Kroger, Mondelez, Disrupt Customer Experience to Deliver Results
Retail media is reshaping both in-store and online commerce, but the customer experience remains key throughout it all.
For Mondelez International’s Oreos, its perennial commitment to remaining playful led to a memorable campaign that was disruptive in a way designed to delight, delivered engagement and drew shoppers to the cookie aisle.
Executives from Mondelez, VML and Kroger Precision Marketing discussed the campaign and rehumanizing the omnichannel journey at P2PI LIVE & Expo.
"Oreo Walks" converted crosswalks outside select Kroger stores from black-and-yellow diagonals to black-and-white stripes (just like a stack of Oreos) that led to a mouth painted near the entryway. Scanning a QR code embedded in the artwork unlocked offers and ultimately drove traffic to the cookie aisle.
"The problem that we're trying to solve is that 80% of shoppers do not enter the cookie aisle when they are in store," said Carly Kerlakian, director of omnichannel activation, Mondelez International. "How can we convince them otherwise and bring that activation to life?"
Speak Oreo
Mondelez International invited fans to visit NameThisOreo.com and read along to a mobile audio experience while using their phone microphones. The cookie part, pronounced "O" and the creme part, "RE," allowed people to make a whimsical chain of syllables. (Cookie-creme-cookie imagery, for example, would be pronounced O-RE-O.) Completing the doggerel, which tended to contain many layers of cookies and creme, unlocked rewards.
This award-winning idea (including a Gold Lion for audio at Cannes Lions) not only built on the brand, but this campaign to get people to "speak Oreo" also held to the brand's playful reputation.
"At the end of the day, it achieved incredible business results," said Mondelez's Carly Kerlakian.
Mondelez having a "mindset that is open to experimentation" is what helped the Oreo walk effort succeed, Kerlakian said. Often that involves learning in real time, and in some cases, failing fast, she admitted. Digital has only accelerated the process, but "we embrace this mindset, to ensure that creativity and commerce can coexist." Oreo, remaining playful, also holds onto "the power to break the norms."
The Kroger campaign elicited "an immediate emotional reaction," said Amanda Bailey, chief client officer at VML. "I think what we've really partnered with the Mondelez team on is … how do you really capitalize off of social trends? And think more creatively about ways to accelerate and capture growth and generate demand. … This created that talkability and gamification that really had cultural relevance and gave a new purpose and meaning to engage with Oreo at Kroger."
Kroger was fully on board, said Barbara Connors, VP of strategy and activation for the retailer, and ready to work through the challenges to optimize the experience, from painting crosswalks to ensuring the process posed no disruptions.
"At Kroger, when we think about any idea that we're bringing to market, we [want to] ensure that we're keeping the customer at the center of every decision we make," Connors said. Customer intelligence, brand and creative can be utilized together to disrupt in a way that makes "meaningful and engaging … but unexpected moments that really can drive a lot of talkability and shareability, laughter, connection, and earned impressions all in the service of building brands.
"Something like this creates an opportunity to truly make a win-win-win, where you are delivering something fun for the customer, you are driving the growth to the retailer, and you're driving the growth to the brand all at the same time."
