P2PI Nov/Dec 2024

NOV/DEC 2024 P2PI.com

OMNISHOPPER AWARDS

Showcasing the 22 winning campaigns

WOMEN OF EXCELLENCE

Swati Bothra is Executive of the Year

THE GROWTH O

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NOV/DEC 2024

P2PI.com

HISPANIC GROCERY

Contents

16

COVER STORY

Nov/Dec 2024 VO LU M E 3 7 | I S S U E 6

FEATURES

Hispanic Grocery We examine the growing impact of Latino consumers in the grocery channel as well as marketers’ needs to deepen their connections with these shoppers.

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Women of Excellence: Executive of the Year Swati Bothra, who built the BJ’s Wholesale Club retail media program from the ground up, was named this year’s top executive at P2PI LIVE & Expo.

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2024 OmniShopper Awards We showcase the 22 winning campaigns — across 12 categories — that engaged shoppers and drove results.

Path to Purchase Institute Magazine (USPS 4568, ISSN 2835-0219) is published bi-monthly by EnsembleIQ, 8550 W. Bryn Mawr Ave., Ste. 225, Chicago, IL 60631. Subscription rate for the U.S.: $96 one year; $186 two year; $17 single issue copy (pre-paid only); Canada and Mexico: $138 one year; $258 two year; $20.40 single issue copy (pre-paid only); Foreign: $138 one year; $258 two year; $20.40 single issue copy (pre-paid only). Periodical postage paid at Chicago, IL 60631 Copyright 2024 by EnsembleIQ. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. POSTMASTER: send address changes to Path to Purchase Institute magazine, 8550 W. Bryn Mawr Ave. Ste. 200, Chicago, IL 60631.

Contents DEPARTMENTS

5

Editor’s Note Change Is in the Air

8

6

P2PI Member Spotlight

8

Retail Media Summit UK Recap of October event

12 Brand Watch Schwarzkopf at Walmart

14 In-Store Experience Amazon Grocery

43 Activation Gallery New Product Launches

14 12

46 Insider Intel Philadelphia, Thomas’ team up

43

46

Editorial Advisory Board Dana Barba The Lemon Perfect Co.

Mia Croft Native

Stephen Bettencourt CVS Health

Christiana DiMattesa Houser Under Armour

Lianna Cabrera L’Oreal Paris Cosmetics

Gregg Dorazio Giant Food (Ahold Delhaize)

Paige Dunn FIJI Water, JUSTIN Vineyards & Winery, Landmark Vineyards & JNSQ Wines

Travis Harry Home Depot

José Raul Padron The Hershey Experience

Tony Fung Bob Evans Farms

Carter Jensen General Mills

Kelly Sweeney The J.M. Smucker Company

Brendon Lynch Jushi Holdings

Joseph Vizcarra The Coca-Cola Company

Patrick Hallberg Apple

Follow the Path to Purchase Institute here: 4 l Nov/Dec 2024

Editor’s Note

Change Is in the Air Things are changing. I am writing this Editor’s Note just weeks after the U.S. election — the ramifications of which are already reverberating across industries and economies around the globe. The effects of the political machine run far and wide, extending all the way into the psyche of the consumer.

This was something I was reminded of as I was sitting in a conference hall at P2PI LIVE, a random Wednesday in November, at 1:35 p.m., when I heard a factoid during The Harris Poll keynote that was particularly intriguing: 62% of consumers say U.S. politics is a significant source of stress in their lives.

As Michele Salomon explained the disconnect present in the state of mind of today’s shoppers, she highlighted how the line between the consumer brain and political brain has become blurred. As brands, retailers and companies have taken increasingly bold stances on political issues and affiliations, it’s forcing consumers into a stressful mindset shift along the shopper journey. Shoppers aren’t just purchasing a box of crackers or paper towels; they are, in essence, voting. Everyday purchase decisions that might have been trivial in the past, those same actions today can carry with them a much greater deal of gravitas.

Consumers are significantly more stressed than ever, so what does that mean for commerce? What does this mean for brands and retailers as they think about marketing to and engaging with shoppers who are overloaded with socio-political stress, information and decisions?

And speaking of information and decisions … consumers are increasingly seeking out ways to deal with the deluge of decision-making and simplify their lives. A well-touted stat is that the average person makes around 35,000 decisions a day. Of course, many of those decisions are automatic, subconscious ones, but that doesn’t change the fact that our access to information is greater than ever before and we are in constant decision mode. Wouldn’t it be nice then, if someone could just make these decisions for us?

Enter AI. We might not need — or want — help with certain decisions. (I, for one, am not letting AI style my wardrobe, but I’m sure there are plenty of people who would quite like that!) But what about more routine and less emotional choices, like selecting the best new portable battery pack from hundreds on the market? Shoppers are wellpoised to adopt AI-assisted shopping — and the tech industry has been listening.

In mid-November, Perplexity Pro users in the U.S. were introduced to an AI commerce experience, Buy with Pro. How does it work? You ask Perplexity a shopping question, then receive objective results and product cards showing the most relevant items, along with key details presented in a visual format, eliminating the need to scroll product reviews and allowing you to view comparisons quickly. The cards are not sponsored — they’re unbiased recommendations, tailored to your search by AI. This new discovery experience is powered by platform integrations, including Shopify, and allows shoppers to check out directly on the website or app.

The AI shopping assistant nails the issue consumers are facing right on the head. Too many decisions? Too much stress? Let AI simplify your life. Shoppers are much less wary of AI than they were even two years ago. Perhaps that’s because they’ve been dabbling in it firsthand recently, using it creatively to do everything from making vacation itineraries to generating futuristic art. (Have you ever seen a pink giraffe? I have, thanks to AI, and now I need one.)

And so, it should come as no surprise that many shoppers will be quick to adopt to the ways that AI is going to completely transform commerce. That change isn’t on the horizon anymore. That change is here.

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BRAND MANAGEMENT Senior Vice President, Brand Director Eric Savitch esavitch@ensembleiq.com

EDITORIAL Editorial Director Jessie Dowd jdowd@ensembleiq.com Executive Editor Tim Binder tbinder@ensembleiq.com Managing Editor Charlie Menchaca cmenchaca@ensembleiq.com Digital Editor Jacqueline Barba jbarba@ensembleiq.com Senior Editor Cyndi Loza cloza@ensembleiq.com Editor, Member Content Heidi Bitsoli hbitsoli@ensembleiq.com Contributing Writers Michael Applebaum, Ed Finkel, Erika Flynn, Jenny Rebholz, Bill Schober

ADVERTISING SALES & BUSINESS Associate Director, Brand Partnerships Arlene Schusteff 847.533.2697, aschusteff@ensembleiq.com Regional Sales Manager Orlando Llerandi 678.591.8284, ollerandi@ensembleiq.com

MEMBER DEVELOPMENT Director of Retail Patrycja Malinowska pmalinowska@ensembleiq.com Sr. Director, Membership Development Nicole Mitchell 203.434.5733, nmitchell@ensembleiq.com Membership Experience Manager Ann Estey aestey@ensembleiq.com Manager, Membership Development Brady O’Brien bobrien@ensembleiq.com Membership Experience Manager Heather Kurtik 724.553.0093, hkurtik@ensembleiq.com

DESIGN/PRODUCTION/MARKETING Art Director Catalina Gonzalez Carrasco cgonzalezcarrasco@ensembleiq.com Production Director Michael Kimpton mkimpton@ensembleiq.com Marketing Manager Mackenzie Fennell mfennell@ensembleiq.com

SUBSCRIPTION SERVICES List Rental mbriganti@anteriad.com Subscription Questions contact@pathtopurchase.com

CORPORATE OFFICERS Chief Executive Officer Jennifer Litterick Chief Financial Officer Jane Volland Chief People Officer Ann Jadown Chief Operating Officer Derek Estey

JESSIE DOWD, Editorial Director P2PI.com

Member Spotlight

Meet the Marketers HERE’S A SNAPSHOT OF INDUSTRY LEADERS FROM THE P2PI MEMBER COMMUNITY.

ELIZABETH JOHNSON CEO Pathformance

MICHAEL LEBHAR CEO & Co-Founder SellCord

Main job responsibilities: My role involves steering the company’s strategic direction, advancing innovation and ensuring we deliver value to our clients. I lead our team to develop industry-leading measurement solutions that help brands understand the true impact of their media investments. This includes working closely with partners, clients and internal teams to stay ahead of the curve in the ad-tech landscape. My responsibilities also include championing our company culture, mentoring future leaders and finding ways to scale our operations effectively.

Main job responsibilities: Direct the company’s vision, start and lead new divisions, and lead our partnership as well as marketing efforts.

How you help clients win during uncertain times: Accountability and adaptability are key during uncertain times. We help our clients optimize every media dollar by offering precise measurement solutions and actionable insights that drive better decision-making. With increased pressure to prove ROI, our solutions show what’s working, where to pivot and how to gain an edge even in fluctuating markets. Our value is that we help clients adjust strategies to meet shoppers’ evolving behaviors and drive incremental growth — even when budgets are tight.

How you help clients win during uncertain times: Efficiency with media spend is now more important than ever. We work with our clients to focus on the foundational elements of catalog optimization, which can help each dollar spent go further.

New marketing tactic that you use: Creating high-impact, small-scale events.

Instead of broad-reaching networking events, we have been focusing on smaller gatherings where brands can discuss challenges and opportunities openly, leading to meaningful conversations and strategic partnerships. This approach allows us to build deeper relationships and get closer to our clients’ evolving needs.

New marketing tactic that you use: We have created spending algorithms to build up spend and drive a higher share of voice ahead of key events when cost per click (CPC) rates are higher. This way, we can minimize our ad spending during peak CPC times.

Best career advice you’ve received: “Stay curious and stay connected.” Early in my career, I was advised to keep asking questions and to seek perspectives from those around me: Peers, clients and colleagues. This advice has helped me gain valuable insights and build a strong network of support and mentorship.

Best career advice you’ve received: Doing one thing exceptionally well is better than doing 10 things in a mediocre fashion.

Memorable aha moment in your career: When I realized that having data is only half the battle. It’s about how you interpret that data and tell the story behind it.

Shifting focus to actionable insights and strategic recommendations in real time has helped to amplify the value we deliver to our clients.

Memorable aha moment in your career: Walmart Marketplace is like the opportunity that Amazon presented to sellers five years ago.

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Trion Industries, Inc. TrionOnline.com info@triononline.com 800-444-4665

Trion is a recognized Non-Compete Vender in display design, supplying only components and custom elements to the trade. | ©2019 Trion Industries, Inc.

RETAIL MEDIA SUMMIT UK 2024 R E C A P

Catch up on what you missed at the Path to Purchase Institute and SMG event in London.

B Y M A R K FA I T H F U L

THANK YOU! A special thanks to our RMS UK 2024 recap sponsor Kevel, as well as our event sponsors:

AppsFlyer Advertima Clear Channel Clinch Future Proof Insights Jivox 8 l Nov/Dec 2024

Koddi LiveRamp Mirakl Particular Audience PubMatic Qsic

Rokt Savi Stratacache Zitcha

T

he second Retail Media Summit UK took place in Battersea, southwest London, on Oct. 16, as the Path to Purchase Institute and SMG put together a packed agenda to discuss the evolution of retailer media networks in the U.K. While the industry is still nascent, more U.K. retailers have created retail media networks (RMNs) since the debut event landed in Shoreditch last year — and a growing number of major brands are spending their marketing budgets on in-store and out-of-home advertising.

The sold-out event came to London to provide more about the future of RMNs and to discuss the main opportunities and challenges as the industry emerges as a major channel to reach consumers within the retail ecosystem.

You’ll see some pretty interesting things from us this Christmas.”

From left to right: Cyndi Loza, senior editor, P2PI; Katie Streeter Hurle, chief strategy officer, SMG; and Fiona Blades, president and chief experience officer, MESH Experience

Jessica Myers, chief customer officer of The Very Group

Can Retail Media Networks Meaningfully Differentiate in an Increasingly Competitive Market?

Opening speaker Jessica Myers joined online department store retailer The Very Group as chief marketing officer with a strong financial services background behind her, including financial services regulatory experience, which she said was key given the huge amount of data The Very Group holds on its customers.

“Very Group has 4.5 million customers and is a pure-play department store, with the majority of customers paying in installments,” said Myers, now the retailer’s chief customer officer. “We have a lot of data, so the duty of care is immense.”

Myers said that she started by looking at where growth would come from, unlocking the brand, communications with the customer, and now reimagining the company’s retail media network.

“That was through a brand refresh, creating a single brand platform for us and for the brands we work with,” she said. “The scale of data points we have, about 500 for each customer, means that understanding how to use that is really important in gaining shopper insights.”

Myers said that the key things that brands are looking for when advertising on The Very Group’s site are measurement, plus customer insights, which means that retailers need to provide tools to demonstrate why they should invest with your business.

“We’re on a growth trajectory,” she said, “scaling and being flexible, bringing creative solutions, because brands are calling out for innovation.

Should Retail Media Stop Trying to Own Everything in the Funnel and Focus on Its Strengths — Conversion?

The Path to Purchase Institute and SMG teamed with marketing effectiveness consultancy MESH Experience on a consumer study focused on the upper funnel impact of retail media networks. Findings were unveiled at the event during a session moderated by Cyndi Loza, P2PI senior editor.

“We know a ton about how retail media helps brands from a sales-driving perspective. We know a lot about how it impacts bottom of the funnel metrics. We’ve measured over 15,000 campaigns, and we’ve done that for over 2,000 different brands, across 300 different media channels. So we’ve got tons of that data,” said Katie Streeter Hurle, SMG chief strategy officer. “But actually what’s really interesting is that that data is now very broad and it’s also very deep, and so it’s helping us to understand the sales-driving effects of retail media campaigns in a way that is helping brands make better investing choices moving forward.”

Streeter Hurle said that data is helping advertisers shift their spend and look at the most effective ROI, with more brands investing in retail media measurement strategies, improving their ROI over time as well.

“It’s quite normal as an advertiser, when you start investing in retail media, to be at breakeven point. But if you’re investing in retail medium measurement, maybe you’re using that data to improve the campaign planning and you’re feeding that into every campaign that you run, to start improving your ROI incredibly dramatically,” she added.

P2PI.com

Fiona Blades, MESH Experience president and chief experience officer, said of the research that capturing people’s experiences in real time, then asking them to become a researcher and to record whenever they see, hear or experience anything to do with a brand, allowed the company to contrast that brand awareness with consumers who do not have that experience.

“That’s how we’re able to unpick exactly what causes a change in brand perception, as opposed to what just correlates with it. So what we did for this particular study is we’ve really focused on the paid retail media experiences and captured people’s emotions in the moment, and we can see how positive, persuasive and relevant these experiences are,” Blades said.

She added that this showed a big impact on advocacy, with retail media affecting people’s perception of brand awareness and in-store experiences having an even higher impact than overall consumers. “That’s around five times the impact that we’re seeing from people who do not have retail media experiences,” she said. “From my perspective, this really does turn things on their head. You know, retail media is an untapped powerhouse when it comes to building brands.”

Is Retailer First-Party Data a Long-Term Sustainable Investment for Brands?

Leila Lazreq, L’Oreal chief digital officer, U.K. and Ireland, set out her five key principles for ensuring that brand investment sees long-term returns: 1. Collaboration. Collaboration means a new approach. We’re moving on from a simple retail and CPG relationship, and everyone has a little bit of homework to do.

2. Competitive excellence. RMNs are not competing with Amazon from a CPG perspective or expectations. The online marketplaces have created “walled gardens.” Retailers can offer multiple touchpoints, but they need to prove undeniable impact.

3. Insights.

RMNs have opened a new window into consumer behavior; think audience as a service.

4. Activated brand marketing. Right now RMNs are still focused on the lower funnel, but as advertisers we still need the full funnel. The future will be less about the funnel and more about the ability for advertisers to reach customers on every channel.

5. Measurement. This has to work across channels. It requires strong scrutiny and honest assessment across Leila Lazreq, chief digital officer, L’Oreal buckets of spend.

10 l Nov/Dec 2024

Jenny Holleran, group director of media, Kroger Precision Marketing

Can Retailers Really Save Brand Marketing?

Jenny Holleran, Kroger Precision Marketing group director of media, opened the afternoon session by underlining the potential of retail media networks, something which the U.S. grocery operator has been at the forefront of, bolstered by its rich first-party loyalty card data.

“One of the unique things about retail media is, as retailers, we care just as much as the brands do about selling product. So there’s something really special about retail media, and we should be proud to have retail media networks, and for brands to really want to be a part of those retail media networks,” Holleran said, while stressing that consumers are not as loyal as they once were and are also dealing with a fragmented media environment.

“This causes a lot of frustration for brands. Not many of them know how to thrive in this industry.

Luckily, retailers are at the epicenter of the media space,” she said.

Kroger operates 2,700 locations across the U.S., reaching more than 60 million households, and drives $150 billion in sales annually, with 96% of sales captured through its loyalty account.

However, she was skeptical about the claims made about how many RMNs have sprung up.

“The most recent stat is that there are 200 global retail media networks. I don’t totally buy that. Anyone can put out a press release and say that they have a retail media network. It takes a lot of time, a lot of talent and a lot of energy to truly stand up a retail media network that is powerful and a big piece of that is based on data,” she stressed.

Kroger has built a media ecosystem on first-party data, with retail media as a channel, in-store and on its website, which she described as a “layer within programmatic real estate.”

“It’s a critical component, because we so easily put retail media into a box. Is it conversion driving? Is it awareness driving? Should it play in the full funnel? Yes, to all of that. It can be all of those things, because it’s not just one thing,” Holleran added. “Retail media should be one of the very first places that a brand goes as they’re trying to understand performance and engagement, instead of looking at widespread impressions.”

“Demographic targeting is completely outdated. You are what we buy.

It doesn’t matter my age, my gender, where I live. It matters what I’m purchasing,” she said. “We have gone digital fi rst. A lot of people have asked, ‘Why would you go digital fi rst? You have the relationships with the stores.’ And I say, why would you not go digital fi rst? We have all the fi rst-party data.”

Not all ROI is built equal; what we should be focused on is incremental ROI and uplift.

We break it into three building blocks: Build a bank of strong ROI performers; understand use of channels; and work toward an omnichannel approach to campaigns.

— Bianca Hall, SMG senior insight director, during her session on “The ROI Obsession: Will Short-Term Wins Always Steal the Show?”

“We’ve just passed 4,000 digital screens across Tesco in the U.K., and that scale is only growing.

We were the first retailer to put ads on our scanners and shop devices, which is massive, 70 million transactions across that in the last year.

And we’ve just started testing location-based ads on that. There’s a huge amount of innovation going into the store, and bringing that, what was traditionally cardboard, to life and allowing us to feed data into everything in-store.”

Ollie Shayer, Boots omni-media director:

“We’re seeing more and more, the way in which you can connect to different parts of the funnel with already tailored data, so across the funnel, from channels that are more traditionally upper funnel, but equally also the kind of objectives that we’re seeing brands talk to us about. Not just commercial objectives, but actually objectives that are about driving awareness.”

Mandy Bobrowski, Organix marketing director: Left to right: Jessie Dowd, Path to Purchase Institute; Ollie Shayer, Boots; Mandy Bobrowski, Organix; Jonathan Dunkley, Tesco Retail Media; and Michele Dainty, Pladis Global

Are Full-Funnel Campaigns Just Hype?

One of the key debates across the day was over how the different channels fitted, how their combined impact could be distilled and measured, and what part of the funnel each channel operated within. Jessie Dowd, Path to Purchase Institute editorial director, asked four experts about whether full funnel was achievable or hype, and here’s what they said.

Jonathan Dunkley, Tesco Retail Media agency group head:

“We’re trying to stitch together channels from what’s been built for the last 25 years. So there is a lot of focus from a Tesco media perspective on building out our systems and processes to bring together as many channels for insights and planning, buying and measuring. There’s a lot of investment going in to kind of democratize the buying and really put it in people’s hands.

And there’s a really big push from our end on measurement as well.”

“We announced that for our measurement program going into next year, we’re going to look at how we can achieve omnichannel attribution. It’s not that easy to do, but something that’s going to be critical to us, building that success and demystifying some of this going forward.”

“You start every campaign with some sets of objectives, and sometimes that doesn’t need to go all the way through the funnel. Play that matrix of time, costs and quality, and where you want to invest your time and the quality of the messaging that you want to be delivering.”

“We’re doing lots of these already full-funnel campaigns — that can be massive executions across in-store and online — and we’ve seen that actually if you run three channels, you’ll find you get more than four times the sales rise over running just one.”

Michele Dainty, Pladis Global, head of shopper marketing, UK & Ireland:

“I don’t think it’s hype. It’s really key to make sure that you’ve got that red thread going all the way through to the point of purchase. You can have a really, really small funnel campaign, or you can go with an all singing, all dancing, everywhere campaign. So it’s about that balance and what the overarching objectives are.”

P2PI.com

Brand Watch

Henkel Shines in Walmart ‘Takeover’ THE COMPANY’S SCHWARZKOPF BRAND ENLISTS PARTNERS FOR A FULL OMNICHANNEL CAMPAIGN.

BY CHARLI E M EN CHAC A

Henkel’s Schwarzkopf brand brought together multiple activities this year for an immersive experience at Walmart celebrating home hair coloring.

The “Schwarzkopf Keratin Blonde: More Blonde. Less Breakage*.” launch campaign encouraged trial and purchase of the products from March 26 through July 1. [The asterisk in the campaign name communicates “with up to 80% less breakage versus untreated hair.”] The target market primarily included female Walmart shoppers looking for a convenient and effective home hair color solution, says Cassie Ross, senior customer marketing manager at Henkel.

The campaign was informed by several insights and leveraged the popularity of color analysis trends to provide shoppers with personalized recommendations and enhance their experience, she says.

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“By offering both an in-store and digital experience that combined educational content, interactive elements and social proof through before-and-after photos and influencer partnerships, the campaign aimed to address shopper needs for guidance, assurance and convenience in the home hair coloring process,” Ross says.

In-store signage at Walmart for the program included shelf strips placed in the hair color aisle to showcase key Schwarzkopf Keratin Blonde benefits.

On the retail media side, Walmart Connect launched a 12-week supporting activation including onsite and offsite display banner ads, Walmart Facebook and Instagram social ads, and a homepage takeover and gallery ad placement on Walmart.com.

Henkel also worked closely with Walmart Connect on the fi rst-ever Walmart store Salon Takeover in Fayetteville, Arkansas, on March 26 (known as “National Good Hair Day”). The brand leased a pop-up space inside the Walmart location, transforming it into a full-service custom salon. Four more takeover events followed at stores across Texas and Florida in April.

An additional “Color on Tour” event had a full-service salon on wheels in front of the store entrance at the Fayetteville activation. The tour also traveled to 16 spots.

Gratsy supported all takeovers and assembled sample gift boxes for Walmart+ members. The boxes had inserts with a QR code leading to a custom Breaktime Media digital experience. A separate version of the experience was accessible to all shoppers, complete with an opportunity to enter a sweepstakes for a chance to win up to $2,000 in prizes.

Breaktime Media’s personalized interactive content contributed to the success of the campaign by increasing visibility, awareness and shopper engagement, Ross says. Tens of thousands of unique users entered the experience with all steps exceeding program benchmarks, according to Breaktime reporting.

“The quiz saw a 92.3% participation rate and the event photos had thousands of views, demonstrating overwhelming engagement with the brand and content,” Ross says.

There were nearly 30,000 entries to the sweepstakes, and more than $750,000 in products added to digital Walmart carts, she says. Mars United Commerce and Outerkind also contributed to the campaign.

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In-Store Experience

Amazon Grocery in Chicago JUST ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF HOW AMAZON IS DIVERSIFYING ITS FOOTPRINT AND DOUBLING DOWN ON GROCERY.

BY JACQU ELI N E BARBA

In October, Amazon debuted a small-format grocery test store in the same high-rise that already houses a Whole Foods Market in Chicago’s River North neighborhood. The scaled-down grocery store, called Amazon Grocery, is located on the first floor of One Chicago Building (at 14 W. Superior Street) adjacent to escalators leading to the Whole Foods on the second floor.

The space spans just 3,800 square feet and caters to shoppers making quick trips. It stocks more than 3,500 products, including grab-and-go meals and coffee as well as household and personal care essentials that aren’t offered at Whole Foods, which focuses on natural and organic products.

The experiment is another example of how Amazon is diversifying its footprint and doubling down on grocery. This store opened just a month after Whole Foods opened its Daily Shop small format in New York, which ranges in size from 7,000 to 14,000 square feet.

The Path to Purchase Institute recently visited Amazon Grocery. Right away, it felt like multiple different stores in one.

We immediately noticed the few cashierless checkouts and the grab-and-go options aplenty. The space felt like walking into a modern airport store that offers a little bit of everything (aside from the walls of books, magazines and souvenirs, of course).

14 l Nov/Dec 2024

It also felt like a convenience store of sorts, with the donut case as well as various self-serve options, such as an Icee machine, fountain beverage dispenser and frozen yogurt machine located at the back wall beneath a large “Cold Drinks” sign. There was also a small seating area and a coffee counter with a short menu, like a coffee shop, which previously occupied the space before Amazon Grocery took it over.

Additionally, the variety of consumer packaged goods and common mass-market brands, such as Pepsi, M&M’s and Tide, brought a regular grocery feel to the space.

Notably, despite its small size, Amazon Grocery does offer ways for brands to elevate their products in-store. In fact, we were surprised to see a bilingual Chicago Bearsthemed spectacular from PepsiCo/Frito-Lay in the grocery side of the store.

Within the grocery section were about six aisles, surrounded by walls of coolers for frozen and refrigerated goods, as well as shelves stocking CPG brands.

Another unique advertising opportunity that caught our eye were multiple digital screens rotating ads promoting special offers, such as “buy one, get one 50% off ” items in the bakery case.

Other elements we noticed on our visit: • The store exclusively uses electronic price labels.

• Lining the cashierless checkout kiosks is a long rack merchandising individual impulse buys, such as candy and gum.

• Most of the ice cream containers in the freezer are smaller than a pint.

• Window clings highlighted special deals to pedestrians.

P2PI.com

Shining a light on ...

Hispanic Grocery We examine the growing impact of Latino consumers in the channel as well as marketers’ needs to deepen their connections with these shoppers.

BY J EN NY REB HOLZ

A

s CPG brands and retailers consider market share, consumer buying power and trends for 2025 and beyond, the U.S. Hispanic population offers companies unique investment and growth opportunities. Taking a closer look at the grocery channel provides a snapshot of the growing economic impact of Latino consumers and shines a light on the nuanced and authentic marketing practices needed to deepen connections with these influential multicultural shoppers.

A GROWING ECONOMIC DRIVER According to the Latino Donor Collaborative (LDC), the “U.S Latino GDP was $3.6 trillion in 2022.

Considered as a separate country, this would make U.S. Latino GDP the fifth-largest global economy.”

The organization’s research further predicts by 2029, the “U.S. Latino economy to rank as the fourth largest worldwide at $5.7 trillion.”

From a population perspective, according to the Pew Research Center, 63.7 million Hispanics of diverse origins in Latin America and Spain were living in the United States in 2022.

LDC reports that U.S. Latinos currently comprise 19.5% of the U.S. population and 25% of young Americans aged 18 and under.

“The cultural diversity within the U.S. Hispanic population and the concentration of youth are important considerations that have current and future implications for brands and retailers.

Furthermore, the multigenerational family construct notably influences their shopping behaviors,” says Victor Paredes, vice president of cultural strategy for Collage, a Cultural Intelligence Engine that references consumer, industry and brand data to provide insights on consumer behavior and decision-making.

16 l Nov/Dec 2024

Ernesto Ruiz, executive group director of Macias Creative, highlights vital nuances for brands and retailers to consider. “This shopper group is complex, and the different levels of acculturation require different approaches that make marketing very interesting,” he describes. “Some shoppers are Spanish-first and closely identify with their Latin American culture of origin, they are best reached with messaging that feels distinct and personally relevant.

Then you have bilingual and bicultural shoppers balancing Hispanic traditions with American culture, looking for brands and retailers to reflect their blended identity. Lastly, English-first shoppers tend to identify more with American culture, often responding to broader, mass-market efforts.

This General Mills campaign was developed by Miami-based Macias Creative.

“The key to success is in understanding each group’s level of acculturation and the unique nuances, including regional dynamics, that influence them.”

When looking specifically at the Latino impact on grocery shopping, the Hispanic Marketing Council’s 2024 Hispanic Market Guide shares that Latinos represent 15% of all food spending, with an 84% increase from 2012 to 2022 versus only 53% for all

households. Furthermore, they spend an average of 6% more than non-Hispanics at food stores in an average week.

THE GROCERY LANDSCAPE From post-COVID-19 pandemic influences to the impact of inflation, the grocery industry has noted a variety of consumer shopping habits. Whether looking for the best deal, seeking an experience or shopping for specific recipe ingredients, there are a variety of shopper mentalities to address.

According to Laura Strange, chief communications and engagement officer of the National Grocers Association (NGA), an organization representing the retail and wholesale grocers that comprise the independent sector of the food distribution industry, “Despite inflation easing, independent grocers continue to face the cumulative effects of elevated prices, leading to more cautious spending from shoppers. A large majority of consumers, responding to price pressures, shopped across multiple stores and ultimately reduced their overall purchases.”

R.J. Hottovy, head of analytical research for Placer. ai, a location-based analytics company powered by mobile data, concurs with Strange: “One of the trends we have seen across the grocery space is that people are shopping a wider number of grocery stores than ever before as they seek out value. As a result, people are buying fewer units per transaction.

Consumers have almost retrained and built a whole new routine around groceries, particularly in the last 12 to 18 months.”

A closer look at Hispanic-focused grocery destinations presents a variety of options depending on the given region and city. There are bodegas and traditional, independently owned Hispanic retailers, regional Hispanic grocery chains such as Cardenas Market and Northgate Gonzalez Markets, and mainstream grocery retailers that cater to a Hispanic audience. From the dominant presence of Wegmans in the Northeast, Publix in the Southeast and Texas-based H-E-B to Kroger and Walmart, big grocery chains are paying attention and adapting stores and marketing strategies to the growing Hispanic population.

With that said, Placer.ai analytics shows Hispanic grocery chains, such as Northgate Gonzalez Markets, Vallarta Supermarkets and El Super, demonstrating higher visitation trends compared to the overall grocery category. “Most of the chains we analyzed are showing high single-digit or low double-digit growth on a year-over-year basis compared to the low to mid single digits within the overall grocery category,” says

This shopper group is complex, and the different levels of acculturation require different approaches that make marketing very interesting.

— Ernesto Ruiz, Macias Creative

Hottovy. “These chains as a whole are growing faster than the overall broader grocery category.”

This analysis includes evidence of growth in the non-Hispanic audiences shopping in the Hispanic grocery category. “Hispanic grocery is a fastergrowing category, and the mix of people coming to these stores is starting to evolve,” says Hottovy.

Strange concurs that the Hispanic grocery segment is poised for continued growth. She believes its influence on the broader grocery industry will likely deepen as companies increasingly adapt to the tastes and preferences of Hispanic shoppers. “Hispanic foods are increasingly popular in mainstream culture, with the Hispanic food market valued at over $22 billion in 2021. This is projected to grow by more than 6% annually as the Hispanic population in the U.S. expands and their purchasing power increases.”

RESONATING WITH THE HISPANIC CONSUMER While longstanding brands such as Goya Foods Inc. maintain market share, emerging health-conscious and sustainable brands such as Loisa (New Yorkbased certified organic Latin seasonings and cooking sauces) and Amasar (Puerto Rico-based innovative breadfruit alternative flour blends) are finding their distinct place. And, mainstream brands are investing in cultural collaborations and flavor explorations to connect with Hispanic consumers and continue the evolution of America’s multicultural palate.

Collage published a Summer 2024 report on Top Brands for Hispanics. Insights shared reveal that Hispanic consumers resonate with brands that steward cultural duality, blending traditional heritage with modern cultural influences. Furthermore, according to the report, the top brands embrace cultural specificity by “prioritizing the needs of Spanish speakers, bringing family and friends together and helping them explore their roots.” Offering innovative products and services, supporting the Hispanic community and evoking positive memories were

P2PI.com

This sampling event showcases products from Puerto Ricobased Amasar, which provides innovative breadfruit alternative flour blends.

other attributes of brands that successfully connect with Latino consumers. The report’s list of top brands making these connections included Bounty (No. 2), Dove (No. 5), M&M’s (No. 12), Tide (No. 15), Hershey (No. 18) and Oreo (No. 20).

According to Paredes, “In our data, one of the things we see coming front and center is this duality from Hispanic consumers. On one end, they view the food and shopping experience as a way to uphold, preserve and pass on their heritage. On the other side, with so much to do, limited resources and limited time, they desperately need to find shortcuts while delivering the emotional value they want out of their meals.” Paredes notes this is where technology and access to food creators via social media reinforce their unwillingness to sacrifice food quality while providing the agility they seek.

Other areas of interest for Hispanic consumers that continue to gain momentum are a focus on health and wellness and sustainable practices.

MAKING MEANINGFUL MARKETING CONNECTIONS Looking more closely at Hispanic-focused brands, retailers, campaigns and collaborations, numerous successful marketing examples demonstrate the effectiveness of achieving authenticity and cultural relevance, the power of experience and the importance of community-building.

Collage’s Fall 2024 Multicultural Media Report shed light on how brands can expand reach and consumer engagement across channels. Noting Latino consumers as media trendsetters, it highlights social media opportunities, referencing Hispanics as “the ultimate social media users,” including Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok and WhatsApp. Based on this data, it is no surprise that the report also

18 l Nov/Dec 2024

highlights the appeal of the influencer culture, with 75% of young Hispanic Americans aged 18-44 following influencers, celebrities and other popular accounts. Part of the appeal of the influencer culture is authenticity and learning new things.

Paredes points out that in the digital and social space, one of the passion points and content clusters for Hispanics is food. He also notes that Hispanic creators are an explosive group within the food content realm. “They are pushing the recipes, products and cooking shortcuts, and are very influential in generating what we call advocacy within our cultural fluency assessment.”

In addition to the influencer culture driving traffic and conversions, shopper marketing agency Visual Latina emphasizes the importance of segmentation in retail communications to speak to the distinct cultural origins of the target audience and the application of bilingual practices. They find mobile-first digital activations effective with this digitally savvy consumer, as well as in-store sampling and family-focused “retailtainment” or brand entertainment.

“We believe experiential retail will continue to grow, with supermarkets offering more immersive shopping experiences, such as cultural events, cooking classes and interactive product displays,” says Laura Korchinski, VP account services, USA for Visual Latina.

In addition to experiential retail, the Visual Latina team looks to the impact of continued advances in technology and believes enhanced loyalty programs will continue to evolve for more personalized and tailored shopping.

Paredes and Ruiz highlight the effectiveness of cross-category promotions. From meat and beer pairings to celebrate the grilling occasion to flavor experiences and product mash-ups such as coffee and cereal, they believe thoughtful in-store cross-merchandising and events are producing impactful results.

“When you create a cross-category partnership that is relevant to the audience, you show up in the community in a genuine way,” explains Ruiz.

“Hispanics tend to be more emotional about things and less transactional. So, if you can create a positive emotional experience that combines products with a passion point where you are not just buying something, but you are having some kind of community activation, it is shown to both resonate and drive conversion.” He has seen these pairing and experiential strategies produce notable sales results and household penetration for the agency’s clients.

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Bothra Honored as Executive of the Year The BJ’s Wholesale Club executive has built a retail media program from the ground up.

BY E R I K A F LY N N

“There is a massive opportunity to really use retail media to not only drive growth and build stronger relationships, but also get us very aligned in terms of strategic growth levers for BJ’s and our partners.”

Swati Bothra Senior Director, Digital Marketing and Retail Media BJ’s MediaEdge

20 l Nov/Dec 2024

S

wati Bothra joined BJ’s Wholesale Club in late 2020, charged with driving performance marketing for its e-commerce business as senior director of digital marketing. A short time into her tenure, she set her sights on another goal: building the company’s first retail media program.

She had come from EOS Products, where she managed the company’s Amazon business and saw first-hand how powerful Amazon ads could be for a business.

Bothra — named the Executive of the Year on Nov. 13 at the Path to Purchase Institute’s Women of Excellence awards ceremony — had never built a retail media program from the ground up. She says that her first year was spent sizing up the opportunity, understanding what the competition was doing, acknowledging the club’s late entry into this very cluttered space, and getting executive buy-in.

But, for her, that was also part of the appeal, along with the myriad opportunities for growth in this dynamic landscape.

Two factors were very apparent from the start: “We needed to lean on the right technology and build a suite of products that would differentiate us but also be compatible with what the rest of the industry was doing,” Bothra says, adding that equally important was building the right team.

From there, she led the go-to-market strategy, working with stakeholders and merchants, marketing and technology teams to create a program brand, which “was supremely important to me as a marketer,” she says. “I wanted to reinforce that we had something recognizable in this market. In launching this, we were doing a lot of education, both with our suppliers as well as our merchants.”

Bothra also instituted a new operating model, initially hiring product technology experts who could help build the program and then leaning into retail media provider Microsoft to do everything from sales to account management to media activation. Recognizing the importance of building relationships both internally with the merchants as well as with brands, she brought sales and account management in-house in her second year.

And within three months, she saw triple-digit growth in the number of brands that were participating in the program. “Not only were we driving business volumes, but the campaign performances improved,” she says. “We were seeing better engagement rates, optimizing campaigns, and driving better returns for our suppliers and growth for our merchants.”

The 10-person team is now focused on providing club members with a full-funnel, omnichannel experience, driving strategies across onsite, offsite, social and in-store, which is currently in build.

Innovation has been critical from the start, Bothra notes, not only in building a foundation fairly quickly but, perhaps even more importantly, as a way to differentiate in the marketplace. BJ’s was the first retailer to try Microsoft’s omnichannel solution.

“Other retailers were predominantly using them for onsite; we started using them for full funnel — on-site and off-site — and were the first ones to try AI capabilities when they launched it,” she notes, adding that BJ’s was also the first within the club space to try the digital circular with Meta.

The team at BJ’s has the capabilities in place to more effectively measure member behavior to the impact of media in a very privacy compounded way, Bothra says. It also launched in-club attribution, which she believes marks the first grocery program that ties in-club impact to media.

In an effort to attract brands and demonstrate the value of BJ’s retail media program, Bothra organized a “Supplier Summit,” which presented the club’s advertising offerings and innovations in a way that allowed brands to interact with not only the retail media team, but also merchant teams and relationship managers. With support from her chief merchandising officer and chief digital officer, as well as BJ’s top 200 suppliers, she laid out the team’s vision and how it would move forward in a collaborative partnership with each of the suppliers. “It was very successful and got some of our top suppliers, even some of the most established brands, very excited,” she says.

Further, her team has worked to increase engagement among vendors that were not currently participating in the program through a comprehensive marketing plan that has included email outreach, webinars, office hour sessions and other collateral to help brands invest and find value in the program. As a result, the program grew vendor engagement by 47% in just a few months.

Today, Bothra leads both the performance media and retail media organizations, working with BJ’s cross-functional partners, driving enterprise-wide media synergies and identifying new opportunities that are tied to its three-year, high-level objectives. Simply put: where the team wants to be and what steps will help get it there.

The continued explosion of omnichannel retail media, especially in-store, will be front and center. “In-store digital is really poised to become the next frontier of retail media,” she says.

Standardization of metrics for measurement is something her team is hyper focused on, as well as artificial intelligence in driving efficiency, effectiveness and scale and, last but not least, the relationship between retailers and CPGs. “There is a massive opportunity to really use retail media to not only drive growth and build stronger relationships, but also get us very aligned in terms of strategic growth levers for BJ’s and our partners.”

The Women of Excellence winners were celebrated on Nov. 13 at P2PI LIVE. P2PI.com

Honoring the year’s best campaigns for shopper engagement.

BY MICHAEL APPLEBAU M The Path to Purchase Institute celebrated the winners of the fourth annual OmniShopper Awards on Nov. 14 during a breakfast at P2PI LIVE & Expo in Schaumburg, Illinois. There were 22 winning campaigns in 12 categories this year. Read on for details about the 2024 winners …

The winners accepted their awards on stage on Nov. 14 during a breakfast ceremony at P2PI LIVE & Expo.

THANKS TO OUR JUDGES! Evan Cross Director, Customer Marketing The Coca-Cola Company

Enrick Garcia Shopper Marketing Director Nutrabolt

Stephanie Plehn Omnichannel Marketing Manager Bimbo Bakeries

Ashley Dawson Trade and Shopper Marketing Manager Ecos

Daisy Konen Customer Director, Shopper Marketing - Growth Channels Mondelez International

Christina Ward Director of Marketing and Product Brands Westfalia Fruit

22 l Nov/Dec 2024

COLLABORATIVE: BRAND-RETAILER

COLLABORATIVE: BRAND-RETAILER

Campaign: Pick Me Ups Brands: Dove, Dove Men + Care, TRESemme, Nexxus, Shea Moisture, Vaseline, Axe, Degree & Love, Beauty and Planet (Unilever) Retail partner: Walgreens Agency/Solution Providers: Walgreens Advertising Group (primary), Arc Worldwide (secondary)

Campaign: It All Starts Aqui Brands: Palmolive, Fabuloso, Colgate, Suavitel, Irish Spring & Soft Soap (Colgate-Palmolive) Agency/Solution Provider: Arc Worldwide

Everyone can use a pick-me-up throughout the course of her day, and that includes finding moments of pleasure from beauty, personal care and wellness products. It could be an extra treatment for your hair or skin when you skip that shower, or else just a touch of lip balm or lipstick to help brighten the day.

Unilever harnessed this idea in a “Pick Me Ups” campaign aimed at motivating Gen X and Millennial female shoppers to make more visits to Walgreens, and ultimately to shape perceptions of the retailer as a destination in which self-care equals healthcare.

The program leveraged digital tactics across Walgreens’ retailer media network to drive awareness and conversion. A key component included programmatic display ads targeting customers who had the strongest likelihood of buying Dove products based on intent signals. The creative and messaging informed shoppers on how Unilever products make them feel their best and promoted offers to encourage purchase.

Unilever also piloted new Criteo display ads on Walgreens. com and further leveraged this tactic in a second wave of the campaign dedicated to men’s grooming products. In addition, paid social media and influencer content amplified Unilever’s stock-up offers and highlighted ways to conveniently shop Walgreens (e.g., delivery in under an hour). Push notifications intercepted shoppers in-store to highlight offers and encourage them to treat themselves to uplifting products in the moment.

Strong social engagement drove awareness and helped to establish Walgreens as a destination for beauty and personal care products. Programmatic display returned the highest ROAS, while Unilever’s influencers beat benchmarks by 57% to help further drive conversions.

Many Hispanic Americans have nostalgic childhood memories of Colgate-Palmolive brands. They strive to be role models for their families and communities in a way that celebrates their heritage, while setting the stage for future generations by fostering a healthy family, home, planet and self.

“It All Starts Aqui” was designed to remind Hispanic Walmart shoppers of the place Colgate-Palmolive products have always had in their home, and will continue to have into the future.

To boost awareness and engagement with Hispanic households, the campaign featured custom illustrations that were developed by Hispanic artists and showcased ColgatePalmolive products in an authentic Hispanic home. During Hispanic Heritage Month, the activations were brought to life across various platforms, including in-store signage, Walmart home page and app, programmatic display, social media channels and pop-up events in Walmart parking lots.

Display ads heightened awareness of the Colgate-Palmolive portfolio and targeted shoppers ready to purchase, while social media channels increased awareness of the parking lot events, creating excitement and buzz.

Offsite display media that was served to either brand-lapsed or brand-predicted buyers was the most effective targeting strategy. Overall, these audiences averaged a $12.99 ROAS, led by sales from Suavitel, Fabuloso and Colgate home care products. Most notably, the campaign achieved a 31% sales lift from halo items and a 38% sales lift from featured items. Total incremental sales were driven from 50% new buyers of halo items and 69% new buyers of featured items.

(Long-Term Partnership)

(Single Activation)

P2PI.com

COLLABORATIVE: BRAND-RETAILER

DIGITAL: DIGITAL MEDIA ACTIVATION

Campaign: H-E-B Not Your Knorr-dinary Drive-Thru Brand: Knorr (Unilever) Retail partner: H-E-B Agency/Solution Provider: Arc Worldwide

Campaign: Nestle: Your Holiday Helpers Brands: Coffeemate, Nesquik, Nestle Toll House, Abuelita Stouffer’s, DiGiorno, Tombstone, La Lechera, Carnation, S. Pellegrino & Nido (Nestle) Agency/Solution Providers: Breaktime Media, VML and Merkle

Knorr was a well-known pantry staple among H-E-B shoppers, particularly with Hispanic households, but sales were struggling. The brand faced stiff competition in the sides and bouillon categories, and external pressures made it increasingly difficult for H-E-B shoppers to deviate from their already-tight budgets. These shoppers had become convinced that buying nutritious food couldn’t be easily prepared or good for their wallets.

Enter the “Not Your Knorr-dinary Drive-Thru” pop-up experience at H-E-B. It had all the trappings of a fast-food restaurant — but with value meals that were both convenient and nutritious. H-E-B partnered with local Texas foodies to create a Secret Taste Combo Menu and replicated drivethru features including window posters, an 8-foot neon sign, shopping carts wrapped to look like cars and uniformed employees wearing headsets who took orders from shoppers.

Knorr drove traffic with billboards, in-store radio, email and a dedicated landing page. A guerrilla marketing tactic created $4 bills and distributed them around town, inviting visitors to redeem them for taste combos at the event. A QR code invited value-minded shoppers to enter a sweepstakes to win groceries for a year while they waited in line. Recipe cards accompanied the entrees, making it easy to recreate the meals at home.

Knorr delivered the brand’s highest single-day sales at an H-E-B store for the entire year and outpaced the next highest day by 75%. On that same day, total unit sales were up 161% over the previous 12 weeks. Across H-E-B stores, sales rose online by 19.6% and in-store by 16.4%.

The holiday season often brings a mix of anticipation, excitement and stress for those striving to host the perfect gathering. Nestle sought to sprinkle a little holiday magic and lighten the load for holiday shoppers with easy and convenient solutions that showcased Nestle’s portfolio as a one-stop shop for their mealtime and baking needs.

Nestle teamed up with VML, Merkle and Breaktime Media to create an integrated and festive campaign for Nestle brands, which included Coffeemate, Nesquik, Nestle Toll House, Abuelita Stouffer’s, DiGiorno, Tombstone, La Lechera, Carnation, S. Pellegrino and Nido. The experience started with a personalized quiz (“What Should You Bring to the Holiday Table?”) that recommended unique product bundles based on responses, with options tailored to those who were hosting or visiting family gatherings.

Consumers could dive into seasonal recipes featuring the brand’s products through a dynamic recipe filter that sorted options based on time needs and the type of activity. To facilitate purchases, an add-to-cart option allowed shoppers to add thoughtfully curated bundles directly to their cart on Walmart.com. A list of cheerful hosting tips further engaged and inspired shoppers with ideas for how Nestle products could help. Site visitors were encouraged to sign up to receive product offers and updates from Nestle.

The online experience saw great purchase intent with 87.5% of users clicking to add the Nestle bundles to cart, resulting in more than $1.3 million worth of products carted at Walmart. com. The dynamic quiz and tailored recipes further drove inspiration and trial, with completion rates above benchmarks.

(Single Activation)

24 l Nov/Dec 2024

(Non-Retail Media)

DIGITAL: DIGITAL MEDIA ACTIVATION

DIGITAL: RETAIL MEDIA ACTIVATION

Campaign: Fill. Roll. Bake: Pillsbury Crescent Rolls at Walmart

Campaign: Untold Beauty Brands: Shea Moisture, Dove & Vaseline (Unilever) Agency/Solution Providers: Arc Worldwide (primary), Walgreens Advertising Group (secondary)

(Non-Retail Media)

Brand: Pillsbury (General Mills) Retail partner: Walmart Agency/Solution Provider: Breaktime Media

Figuring out what to serve for weeknight dinners can be especially stressful for busy families. General Mills wanted to give Walmart shoppers ideas for easy and delicious meal solutions that highlighted the convenience, comfort and versatility of its Pillsbury crescent rolls.

General Mills collaborated with Breaktime Media to create an interactive digital commerce-focused experience designed to simplify the weeknight dinner dilemma by providing shoppers with a variety of engaging and informative content.

The journey began with a content engagement page that reminded shoppers of the simplicity of Pillsbury crescent rolls. All they had to do is “fill, roll and bake.” Visitors were then directed to a dynamic personality quiz (“Which Pillsbury Recipe Should You Try for Family Dinner Night?”) which served up recipe recommendations based on their responses. Whether people seeking something quick, sophisticated or somewhere in between, the quiz matched their unique needs and preferences with the perfect recipe.

Additional features supported the journey, including an addto-cart feature that simplified the shopping and encouraged immediate action. A poll invited shoppers to vote on their favorite ways to bake with Pillsbury crescent rolls. Lastly, shoppers were directed to a video showcasing a recipe example of a chicken, bacon ranch-flavored Crescent Roll Bake and a referral click to explore more recipe ideas on Pillsbury.com, encouraging repeat visits and engagement.

The efforts clearly paid off. More than 63,000 users used the built-in add-to-cart feature in the Breaktime experience, which equates to a purchase intent of more than $331,000, and the campaign drove over $425,000 in incremental sales.

26 l Nov/Dec 2024

Unilever’s “Untold Beauty” campaign began in 2022 to increase representation of multicultural shoppers in the beauty and personal care (BPC) category at Walgreens. The omnichannel campaign featuring the Shea Moisture, Vaseline and Dove brands showcased multicultural imagery accompanied by beauty narratives that had gone unheard.

In 2023, Unilever saw an opportunity to expand Untold Beauty to a wider audience through Walgreens’ retailer media network, while featuring additional products and a strengthened purpose. In a change from its previous influencer strategy, Unilever and Walgreens formed a partnership with The Moth, a New York-based non-profit organization that works within local communities to share uplifting stories through live “Slam” events. The idea was to meet shoppers where they were — on the streets, in Walgreens parking lots and in stores.

Highlights of these conversations were featured during the Moth Radio podcast hour, which aired through in-store audio at Walgreens stores, and at Slam events in Chicago, New York and Miami. Images captured throughout the events were displayed across a series of digital out-of-home ads, while activation in the retail media network provided the greatest reach and impact. Stories that stopped the scroll on Walgreens social platforms informed but also inspired shoppers to click through to the brand page on Walgreens.com.

Untold Beauty exceeded expectations with a 6.36% conversion rate and $21.29 directional ROAS, doubling and tripling respective benchmarks. The partners note the ultimate success was the meaningful impact of the program in the communities and lives of Walgreens shoppers.

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DIGITAL: RETAIL MEDIA ACTIVATION

DIGITAL: MASS MEDIA ACTIVATION

Campaign: Haleon Walmart Back to School 2023 Brands: Advil, Benefiber, Flonase, Pronamel, Emergen-C, Excedrin & Robitussin (Haleon) Retail partner: Walmart Agency/Solution Provider: VML

Campaign: Kittenwise Brands: Temptations, Sheba, Iams, Greenies & Nutro (Mars Petcare) Agency/Solution Provider: Mars United Commerce

Wellness is the unsung hero of smooth back-to-school transitions. With this single but powerful shopper insight, Haleon turned the season’s traditional focus on kids on its head with an emphasis on parental needs. The program leveraged digital tactics across Walmart Connect and third-party platforms (MiQ, Fandango) to encourage parents to seize the moment for some easy self-care solutions built around Haleon OTC brands Advil, Benefiber, Flonase, Pronamel, Emergen-C, Excedrin and Robitussin.

Programmatic MiQ display ads intercepted parents where they were conducting searches for their back-to-school needs online, in addition to Walmart Connect tactics including social posts and on/offsite banners. Digital media drove shoppers to a brand experience page headlined by Tamera Mowry on Walmart.com where parents were encouraged to stock up on Haleon products to feel their best this back-to-school season.

To expand reach and drive further consideration, the effort tapped into Walmart social commerce platform Shop Talk Live to use influencers who spoke about their Haleon health and wellness essentials and routine during back-to-school season. The campaign was rounded out by a rewards microsite through Fandango that offered financial relief for the purchase of Haleon products (e.g., spend $25, get a $10 reward).

Haleon saw an increase of 138,000 year-over-year households, while Haleon brand unit sales rose 7% and dollar sales 6% over the previous year. Walmart saw analgesics and oral care category growth, with a 4% increase in unit sales and 3% in dollar sales, and a 1% increase in unit sales and 11% in dollar sales, in those two categories, respectively.

More than half (52%) of cat owners acquire their pet on impulse, leaving them unprepared for a lengthy list of responsibilities — everything from understanding the right choices for food, litter and supplies, as well as finding the proper training and socializing techniques. This was the thinking behind “Kittenwise,” a program designed to help consumers navigate their first year of pet ownership with education and products/savings from brands including Temptations, Sheba, Iams, Greenies and Nutro.

During a three-month activation, a dedicated national microsite provided educational content including articles, a kitten personality/product quiz, rebate rewards, a spin-to-win sweepstakes, product ratings and reviews, and an add-to-cart functionality to facilitate immediate purchase. Article topics included feeding during the first six months, adoption tips, kitten wellness, proper treatment, play time, the nutrition needed for healthy brain development, and stages of food transitioning. A quick quiz helped new parents find the products that best fit their specific needs. The spin-to-win sweepstakes offered chances to receive a free sample kit or treat toy.

Social influencer activity, along with rich mobile, digital display and mobile push ads intercepted kitten and parents and drove them to the microsite experience. The messaging and education elements were reinforced through a series of livestream shopping events conducted in collaboration with Walmart, Chewy and Amazon.

The program met or exceeded Mars Petcare’s business objectives, most notably by recording a 7.4% overall sales lift for participating brands with a corresponding 1.4% increase in brand share, and 117 million total consumer impressions.

28 l Nov/Dec 2024

DIGITAL: MOBILE ACTIVATION

DIGITAL: SOCIAL MEDIA ACTIVATION

Campaign: Personalized Team Branding Ignited

Campaign: Coca-Cola K-Wave Brands: Coca-Cola Agency/Solution Provider: Smurfit Westrock

Tostitos Sales Among NFL Fans

Brand: Tostitos (PepsiCo/Frito-Lay) Agency/Solution Provider: Aki Technologies, Media

by Inmar Intelligence

Tostitos wanted to increase chip and dip sales at Walmart by capitalizing on the excitement of the NFL season and delivering a personalized fan experience. The key was to go local. By testing the impact of team-specific creative versus generic NFL branding, Tostitos was able to measure the effectiveness of personalization in driving sales and ultimately tracked substantial growth in Tostitos sales.

Tostitos partnered with Aki Technologies to deliver a hyperpersonalized campaign to position the brand as the ultimate game-day essential snack solution. Data-driven targeting using Aki’s Moments AI platform identified opportunities during the NFL season when fans were most receptive to snack cravings.

This included a game day inspiration moment and snack craving moment to ensure precision targeting and maximum ad impact.

Dynamic ad creative featuring team-specific colors and logos was delivered to fans across various digital platforms. This hyper-personalized approach fostered a deeper connection with the brand. “Game Day Greatness” served as the campaign’s core theme, emphasizing Tostitos as the perfect companion for game-day gatherings. This theme was brought to life through dynamic visuals and compelling calls to action. Campaign performance was closely monitored to optimize ad delivery and creative messaging. A/B testing of creative elements and adjustments to targeting were implemented to maximize ROI. The campaign generated $653K in incremental sales, representing a 7.2% sales lift. Notably, advertisements featuring team-specific branding outperformed generic NFL creative by a factor of two, underscoring the power of personalization and effectiveness of the strategy in driving consumer engagement and purchase behavior.

30 l Nov/Dec 2024

K-Wave is a new Coca-Cola limited-edition flavor designed to appeal to Gen Z through its love of K-pop music. K-Pop fans’ passion and enthusiasm for the genre tend to inspire FOMO (fear of missing out), so exclusivity and competitiveness are key drivers for this audience. They also tend to be collectors of K-Pop paraphernalia. Thus, these three attributes — exclusivity, competitiveness and collectability — informed Coca-Cola’s interactive, multi-tiered campaign for K-Wave.

The program kicked off with an early access to presale code to create a sense of exclusivity. A global Instagram campaign, including deliveries to social media influencers, launched the beverage alongside a new K-Wave-inspired K-Pop song.

The striking packaging and free stickers delivered on the collectability factor that K-Pop fans crave, while unlocking unique experiences such as streaming a live K-Pop concert. By scanning a QR code, fans could insert themselves into the “Like Magic” music video alongside their idols, creating personalized cameos by embedding their voice, name and face into various segments of the video.

To build even more brand awareness and excitement, a contest through the Coca-Cola app offered a chance to win a trip to South Korea, as well as the sale of limited-edition K-Wave merch sold only at Coca-ColaStore.com.

This campaign succeeded in terms of both sell-through and social engagement. The K-Wave beverage completely sold out online. Even one of the K-Wave-themed merch items offered on Coca-Cola’s website sold out. JYP Entertainment’s official post of the “Like Magic” song had 7.5 million views and more than 18,000 enthusiastic comments.

IN-STORE MARKETING: RETAIL MEDIA ACTIVATION

IN-STORE MARKETING: PRODUCT DISPLAY

Campaign: Loblaws Get Set for Summer Brand: Kraft Heinz Retail partner: Loblaws Agency/Solution Provider: LPi Group

Campaign: Grocery Digital Endcap Brands: Mondelez International Agency/Solution Provider: Unified Resources

Kraft Heinz joined forces with Loblaws on a campaign to propel the retailer to “top dog” status in the barbeque/ condiments category. For both Loblaws and Kraft Heinz, it was a first in many aspects — a nationally approved program with a large points giveaway that connected foodservice and retail, as well as on-site and off-site media.

The campaign’s centerpiece was a contest that encouraged BBQ grilling at home or outdoors throughout the entire summer with a grand prize of 15,000,000 points, or the equivalent of $15,000.

Each week, shoppers who spent $15 on participating products earned a chance to enter the grand prize draw.

Additionally, the secondary prizes of 24 Weber grills reinforced the brand’s commitment to encouraging consumers to enjoy the summer and have Kraft Heinz be a part of those moments.

Digital media support included display ads via LCL Advance, Wholesale Club e-commerce, and Flipp campaigns to drive pre-shop traffic and conversions.

In-store POS featured endcaps, bookcases, shelf/aisle blades, wobblers and base wraps. At the final journey stage, shoppers could upload the receipt for the draw onto the microsite that would also invite the shopper to learn more about the recipes shown in store: 16 exclusive seasonal recipes for meals made on the grill and in the air fryer.

Kraft Heinz had a 9% unit sales increase versus the previous year on core summer products during program duration. The campaign saw an increase in shopper engagement and conversion, earned a market share of 17.2% and had strong results across the paid media and social channels.

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(Long-term)

Mondelez International sought a dynamic and engaging branded digital display that would draw customer attention to localized promotions. The solution needed to maximize various product offerings and be flexible — namely, with the ability to grow revenue specific to each location’s product inventory and supply chain challenges and meet grocery retailers’ expectations.

The digital endcap sought to engage grocery customers by attracting their attention to dynamic video content playing on three large screens. These were placed strategically on the two corners and header of endcap without blocking product or lowering product load as compared to a standard display. Targeted messaging promoted local occasion-based content, targeted products, brand and grocery store chain specials.

The content on the screen can match the exact product mix available at each individual location. Synchronizing the three screens’ content has a dynamic stopping power and makes an impression on consumers. Call to action moments, such as QR codes, are imbedded in content for shopper engagement. The endcap features three sides of adjustable shelving and peg hooks to merchandise the various Mondelez product offerings.

The three-screen digital endcap has proven to drive significant sales lift and stronger levels of consumer engagement. Retailers comment on how the high-end look and feel, including digital content, has added positive consumer perception of their stores. Out of the first 75 rack placements, store sales performed better than the category in more than 80% of stores and led to more than 15% overall lift in Mondelez product purchases compared to similar stores in the same region.

IN-STORE MARKETING: PRODUCT DISPLAY

IN-STORE MARKETING: PRODUCT DISPLAY

Campaign: LG Vendor Pad Shopper Experience

Campaign: Irish Hello Brands: Jameson (Pernod Ricard) Agency/Solution Provider: Arc Worldwide

(Long-term)

Within Best Buy

Brand: LG Electronics Retail partner: Best Buy Agency/Solution Provider: Merge

LG teamed up with Best Buy to create an immersive storein-store experience for the brand’s core target audience of Millennial males. These shoppers seek to see, touch and feel products before purchase. Additionally, the need for a replacement TV often initiates their search, aligning perfectly with the campaign’s focus on showcasing LG OLED technology through dynamic, interactive displays.

The LG experience transformed the retail space with a 30foot, 10-foot and 3-foot distance strategy to ensure that all touchpoints were purposefully designed to attract shoppers and highlight LG’s product offerings.

Shoppers were initially drawn in by an LED-lit back wall. Onscreen video content balanced short clips of popular streaming titles with LG picture and feature content to captivate shoppers and up-sell OLED TVs from a closer distance. TLG interactive tablets provided immersive product demos and guided pathways, including secondary “life on screen” stories and themes that showcased various lifestyle use cases.

A projector controlled by the LG interactive tablet with visuals cast onto the floor showcased TV sizes. A mobile version of the vendor pad experience allowed shoppers to control the LG OLED TV wall via cell phones by scanning QR codes, offering a convenient retail experience. The networked vendor pad with tracking sensors enabled remote content updates and provided LG with engagement data.

Overall, LG recorded an average increase of 127.9% in QR scans across all vendor pad islands. The highest engagement was recorded by the big screen island with a 320% increase, followed by the beyond TV island with a 251% increase, and the OLED evo island with a 241% increase.

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(Temporary)

Green attire and corned beef and cabbage meals notwithstanding, most adults who raise a glass to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day choose an American beer or whiskey instead of Jameson — the Irish whiskey brand that is synonymous with Ireland.

Knowing that a simple, inviting gesture can get people to try something different, Jameson flipped the script on the old trope of an “Irish exit” (when someone leaves a social gathering without notice) and encouraged shoppers to celebrate with an “Irish hello.” After all, friendly hospitality is core to the Jameson DNA and Ireland’s nickname is “the land of a hundred thousand welcomes.”

Retailer POS elements included a display (both large and small format) that encouraged shoppers to “Celebrate with an Irish Hello.” A simple, engaging call to action started with texting “hello” to win authentic Jameson prizes and merchandise. Pennant strings, shelf violators, bottle neckers and cooler clings supported the merchandising program.

On-premise activation rolled out at casual dining establishments and neighborhood bars across the country.

Name-tag stickers with “Irish Hello My Name is” and cups playfully made it easier to strike up a conversation, while coasters, table tents and posters reinforced the idea of Irish hospitality.

Irish Hello had impressive national execution, making Jameson the No.1 displayed Irish Whiskey during St. Patrick’s Day. On-premise tools were also used nationally with sampling occurring in nearly every state. Altogether, shopper spend increased 4% year over year across on- and off-premise.

IN-STORE MARKETING: PRODUCT DISPLAY (Temporary)

Campaign: High Noon Sunglasses Mass Display Brand: High Noon (E. & J. Gallo Winery) Agency/Solution Provider: Select Design

Campaign: Oreo Xbox Carousel Brands: Oreo (Mondelez International) Agency/Solution Provider: Total Marketing Support

High Noon is associated with fun, warm weather and outdoor gatherings. Looking to command floor space leading up to and during the summer months at grocery, liquor and general retail stores, the E. & J. Gallo hard seltzer brand settled on a merchandising solution with a mass builder display that was simple to set up and create, consisting of floor displays of multiple sizes based on the account size and display opportunity.

High Noon’s rally cry to consumers, “Sun’s Up,” was used as the central theme to create attention and reinforce the brand message, while being general enough to allow for flexibility at each retail account.

This piece featured the ownable clouds and “Sun’s Up” messaging along with the brand’s word mark on the sunglass lenses via a lenticular substrate. When originally concepted, the piece had one message on one side of the display and the other message on the opposite side of the display. By adopting the lenticular execution, the brand message would not only be viewable in its entirety from multiple angles but would drive engagement as consumers moved around the store/display. The high-quality metal sunglass frame construction and easy set up came together for the essential summer floor display.

Since the program’s initial launch in the summer of 2023 and reorder for 2024, a total of 1,200 sunglasses mass displays were shipped across the country. High Noon’s summer retail plan was a marked success, with the displays appearing in all types of accounts ranging from independent liquor stores to chain grocery stores.

Mondelez International partnered with Xbox on a co-branded display to incentivize purchase of Oreo products. The display was designed to disrupt and engage shoppers with memorable Xbox branding while communicating opportunities to win exclusive Xbox rewards.

The innovative structural design featured a crown with a rotating Xbox-branded Oreo cookie. This was a dynamic, moving carousel with a giant Oreo in the middle supported by large character standees. The well-branded header and game characters on each side attracted and engaged shoppers, especially appealing to avid gamers.

The Oreo/Xbox collaboration is powerfully communicated through the high-impact rotating branded cookie up top. This is supported via the predominantly blue scheme and large brandmarks on the header, while the promotion and chance to win are easily understood from the headline.

The results of the campaign and execution at the point of sale were positive. Mondelez managed to reach 860 shops, implying an 18% increase versus the previous year. In total, 129 more shops employed the materials. There were 350,000 entries in the activation contest, a significant increase over the previous year’s activation (Oreo Batman). Mondelez achieved the highest Oreo sales of the first quarter of the year, a 19% increase in sell-through over the previous year.

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INTEGRATED PATH TO PURCHASE ACTIVATION Campaign: No Ingredient Left Behind Brands: Knorr & Hellmann’s (Unilever) Agency/Solution Provider: Arc Worldwide

Campaign: Keurig Iced System Innovation Brands: Keurig, Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, McCafe & The Original Donut Shop (Keurig Dr Pepper) Agency/Solution Provider: Mars United Commerce

Most shoppers don’t confront the reality of food waste until they are in the act of throwing away leftovers or food that went bad before they could use it. Unilever sought to give Kroger shoppers the tools to make mitigating food waste easy and approachable under the simple yet powerful rallying cry of its platform called “No Ingredient Left Behind.”

Featuring educational content across Kroger’s omnichannel ecosystem, No Ingredient Left Behind challenged shoppers to confront the problem more consistently. The platform illuminated which food items were being wasted most and how to use up all the food they bought at Kroger. During tentpole moments including the Super Bowl, the program delivered incentives to use Hellmann’s and Knorr products in their sustainable food behaviors.

Pre-shop display ads included statistics that highlighted the impact of food waste and redirected shoppers to a microsite on Kroger.com with recipes and other educational tools.

In-store, geotargeted push notifications included offers for both Hellmann’s and Knorr. Shelf blades and floor talks were deployed across Kroger locations featuring food facts, a call to action and promotional offers. Post-shop Kroger shoppers were engaged with more recipes and ideas on how to get the most out of each grocery run.

The results were strong across the board. In the fall, Hellmann’s grew 3.35% in sales. During the Super Bowl, Knorr drove an 8.87% sales lift and Hellmann’s produced a 4.46% sales lift. In the spring, Hellmann’s lifted sales by an additional 1.8% (all over the previous 12 weeks).

Keurig needed to increase penetration among Genzennials (18- to 34-year-old Gen Zers and Millennials) for its K-Iced brewers and iced K-Cup pods. Its main challenge was to convince Genzennials to trust Keurig’s new brewer and coffee portfolio to deliver a quality, full-flavored iced coffee experience at home.

Keurig sought to win over coffee aficionados with an “As Easy as One, Two, Brew” messaging theme. Communication materials focused on the new brewer functionality, displaying the “Brew Over Ice” button and the system’s versatility in brewing both hot and cold beverages. Existing Keurig households were also targeted through the grocery channels with a call to action to add iced coffee pods to the purchase, highlighting the fact that iced pods can be brewed in any Keurig system to produce cafe-quality drinks.

The new K-Iced brewer and iced coffee pods were prominently featured on Keurig.com with how-to information and a video demonstration. Retailer displays featured both the K-Iced brewer and iced K-Cup pods for mass merchants selling both products, while a second featured only the iced K-Cup pods to appeal to existing Keurig households. Custom activations appeared at Kroger, Walmart and Target.

Among the stellar results, 31% of all Keurig growth at retail was attributed to K-Iced brewers, which became the brand’s top three selling systems after only eight weeks in market. K-Iced brewers now over-index (+160) among Genzennials. Sales of iced pods are also over-indexing (+152) among Millennials compared with average Keurig households. Finally, 30% of iced K-Cup purchasers were coffeeshop consumers and new to the pod category.

P2PI.com

INTEGRATED PATH TO PURCHASE ACTIVATION Campaign: Barbie The Movie Brand: Barbie (Mattel)

Campaign: Lift Off With Oreo Brand: Oreo (Mondelez International) Agency/Solution Providers: Eastwest Marketing Group, Menasha

With the July 2023 theatrical release of “Barbie,” Mattel was eager to ignite sales among current Barbie fans and bring new consumers into the franchise. Mattel’s omnichannel program included customized retailer activation at Walmart, Target and on Amazon.com.

Mattel’s Walmart tie-in connected to the film’s marketing platform, “Welcome to Barbie Land, Dreams Made Here,” with exclusive products and dozens of cross-category partnerships.

A custom 10-foot-by-10-foot display with an 8-foot crosscategory action alley pallet train was delivered to 2,500 stores.

Online activation included a Barbie brand shop at Walmart. com and paid media through Walmart Connect.

Target received two out-of-aisle focal features in toys. Within the beauty category, NYX and OPI displayed a branded Barbie The Movie endcap. On July 29 and July 30, 200 Target stores set up a demo cart at the front of the store with Barbie The Movie signage, movie-branded product and free giveaways, directing guests to a 15% off Barbie circle offer running on those two days.

Amazon custom-built a movie site experience and Barbie brand store with new scenes from the movie and weekly updated product selections. Support included a homepage billboard placement, Barbie search takeover and cross-category storefronts feature, as well as push notifications and emails directing shoppers to the experience.

It was all a splashy success. Mattel dolls U.S. share was up 17.3 points one week after the movie launch. By the end of the promotion timeframe (Aug. 31), Barbie gained 13.3 share points in the dolls category and finished as the No.1 property for the U.S. toys market.

Oreo wanted to go where few brands had gone before — into space. Given that space was having a cultural moment (thanks to another upcoming total solar eclipse, the NASA Artemis program and the growth of space tourism), Mondelez decided to tap into the enjoyment and imagination of its Oreo brand with a space-themed merchandising appeal to young shoppers.

“Lift Off ” occurred in phases. Following an initial teaser video, social media posts detailed a sweepstakes whose grand prize winner could embark on a six-hour journey in a pressurized capsule lofted by a high-altitude hydrogen balloon provided by Space Perspective. Next came the announcement of a limited-edition Space Dunk Oreo cookie on social media.

Then, in stores, displays featured “galactic” embossments and a small cutout in the cookie itself, which gave a peek into the nebula-inspired filling that included supernova bursting popping candies. POS featured the new limited-edition Oreo and partnership with Space Perspective. With the looming solar eclipse (April 8, 2024) providing an ample opportunity for a third wave of coverage, Oreo launched a combination of paid, PR and organic media to keep momentum going and generate added excitement.

The results were stellar. Oreo sales were up 2.1% in February and March. The limited-edition product sold out in two weeks, an increase of approximately 41% versus the previous limitededition Oreo. Space Dunk connected the target audience, garnering the highest volume of leads to date for such an effort, while generating 4.6 billion impressions and 1,538 media placements.

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INTEGRATED PATH TO PURCHASE ACTIVATION

PACKAGING

Campaign: Sour Patch Kids Lemonade at Circle K Brands: Sour Patch Kids & Swedish Fish (Mondelez International) Retail partner: Circle K Agency/Solution Provider: Phoenix Creative Co.

Campaign: Victoria Dia de los Muertos 2023 – Leyendas Brand: Cerveza Victoria (Constellation Brands) Agency/Solution Provider: Upshot

Research from Mondelez and Circle K showed considerable overlap between purchases of Sour Patch Kids, non-candy snacks and lemonade drinks. Thus, the two marketing partners saw an opportunity to grow the non-chocolate candy category at Circle K stores by bundling the Sour Patch Kids lemonade variety with other lemonade-flavored candy and snack options.

The program included participation from Sunkist, which launched new lemonade flavors during the promotional period, as well as a new lemonade-flavored Swedish Fish variety.

Given the target audience of Millennial and Gen Z consumers — and since 3-in-4 consumers overall research snacks online before picking up in store — the program needed to have a strong digital and social component.

An expansive array of activations included influencers engaging on Circle K social channels, a new Circle K gamification platform, summer beats on iHeartRadio and engagements on TikTok. Mondelez and its partners distributed more than 8,000 POS displays in Circle K stores nationwide. These extra displays in high-visibility areas of stores brought the fun to every participating neighborhood, boosting awareness of Sour Patch Kids and Swedish Fish, and driving sales with a Sunkist lemonade bundle.

With the lemonade program in full swing, total nonchocolate candy category dollar sales at Circle K were up 1.7%, driven by a Mondelez-specific lift of 13.5%.

Additionally, the program delivered more than 4.1 million digital impressions through the Circle K gamification, with an additional 10.7 million impressions across iHeartRadio and TikTok.

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First generation Spanish-speaking Mexicans living in the U.S. take pride in the rich history, traditions and celebrations of the Dia de los Muertos holiday. One common ritual involves sharing the stories and legends, or leyendas, that have been passed down by each generation to the next. Tales of love, loss, life and death create regional specificity and were a perfect way for Victoria beer to celebrate with U.S. consumers without resorting to pandering or ubiquitous skull imagery.

Victoria chose four tales from cities across Mexico and created limited-edition primary and secondary packaging designs, each one illustrated with artwork that spotlighted the stories’ main characters and key narratives. Paired with all-new POS tools, the packaging leveraged QR codes to drive consumers to explore and experience the legends for themselves at a custom microsite within Victoria’s home page featuring short-form animated videos.

These captivating and shareable videos told the stories quickly without losing dramatic flair and intrigue. Consumers were instantly drawn to the brand, eager to collect and experience each unique bottle design and leyenda.

The results included large double-digit increases across the board.

Distributors got behind the program, as their investment in Victoria retail merchandising tools was up 35% from previous year. Victoria feature and display was up 13.6% during the promotion period versus the prior year, and ultimately led to an impressive 20.7% increase in dollar sales and 28% increase in unit sales during the program’s four-week promotional window.

Activation Gallery

New Product Launches Brands have long found ways to draw attention to new product launches with their retailer partners, both in-store, out-of-store and digitally, catching the attention of Path to Purchase Institute editors. Here we showcase some notable efforts from 2024. Institute members can see many more examples of new product introductions in the robust image vault at P2PI.com.

BY JACQU ELI N E BARBA

1

L’Oreal Paris launched an innovative hair color device and line of cartridges, dubbed Colorsonic, exclusively at Target over the summer. In stores, they collaborated on an account-specific endcap and in-line shelf structure that invited shoppers to “Pick, Pop, Press,” meaning they’ll pick a desired shade from one of 20 options by scanning a QR code depicted on the display, pop the color in their device and press on hair to apply at home.

2

In October, Estee Lauder began selling its namesake makeup, skincare and fragrance products on Amazon’s Premium Beauty Store, a curated category hub for luxury brands. Participating brands receive a dedicated web page, which Estee Lauder used to highlight best sellers and its “Beauty of Performance” campaign messaging as well as a new virtual foundation tool, exclusive to Amazon, that helps consumers compare and find their preferred shade.

3

Kraft Heinz leveraged a new capability from Gopuff’s retail media network to prop up the October launch of Delimex’s new crispy quesadillas, one of the brand’s first new products in more than five years. Kraft Heinz created a customizable brand shop via Gopuff Ads dedicated to the two new SKUs, while also depicting other Delimex and manufacturer SKUs. A purple display ad on the app/website’s homepage communicated “new” and “crispy from the microwave” messages and linked to the shop.

P2PI.com

Activation Gallery

4

6

5

7

U.K. cocktail brand Funkin Cocktails promoted the launch of its limitededition, ready-to-drink vodka martini, made in collaboration with Scottish carbonated soft drink Irn-Bru, at Tesco Superstore. At a store in Allerton, Liverpool, the canned cocktail was spotlighted in October on an illuminated digital header sign above an endcap stocking wine. The screen also promoted a 4-for-3 deal for Clubcard holders.

Spotted in November in the ice cream aisle at a Harris Teeter in Charlotte, North Carolina, a digital touchscreen on a freezer door called Ice Cream Genie invited shoppers to tap to start and “Try a new treat that you’ll love.” The Genie asked shoppers several questions, firstly, “what can we help you find” with a “something new & exciting” option. Clicking on that led to more questions about preference to finally suggest a brand and flavor. In our case, it recommended Yasso frozen Greek yogurt cookies & cream bars.

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In April, L’Oreal’s Redken haircare brand debuted a 3D billboard in New York’s Times Square to showcase a new product collection along with an AR-enabled virtual try-on experience. The billboard promoted the Acidic Color Gloss line, launched in January, with a 30-second video ad that featured two five-minute roadblocks (owning full share of Times Square ad placements) on multiple days. It also invited consumers to “see yourself in Times Square” next to a massive QR code that directed to Redken.com, where they could use an AR filter on their hair and see before-and-after pictures front and center on the 3D billboard via their smartphone.

Mark Anthony Brands’ White Claw promoted the national launch of its Tequila Smash packs at Kroger with violators in the alcohol aisle promoting the offering and a $2 coupon, valid to loyalty members March-May, by scanning a bar code using the retailer’s app or by adding it via Kroger.com.

8

The Honest Co. teamed up with bilingual publisher Lil’ Libros in August to launch a limited-edition diapers and wipes collection, based on the book “Alebrijes,” exclusively at Walmart. The launch tied into Hispanic Heritage Month (Sept. 15-Oct. 15), and promotional support comprised retailer and brand activity, including Honest enlisting influencers to promote the line across Facebook, Instagram and TikTok. They directed consumers to a brand page within Walmart.com.

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Insider Intel

Philadelphia, Thomas’ Team Up THE OMNICHANNEL CAMPAIGN SEES BRANDS DO SOCIAL MEDIA OUTREACH TOGETHER AND ACTIVATE AT NUMEROUS RETAILERS, INCLUDING WALMART, ALBERTSONS COS., AHOLD DELHAIZE AND KROGER.

BY SAMANTHA N EL SON

Most shoppers who buy cream cheese plan to use it on a bagel, according to 2023 data from Circana. That simple insight led Kraft Heinz’s Philadelphia cream cheese brand and Bimbo Bakeries USA’s Thomas’ bagel brand to team up to make sure consumers looking for an easy breakfast paired their products together.

An omnichannel marketing program that ran in April and May targeted Millennial parents who want to make family memories but feel overwhelmed by choices.

The campaign presented the bagel and cream cheese pairing as a breakfast more satisfying than cereal or toast but still easy enough for kids to make themselves. The goal for both brands was to grow sales volume while gaining market share and household penetration.

“Our partnership with Thomas’ bagels was a great way to remind fans of both brands of a delicious and simple quality breakfast solution for the whole family to enjoy — especially during a time when increased prices were and still are a hot topic on grocery shoppers’ minds,” said Keenan White, Philadelphia senior brand manager. “Bagels and cream cheese just make sense, so by bringing together two of the most recognizable brands in these categories, we were able to reinforce superiority and help alleviate stress by showing shoppers you don’t need to overthink breakfast.”

Plano, Texas-based shopper marketing agency Twin Oaks did a custom photo shoot to develop the creative, pairing the brands together with a “Spread the silkiness. Crave the crunchiness” message. In-store activations included shelf talkers from Neptune Retail Solutions’ SmartSource, wobblers, shelf strips and floorstands stocking Thomas’ that were positioned next to refrigerated displays for Philadelphia.

Thomas’ and Philadelphia did social media outreach together and activated the campaign at numerous retailers across the entire path to purchase to drive consideration and conversion. They worked with Walmart Connect and also made retail media plays at Albertsons Cos. and Ahold Delhaize.

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The goal for both brands was to grow sales volume while gaining market share and household penetration.

Circular ads ran at Meijer and Publix. In-store signage at H-E-B offered a free Philadelphia SKU with the purchase of a package of Thomas’, an offer supported by onsite and offsite media.

Philadelphia collaborated with Instacart on a Mother’s Day sponsorship package that included a home page banner, email, push notifications and organic social.

Kroger had one of the biggest activations. The partners worked with Kroger Precision Marketing for targeted onsite and offsite display ads and digital coupons as well as in-store activity.

They also leveraged Kroger’s sponsorship of JTG Daugherty Racing’s No. 47 car, giving it a Thomas and Philadelphia paint scheme for the April 21 Geico 500 NASCAR race at Talladega Superspeedway in Lincoln, Alabama.

“This omnichannel partnership was a full 360[-degree] activation,” said Stephanie Plehn, Bimbo Bakeries USA omnichannel marketing manager. “It was great how both teams worked together at many retailers and across so many touchpoints. We had activation online and in store, from digital media inspiration to click-tocart conversion.”

While this was the first national collaboration between Thomas’ and Philadelphia, the brands already plan to partner again next year.

“Pairing the No. 1 bagel brand with the No. 1 cream cheese brand has truly resulted in a winwin-win scenario for our shoppers, our retailers and our brands,” said Jinder Bhogal, Bimbo Bakeries senior brand manager, Thomas’ brand team. “The collaboration with Philadelphia has allowed us to bring affordable meal solutions to the market while increasing retailer basket sizes, resulting in brand sales growth.”

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