McCormick Feeds Consumers Targeted Ads

Sparks, Md. — No naked chicken. It's the McCormick & Co. mantra, because retail shoppers in a rush will always buy their chicken and potatoes but sometimes forget the flavoring, says Andrew Foust, digital business development manager.Online, however, McCormick has found a shopper more open to planning meals and searching for new recipes. "The digital consumer actually spends, on aggregate in a year, 20% more on flavor," Foust says. "If you look at an e-commerce buyer, they spend upward of 70% more. So we know these types of buyers are high-value consumers, and that's why we look to invest in digital."Working with ShopRite, Kroger and Winn-Dixie, McCormick is running a geo-targeted, online ad solution to help drive the more receptive digital consumer to the store. Called "Lightbox," the ad solution was developed with MyWebGrocer, Winooski, Vt., and is part of the online circular company's Brand Activation Suite. How the ad works is if a consumer runs a Google search for "steak recipes," for example, a paid ad will appear on that Google search page that details a sale on steaks at ShopRite. When a consumer clicks on that paid ad, a Lightbox ad pops up that is geo-targeted to her location and gives the nearest store at which to purchase the steak, as well as a full recipe that recommends Lawry's and other seasonings be added to her shopping list or ShopRite cart.Lightbox ads work with paid search ads and display ads on websites such as Gourmet.com, Allrecipes.com and Epicurious.com. "We buy against the targeted audience," Foust says. "Wherever they are, we're displaying the ad."Jill Pratt, vice president of marketing, consumer products, at McCormick, says these ads are a great way to pair a trigger product, like chicken or steak, with a McCormick flavor solution – an idea that actually comes from an offline insight that happens to be more effective online. "Our shopper marketing research came back and said when consumers are thinking about what they're going to make for dinner, they say, 'What kind of chicken am I going to have tonight?' So that's why it's a trigger for what they're going to make that night or a trigger for their shopping trip. We've used that message with our retailers to say, 'Hey, you really need to place our flavoring products near the meat counter, because that's where people are looking for solutions for their proteins."She continues, "What I think is so exciting about this is we see how people are doing more preplanning before they go to the store and they search more online for new recipes, so we're able to now drive them into the store. It's great for us, but it's also great for the retailers because it increases their sales of those trigger products, which are their perimeter products and very important to the equity of their stores."McCormick and MyWebGrocer launched the Lightbox ad solution early this year, doing a "test and learn" with taco and chili seasonings, which better associate with meals for the cooler months. "We've since scaled it up throughout the summer, focusing now on our grilling products, and of course heading into back to school and the holidays to make it even bigger and better," Foust says.Of course, moms are planning a meal every day, so Pratt says it's a 365-day program. Foust says the goal is to get better at personalizing flavors to shoppers. "So not only what's on sale but knowing the particular flavors you like and how can we better message you based on that."MyWebGrocer's Brand Activation Suite operates as a platform of products for brands to reach consumers on a retailer's online circular, on Facebook landing pages and optimized landing pages, as well as through mobile phones and emails from the retailer. McCormick is the first brand to use the suite and Lightbox.

McCormick Feeds Consumers Targeted Ads

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