hadn’t made a purchase in two years. The promoted SKUs saw a 4.9% lift and $89,500 in incremental sales. AD Retail Media put the spotlight on the entire Mondelez brand, bringing in a 2.9% overall lift and a $1.48 incremental ROAS as of the final tally.
