P2PIQ-1021

OCTOBER 2021

Path Purchase

pathtopurchaseiq.com

TO

E N D - TO - E N D S T R AT E G I E S F O R D R I V I N G C O N S U M E R D E M A N D

INSIDE COOKIE-LESS FUTURE:

HOW CAN BRANDS THRIVE?

AGENCY PARTNERS:

RELYING ON THEIR EXPERTISE

PATH TO PURCHASE NOW: EXAMINING SHOPPER STRATEGIES

Buy In-Store

ACTIVATION GALLERY: DRUGSTORE BEAUTY

SPECIAL REPORT Buy Online

PURCHASE PREFERENCES Research examines e-commerce vs. in-store shopping habits at the category level In cooperation with:

Edge Marketing

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Contents E N D -TO - E N D ST R AT E G I E S F O R D R I V I N G C O NS U M E R D E M A N D

Buy In-Store

28

The Future of Cookies

Facing stricter limits on third-party data collection, digital marketers must seek new ways to engage with consumers without relying on behavioral targeted ads.

Buy Online

20

SPECIAL REPORTS

32

Working with Agencies

Special Report: Purchase Preferences

Using proprietary research, we drill down to the category level to examine how (and where) shoppers are purchasing products.

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Brand marketers are relying on their shopper agencies for expertise in collaboration, strategy and execution.

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VO LU M E 3 4 | ISS U E 6

October 2021 NEWS

DEPARTMENTS 6

Editor’s Note:

How (and Where) We Shop

10

P2PI Member Perspective:

Delivering the Best Customer Experiences

14 P2P Live: A Sneak Peek

12

We talk with David Allison in advance of his keynote address on behavioral science-based marketing during Path to Purchase Live: The Digital Experience.

P2PI Member Spotlight:

6Degrees Integrated Communications

36

Activation Gallery:

Drugstore Beauty

16 Roundup:

40

Path to Purchase Now

P2P Toolkit

Spotlight: Internet of Things

We present an overview of three Institute webinars focused on shopper strategies related to retail metdia, sampling and connected commerce.

44

Store Spotlight

Wilson Heritage Store

19 Targeting ‘Homegaters’

Campbell Snacks leverages its Pac-12 football sponsorship to execute a national program customized by retailer this fall.

47

Solution Provider News

49

Personnel Appointments/ Editorial Index

Editorial Advisory Board

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Path to Purchase IQ (USPS 4568, ISSN 2688-4984 ) is published monthly, except Feb, April, July, Aug. , by EnsembleIQ, 8550 W. Bryn Mawr Ave., Ste. 200, Chicago, IL 60631. Subscription rate for the U.S.: $90 one year; $166 two year; $14 single issue copy (pre- paid only); Canada and Mexico: $108 one year; $194 two year; $16 single issue copy (pre- paid only);Foreign: $122 one year; $233 two year; $16 single issue copy (pre- paid only); $60. Periodical postage paid at Chicago, IL 60631 Copyright 2021 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. Reprints, permissions and licensing, please contact Wright’s Media at ensembleiq@wrightsmedia.com or (877) 652-5295. POSTMASTER: send address changes to Path to Purchase IQ, 8550 W. Bryn Mawr Ave. Ste. 200, Chicago, IL 60631.

October 2021

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Editor’s Note

How (and Where) We Shop

Editorial Director Jessie Dowd, jdowd@ensembleiq.com Executive Editor Tim Binder, tbinder@ensembleiq.com Managing Editor Charlie Menchaca, cmenchaca@ensembleiq.com Associate Editor Jacqueline Barba, jbarba@ensembleiq.com

J E S S I E D O W D, E D I T O R I A L D I R E C T O R

Undoubtedly, the pandemic has had a dizzying effect on shopper behavior. While it’s clear e-commerce continues to boom, shoppers are also returning to physical stores — presenting marketers with a new sort of hybrid consumer who moves fluidly between channels.

To help our readers keep the pulse of this new, ever-evolving consumer, we sought out to poll 1,000 primary household grocery shoppers to take a look at their purchase activity — and find out how and where they’re buying specific products.

In our special report in cooperation with Edge Marketing in this issue, the Path to Purchase Institute shares the findings of this proprietary research that drills down to the category level to examine shopper purchase preferences. As it turns out, that purchase activity is more nuanced than you may think.

First, the not-so-breaking news: shoppers prefer to purchase items like bread (77%), fresh meat and seafood (74%), dairy and produce (both 73%) solely in-store. But, what’s most notable, is that the majority of survey respondents prefer in-store shopping for nearly all the product categories we polled them on (and even that one exception was nearly a 50/50 split).

It’s clear in-store still has the edge — but e-commerce is not far behind. Whereas the in-store purchasing preference category leaders were relatively straightforward, consumers’ online shopping preferences become a bit more complex. Among survey respondents, health/personal care and beauty is the most-shopped category either sometimes or always online at 51%. What else do they like to buy online? Cooking and baking supplies (48%), pet food/supplies (44%) and snacks (40%) were the next highest-ranking categories.

I have to admit, the e-commerce category leaders were not what I would

have guessed. Sure, pet food/supplies made sense, but snacks? Baking supplies?

Health/personal care and beauty? As in lipstick? As in body wash? These were somewhat unexpected, offering a good gut check on how quickly shopper behavior is really changing. I think it’s safe to say the consumer’s comfort level with shopping for all sorts of products in the digital realm has come a long way from 2019. I suppose it shouldn’t be all that surprising considering the rise and continued growth of things like Carvana or telehealth visits. If you can buy a car or visit your doctor online, certainly purchasing a new foundation (or deodorant or vitamins) isn’t so far-fetched now, is it?

Not only are shoppers buying new categories online, but they’re also shifting in the ways they like to receive those purchases. When asked to indicate how they preferred to receive online orders prior to the pandemic versus now, 38% prefer home delivery, up from 27% preCOVID. In-store pickup for online orders came in at 29% (versus 32% beforehand), and curbside pickup saw a big boost, doubling from 9% before the pandemic to 18% now. Considering that curbside services will continue to be made available at more and more retailers, it’s likely even more shoppers will opt for this fulfillment method in the future.

This data just skims the surface of our findings, so I encourage you to flip over to our in-depth coverage on page 20 to dig into the insights.

Which findings do you find most revealing?

Share your thoughts with us on Twitter with the hashtag #p2ppurchasepref and let’s discuss!

Hover your smartphone’s camera over this code to follow us on Twitter and get in on the conversation.

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Director/Member Content Patrycja Malinowska, pmalinowska@ensembleiq.com Managing Editor/Member Content Cyndi Loza, cloza@ensembleiq.com Editor Emeritus Bill Schober, bschober@ensembleiq.com Director – Production Ed Ward, eward@ensembleiq.com Creative Director Colette Magliaro, cmagliaro@ensembleiq.com Art Director Michael Escobedo, mescobedo@ensembleiq.com CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Erika Flynn, Ed Finkel, Michael Applebaum, Chris Gelbach, April Miller, Samantha Nelson

SALES & P2PI MEMBER DEVELOPMENT Vice President, Brand Director Eric Savitch, esavitch@ensembleiq.com Associate Director, Brand Partnerships Arlene Schusteff, 773.992.4414, aschusteff@ensembleiq.com Regional Sales Manager Orlando Llerandi, 678.591.8284, ollerandi@ensembleiq.com Senior Director/Member Development Patrick Hare, phare@ensembleiq.com Director/Member & Business Development Todd Turner, tturner@ensembleiq.com Manager/New Member Development Katrina Lopez, 813.732.5281, klopez@ensembleiq.com

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Ibotta Media Group is a performance media solution that gives brands the tools to track Ibotta redemptions and brand sales across all retailers while attributing digital ad performance to item-level omnichannel sales in real-time. Targeted digital ads are deployed via Ibotta’s partnership with The Trade Desk and reach consumers that have the highest propensity to purchase the advertised product on their next trip to the store. IMG, OMG.

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Member Perspective Thought leaders from select Path to Purchase Institute partners give voice to the member perspective.

Leading Consumers Down a Dead End? Learn from Tesla

BY G A I L K AY, V M LY& R C O M M E R C E

By now, it’s old news that the pandemic has fundamentally changed shopping behavior. People flocked online to shop — and they liked it, with digital sales models garnering twice the positive customer sentiment as traditional models.

In this increasingly digital, omnichannel world, the best customer experiences have succeeded in making the right product easy to find across all channels.

However, customer, media and sales data often exist in silos and cannot be easily leveraged to make agile, data-based marketing decisions. The marketing activity is not coordinated, and appears clunky, presenting as bad customer experience (CX) to shoppers. This results in more total marketing spend, less conversion and, at times, brand damage.

While it can be difficult to deliver the best customer experiences across a multitude of physical and digital touchpoints, there are examples of a job well done.

Consider the automotive industry, where the shopping, buying and owning portions of the journey are in the hands of auto dealers. Once a car hits the dealer

ecosystem, the automotive manufacturer loses control of the marketing and brand presentation. In a non-ideal partnership, this could lead to damaging the brand’s perception and a clunky user experience (UX) for the end-user.

Then there’s Tesla, and an onslaught of new entrants to the automotive marketplace (Carvana, Dealer.com) that have forced automotive manufacturers to change. Tesla’s highly personalized, no dealer/no heavy-handed sales pitch and fast, easy digital purchase is making the traditional dealer model obsolete. Tesla owns the entire experience, messaging to audiences throughout their full journey, and employs organic, data-based, personalized ambassador programs that put the customer in the driver’s seat (pun intended!).

Although not every CPG manufacturer can replicate Tesla’s process exactly, there is much to be gained from reorganizing marketing spend and centralizing the command chain.

Subaru, Mazda, Ford and others have pivoted during the pandemic to avoid the CX dead end that Tesla has conquered. By delivering coordinated, full journey marketing with performance at the center, they are building unified commerce ecosystems that: • Start and end with the customer. They know what the customer needs and they give it to them.

• Enable data-based decision-making with constant measurement and attribution to sales/conversion. They know what marketing is and isn’t working, so they can quickly optimize to improve conversion and efficiency.

• Are based toward action — always testing,

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learning and optimizing to build capability iteratively.

All of the above enables the manufacturer to provide turnkey marketing solutions to which dealers can opt in.

Attribution to sales/conversion provides proof that a coordinated, full-journey approach, with performance marketing at the core, is more effective than anything dealers can do on their own — driving more sales with the same or less marketing investment, and leaving competition without these capabilities in the dust.

CPG marketing looks a lot like automotive before the Tesla disruption.

Customer, media and sales data live in silos, and marketing is uncoordinated, redundant and full of friction. The best approach is to coordinate as much of the marketing across the organization and budgets as possible, and execute marketing dollars within the retailer ecosystem. You might consider: • Mapping the existing and desired customer experience. Identify opportunities and gaps, and prioritize them based on predicted business impact.

• Building a plan to address the prioritized opportunities/gaps first.

• Determining data streams needed to establish and measure against key performance indicators.

• Focusing on building deeper relationships with retailers for a full coordinated view of shopper behavior. Meet shoppers where they are on the journey.

By following these steps, you will be able to orchestrate audience insights using media strategy and conversion tactics, while driving incremental growth and building your brand’s experience. IQ

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Gail Kay is executive vice president, managing director, at VMLY&R Commerce, where she specializes in delivering datadriven, creative commerce solutions. She has led B2B and B2C client engagements in a broad range of categories, including automotive and auto aftermarket, consumer packaged goods, industrial products, food service and OTC pharmaceuticals.

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Member Spotlight

6Degrees Integrated Communications Q&A with Adrianne Gaffney Wotherspoon, chief strategist & managing partner of the marketing agency

P2PIQ: What does your agency offer to help solve its clients’ problems?

WOTHERSPOON: It’s an exhilarating time to work in the shopper space and in Canada, where we’re based, is no different.

These days every moment is a moment of shop, and channels are responding with more opportunities for conversion. Strong data is critical but can be challenging with Canadian privacy laws. We’ve become even more entrepreneurial on behalf of our clients as a result. Everything we do is fueled by data and insight when we leverage our proprietary suite of tools called ConversionCompass. We mine for and/or validate behavioral trends down to the community or retailer. In an evolving world, we provide certainty and effective ideas along the full path to purchase, rooted in verifiable insight and tested for maximum effectiveness.

P2PIQ:: Describe a recent example of your work.

WOTHERSPOON: We’re proud of our work for Royale, one of Canada’s leading personal paper brands that symbolizes softness by featuring kittens on packs. Our tools showed that during these difficult times, consumers are looking for turnkey altruism that helps them feel good about doing their part, even

with tightened household budgets. With “the kitten brand,” we partnered with animal shelters to bring awareness and funding to the cause.

The success of the program was due in part to a strong shopper component at its heart. We featured shelter pets on packs and encouraged conversion with a purchase offer to donate to Canadian shelters and a coupon for a future Royale product. It was a quadruple win for shoppers, retailers, the brand and, most importantly, the 100,000 pets at Canadian shelters seeking the joy and companionship of a forever home.

P2PIQ: How does your company use its P2PI membership resources?

WOTHERSPOON: P2PI is the one aggregated source we turn to regularly. We particularly enjoy learning how advancements in adtech are being leveraged, specifically within the world of shopper. As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, P2PI’s webinars have been an ongoing source of value — ensuring we’re continuing to see new perspectives and opening up our minds to new ways of thinking. And while we’ve been tracking Canadianspecific shopping behaviors on our own, having updates through P2PI webinars about the state of the nation south of the border has helped support what we’ve identified as short-term, longer-term and regionally-specific behaviors — from both shoppers and retailers.

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P2PIQ: How has your agency evolved in the past couple of years?

WOTHERSPOON: We’re using our conversion mindset in more contexts.

We’ve become insight leaders in shopper behavior with investments that now allow us to mine and use data in an incredibly effective manner. That’s only part of it, however. Shopper work sometimes gets a bad rap for being light on style. It needs to be insightful and connective in time and channel, as well as in idea and design. We believe that we make beautiful, effective work and still meet fast-moving, results-oriented needs. We understand the world of what sells, so we now use our insight, strategy and design skills to help our clients develop a richer innovation pipeline.

We also entered the cannabis space, working with global leader Canopy Growth to drive conversion of legal cannabis in Canada. We were the first shopper marketing agency in that space here, architecting shopper journeys as we learned about pain points and opportunities to grow conversion.

Shoppers are moving through the conversion journey in exciting new ways.

We have data and insights on our side. The future belongs to those who can dream big, think quickly and act with certainty. IQ

MEMBER UPDATE Path to Purchase Institute is delighted to welcome the following new members to our community: AdAdapted, Agency Five Eighty, AMSCAN, Bel Brands USA, Campbell Meals & Beverages, DoubleVerify, Elanco Animal Health, JBS Foods USA, Lemi Shine, OnTrak Software, Shopkick, The GRO Agency and The Wilson Group.

Join the hundreds of companies that benefit from P2PI every day with strategies and best practices on succeeding in today’s chaotic omnicommerce environment. For more information, contact Katrina Lopez at klopez@ensembleiq.com.

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Institute Events

Q&A Behavioral Science-Based Marketing Taking a sneak peek at the keynote from Path to Purchase Live: The Digital Experience

BY T I M B I N D E R

David Allison, founder of Vancouver, British Columbia-based The Valuegraphics Project, will deliver the keynote address at Path to Purchase Live: The Digital Experience, taking place Nov. 2-4, 2021.

Acknowledging travel restrictions and fluctuating effects of the pandemic, the Path to Purchase Institute has transformed the event plan into an enhanced, multifaceted virtual offering that allows the audience to attend safely, and remotely, without sacrificing opportunities to interact and exchange ideas.

The event will feature a curated lineup of conference sessions, as well as access to a bonus content library, interactive chat features, breakout sessions and live Q&A opportunities with event speakers and thought leaders.

In part one of a Q&A interview published on PathtoPurchaseIQ.com in August, Allison discussed behavorial science and his status as a consumer behavior expert. He helps organizations understand the behaviors of their consumers by using behavioral science techniques and a data set he’s built so his client companies can engage with consumers better, or more specifically.

“We’ve built the world’s very first database of what everybody on the planet cares about,” Allison said in part one.

“We’ve done 600,000 surveys around the world — more than half a million surveys — and we’ve measured what their values are, what their wants and needs and expectations are. We use 152 different languages. We’re accurate in 180 countries now.”

In part two of the Q&A here, Allison tells us what attendees can expect during his Nov. 2 keynote address.

P2PIQ: What will the takeaways be from your presentation?

Allison: Number one, we are going to reveal specific behavioral science secrets for marketing. Marketing is all about how you connect and form deep, meaningful relationships with consumers and prospects as well. If you know what they care about, more than anything, it’s pretty easy now.

Marketing becomes much simpler if you’re not guessing about what might work — if you know for sure what to say to get folks to go, ‘Wow that’s for me.’ So we’re going to deliver on that.

P2PIQ: What will you share about “values thinking”?

Allison: We’re going to teach you how to use data-driven techniques to sway shoppers toward your brand. So whether you’re a manufacturer or a retailer or anybody in one of the adjacent industries,

“Whether you’re a manufacturer or a retailer or anybody in one of the adjacent industries, I’m going to do my best to show you how the data that we present can be used to make any decision that you have in front of you.” David Allison October 2021

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I’m going to do my best to show you how the data that we present can be used to make any decision that you have in front of you. How do I change up my website? What’s the most important thing for my next promotion? How do I hire the right people? What’s any question that you might be faced with, and it all revolves around learning how to use what we call “values thinking.” … Keeping values at the center of that decision-making process because, after all, what we’re all trying to do is get some people to do something. And if values are the thing that makes that happen, you want to make decisions based on value.

P2PIQ: And, the final key takeaway?

Allison: The third takeaway: I’ll give you some specific examples around CX [customer experience] and UX [user experience] that will really prove the point, and ring the bell.

Now, here’s the disclaimer on that.

I’m not an expert on food shopping.

That’s not my job. My job is to come in and say, “Here’s what I found that your customers and prospects care about.”

So you’re the experts. You’re the ones who are actually going to know what to do with what I’m about to tell you … but I’m going to do my level best to bring a couple of interesting examples of specific ideas, tactics and strategies that you might want to employ based on what the research uncovers. IQ To learn more or register, visit PathtoPurchaseLive.com or hover over this code with your smartphone’s camera.

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OCTOBER 12 - 13, 2021 retailmediainaction.com

Share retailer partnership best practices, tactical activations and organizational strategies.

Present actionable ideas for driving brand growth through retail media activation.

Analyze the current landscape and forecast the future of Retail Media throughout the marketing ecosystem.

BECOME A MEMBER TODAY! To learn more about membership packages that align with your goals, please contact your sales representative or visit p2pi.org/membership.

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PATH TO PURCHASE NOW

Retail Media, Sampling and Connected Commerce An overview of three Institute webinars focused on shopper strategies

BY E R I K A F LY N N

T

he relevance of retail media networks continues to grow, accelerated by the massive shift toward online grocery shopping throughout the pandemic. In a Path to Purchase Now webinar discussion in July, titled “Making Actionable Sense Out of Retail Media,” panelists examined how leading brands are utilizing third-party tools to strengthen their retail media activation by reaching shoppers off-platform to drive engagement and, ultimately, sales.

Mars Food, a segment of Mars Inc., has focused on commerce experiences across the shopper’s journey, centering on one of the company’s five guiding principles, mutuality or driving shared benefit. “Brands and retailers have a very symbiotic relationship, so this is another opportunity for us to continue driving mutual growth and adding value to consumers,” said Mars’ Drew Brinckerhoff, omnicommerce marketing director for North America. The ever-changing evolution of shopper behavior, need states, types of baskets and shopping occasions, social commerce,

“Brands and retailers have a very symbiotic relationship, so this is another opportunity for us to continue driving mutual growth and adding value to consumers.”

Drew Brinckerhoff, Mars

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quick commerce and more fill-in trips — “that’s really what’s driving a lot of the changes that we’re seeing,” he added.

Shoppers want to build their baskets faster and easier, and retail media helps them do that, added Brian Spencer, product marketing director with Kroger Precision Marketing (KPM), the retail media business of Kroger. It also makes brand advertising more effective, he argued, both by reducing advertising waste through more precise targeting and by providing accountability through that closed-loop measurement back to sales.

Consumers’ high level of expectations in terms of shoppability has pushed KPM to continue to explore different connectivity

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PATH TO PURCHASE NOW options, beyond its owned and operated platform for shoppers to engage and buy brands. “That’s powerful, but we need to be reaching consumers off-site as well,” Spencer said. The company has formed partnerships in television, audio and with platforms like Chicory, “where we’re able to influence those mid-funnel moments of consideration,” he said.

Chicory, a contextual commerce platform, plays right at the apex of that shoppable moment, explained the company’s President Jason Young. During the pandemic, Chicory saw a shift as consumers began to expect to be able to engage directly out of inspirational, product-driving content moments into transactions.

“Like the digital shelf, these off-property contextual moments are great opportunities for those types of advertising messages to intersect,” Young said.

While distribution of product from a brand perspective remains critically important, companies must think about merchandising in the traditional way as well as in these channels that didn’t exist before. “In media, we have this amazing ability that has emerged to make almost everything shoppable,” said Brinckerhoff. “We have to make sure that whenever the shopper is in that mindset, they’re able to do that, and that’s what it’s really about.”

As consumers are ingesting more media, so come the opportunities. “Understanding the media consumption habits and how they’re changing along with the impact of the purchasing cycle, and marrying those two together, is really going to be key for how companies move forward as they’re trying to drive that overall sale,” said Amie Owen, U.S. head of shopper at Universal McCann.

The panelists agreed that shopper experience is key when looking for third-party solution providers. Consumers want personalization and a frictionless experience — whether scrolling through a feed or watching a show. “How quickly they can buy it or with how many clicks is something that’s really relevant for us,” Owen said.

EMERGING OPTIONS FOR PRODUCT SAMPLING As shopper behavior changed during the pandemic, brands were forced to re-examine their traditional methods of product sampling while finding alternative options of getting product in consumers’ hands. In a Path to Purchase Now webinar in August, titled “Emerging Options for Product Sampling,” panelists spoke about the current state of product sampling and offered ideas to meet these changing behaviors and align with today’s retail realities.

“Sampling is the hook that gets consumers and shoppers to come visit us week after week,” said Dilini Fernando, vice president of marketing at Freeosk. “But it’s just one entry point of what’s becoming a messier discovery experience for shoppers these days. Digitizing that moment of truth and being able to bring consumers into what’s going to be a lifelong conversation with the brands is a really important piece.”

Fernando’s team works in partnership with many brands,

October 2021

16-18-P2PIQ_roundup2.indd 17

including Dude Products with its at-home and on-the-go Dude Wipes. For this newer category in the toilet paper aisle, trial and getting people to have an experience with the product is something that a piece of media or a funny commercial can’t do alone, explained Dude Wipes CEO Sean Riley. “We have to get the product in people’s hands and change their minds,” he said, adding that the company stayed committed to its sampling ventures and programs throughout 2020, even as sales were up and inventory was down, because they believe so strongly in sampling’s long-term benefits for the brand.

Tracy Galindo, who heads up cultural and specialty marketing at Jewel-Osco, said her team uses sampling to educate and entertain shoppers, which results in a long-lasting opportunity to relate and connect with them. The retailer’s sampling programs were evolving pre-pandemic, but certainly even more so now. Its team of nearly 150 ambassadors has played a critical role in promoting items — albeit virtually as of late — in exchanges that enabled the retailer to instead mail brand samples and promotional items to consumers. “It’s all about innovation and flexibility,” she said. “[The pandemic] taught the whole world to be flexible with many alternative plans in place.”

Riley said for his brand, in particular, getting the product in people’s hands — especially as toilet paper became scarce early on in the pandemic — helped the company grow the category along with its own sales, equating to a win in any retailer’s book.

“Many consumers may have never tried our product before, but statistics show 70% will remain in the category long-term.”

Galindo said that while the COVID-19 crisis forced brands and retailers to step up their game, sampling is “the icing on the proverbial cake for my team. It’s part of what we do when we’re selling programs and opportunities for our brands.” Now, instead of the 30 to 40 tables all providing different opportunities in any given store, Jewel-Osco has shifted to more drive-up-and-go and e-commerce efforts with products and coupons, as well as through its virtual advisors in kiosks with displayed items. “That’s the present and future of sampling,” Galindo said.

Retail will continue to see more digitization, agreed Fernando.

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PATH TO PURCHASE NOW “We’ve seen that with the rise of retail media networks — all the different technologies that are helping shoppers along their path to purchase — and sampling is one of them.” Being able to meet shoppers when they want to discover, learn and make the most out of that trip will bring about more opportunities to capture data and fuel the relationships with shoppers.

CONNECTED COMMERCE: PLANNING FOR SUCCESS WITH OMNICHANNEL SHOPPERS As shoppers fast-tracked adoption of online grocery early in the pandemic and have since continued to alter where and how they shop, the need to provide them with seamlessly integrated brand experiences has become increasingly important. In a Path to Purchase Now session in August, titled “Connected Commerce: Planning for Success with Omnichannel Shoppers,” panelists discussed how connected commerce can drive results.

The changes in consumer behavior have brought about great opportunities for brands and retailers, said Kandi Arrington, senior vice president of customer development at The Mars Agency and moderator of the webinar. “Shoppers who are making purchases online and in-store spend more, but an important note is that they shop more with brands and retailers that offer consistent customer services online and offline in the store environment,” she said.

“Retailers can’t do this alone.

They need supplier partners to help lead the thinking, and as much as retailers are pushing for omnichannel, seamless experiences, they don’t have it all figured out.”

Kandi Arrington, The Mars Agency

As everyone is also rushing to determine the most effective delivery methods to give customers what they want, it’s important to focus on efficiency, demand, seamless experiences and measurement, Arrington noted. “Retailers can’t do this alone,” she added. “They need supplier partners to help lead the thinking, and as much as retailers are pushing for omnichannel, seamless experiences, they don’t have it all figured out. The opportunity is there to lean in and deliver omnichannel-led plans instead of just a media plan that is centered around the shopper and providing what they want, when they want it and where they want it.”

Arrington posed several questions to companies: How are you looking at your categories and driving recommendations? How are you proactively managing JBPs, improving your digital shelf and really coming forward with data-driven strategies? Do you have strong insights? Are your hands-on key partners in-house or

October 2021

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externally tapped into your strategy, and really being consistent and connected with the experience that you’re trying to create for the shopper?

“The old model isn’t really relevant anymore,” she stressed.

“Companies won’t succeed with a top-down, linear, nonsequential approach.” The purchase or the click can happen at any point and the new model that is forming is shopper-centric, she emphasized. “In today’s environment, being fluid and having the right message in the right medium, creating a precise and targeted plan for that shopper experience is critical to success.”

There needs to be movement away from thinking about the store in a silo and toward a holistic seamless approach of thinking about the shelf in total, both in-store and online, with media that drives a consistent experience for the shopper and retailtainment that lives not only in the store in a demo, but also in the digital space.

But that may be easier said than done, Arrington noted.

Retailers are still struggling to connect their teams internally, so it’s very important that suppliers, brand and marketing teams work to break down those silos and look for partners who can help supplement a one-team, one-plan approach internally and externally. “Shoppers are noticing when there are disconnects in experience and when it happens, you don’t get that incremental spend from omnichannel, you get abandoned carts and we lose trust and loyalty,” she said.

Additional highlights from the webinar include: • Panelists Raquel Crocker, director of sales for the beauty team at Henkel, and Meghan Heltne, Target team lead at The Mars Agency on the Henkel Target business, led session attendees through a recent program at Target for Henkel’s Color Boost line.

• Liv Till, shopper marketing for Walmart and Sam’s Club at Mars Wrigley, and Taylor Lewis, customer development director at The Mars Agency, led listeners through the recent Skittles Gummies launch at Walmart.

• Alicia Wieburg, senior omni marketing manager at Mars Petcare, spoke about the “Extend a Paw & Help Hungry Pets” program at Walmart that recently concluded. IQ P2PI Member Exclusive: Hover over this code with your smartphone’s camera to learn how the “Extend a Paw” program elevated the pet category at Walmart.

| 18 | pathtopurchaseiq.com 9/20/21 1:34 PM

Sports Sponsorship

Campbell Snacks Campaign Targets ‘Homegaters’

BY C H R I S G E L B AC H

With the goal of uniting hungry sports fans with its classic snack brands, Campbell Soup Co.’s Campbell Snacks division has become an official partner of the Pac-12 collegiate athletic conference and the Pac-12 football championship.

In an environment of ongoing uncertainty, the program is designed to appeal both to tailgaters and to “homegaters” who are enjoying the game and entertaining at home.

According to a June 2020 Harris Poll in partnership with Genesco Sports Marketing Agency, 76% of fans said they were interested in bringing the tailgate home.

Stephen Chriss, Campbell Snacks vice president of shopper and omnichannel marketing, also referred to a proprietary Campbell Snacks Big Game Study from 2020 that found that nearly one-quarter of shoppers reported that big game celebrations are all about the snacks. “We believe our Campbell Snacks products, led by Goldfish crackers, Kettle chips and Snyder’s of Hanover pretzels, should be the snack of choice for these occasions,” he says.

The target market for the campaign is any in-store or online shoppers who are purchasing snacks for tailgating, “homegating” or other related activities this fall. In addition to the three aforementioned brands, the campaign will also feature Cape Cod chips, Pepperidge Farm bakery items, Late July tortilla chips and Snack Factory Pretzel Crisps.

“It is key to our shopper and omnichannel marketing for our brands to be a part of the consumer cultural

conversation,” Chriss says. “The Pac-12 provides us the opportunity to bring key retail partners, Kroger and Albertsons, a specific initiative that is relevant west of Colorado, leveraging the Pac-12 assets.”

This effort will be part of a larger national campaign that includes 11 major retailers, including Ahold, Meijer, Publix, Target, Whole Foods, Amazon and Wakefern.

In western markets, the campaign will include a sweepstakes that gives fans a chance to win a trip to the Pac-12 championship game on Dec. 3 in Las Vegas. In other markets, the program will extend beyond the Pac-12 to give sweepstakes participants a chance to win a 2022 Chevy Silverado. The call to enter the sweepstakes will be featured on in-store displays that drive consumers to visit TackleTheTailgate.com for a chance to win one of the grand prizes or 1,000 instant-win prizes.

“Our programming is customized by customer, with some consistent elements that will run nationally,” Chriss says. “We believe in leveraging the right vehicles/ touchpoints versus a 360[-degree] program.

It is about the right message at the right time to the right shopper.”

The program includes highly targeted “Game On” digital media placements

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featuring Campbell brands at Kroger and Albertsons, as well as Target, Whole Foods and other retailers. A Goldfish-specific football-themed advertising campaign will also be deployed across multiple consumer and shopper touchpoints to help amplify the in-store programming.

Displays for the campaign include a national lobby version featuring a “Game On” truck carrying Campbell Snacks products and a goal post held up by a wall of various Campbell Snacks brands.

In western markets, the displays will focus on the Pac-12 partnership and giveaway with the Pac-12 logo between the goal posts. In other markets, the displays will focus on the Silverado sweepstakes and include an extra snack stand wrapped in football field print.

“Our in-store displays are one of our most critical elements,” Chriss says. “Our focus is to break through the in-store environment through engaging in-store theater that includes multiple points of interruption. We strive to engage a diverse shopper/consumer base in a bigger way that gets our shoppers to stop for a moment as they see our displays.”

Other supporting elements include product sampling, on-site and offsite digital retail media leveraging the in-store signage, and coupons.

The campaign launched on July 27 with social media posts, a news release and targeted media outreach. The in-store displays will be activated nationally in September and October, and the Pac-12 sweepstakes culminates on Dec. 3 with the Pac-12 football championship.

Success of the campaign will be gauged by metrics that include product sell-through, consumer engagement in the sweepstakes and giveaways, and consumer sentiment. Campbell Snacks worked with The Mars Agency on all the shopper elements of the campaign. IQ

| 19 | pathtopurchaseiq.com 9/20/21 1:34 PM

SPECIAL REPORT:

Purchase Preferences at the Category Level

ONE SIZE

DOESN’T FIT ALL

PROPRIETARY INSTITUTE RESEARCH REVEALS HOW E-COMMERCE VS. BRICK-AND-MORTAR SHOPPING HABITS DIFFER BY PRODUCT CATEGORY In cooperation with:

BY C H A R L I E M E N C H AC A

The COVID-19 pandemic-driven changes in shopper behavior are more nuanced than they appear. It’s no secret curbside pickup and “buy online, pick up in-store” (BOPIS) continue to flourish in these uncertain times. But the purchase activity warrants a closer look at the category level.

An online survey of 1,000 primary household grocery shoppers conducted in July 2021 by the Path to Purchase Institute examined shifts in behaviors such as online shopping and alternative fulfillment. Survey participants were asked overall questions about the products they’ve shopped for in the past month. They were then asked several questions about up to three product categories. The insights gleaned from their responses indicate that purchase preferences can vary across product categories in the grocery channel.

THE PURCHASE PROCESS Survey respondents indicated that writing out a shopping list and checking inventory at home are the most frequent pre-shop steps taken. Yet, the share of shoppers who take these steps varies widely by product.

Comparison shopping in-store using shelf labels is most common for frozen food, fresh meat/seafood, deli meat/cheese and canned goods.

Other steps, such as a Google/browser search, are used for more limited — but still important — sets of products, such as health/personal care and beauty, and cooking and baking supplies.

October 2021

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Buy In-Store

Buy Online October 2021

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SPECIAL REPORT: Purchase Preferences at the Category Level

1. WHERE SHOPPERS CURRENTLY SHOP

THE IN-STORE SHOPPER Brick-and-mortar shoppers are more apt to report no short-term or permanent impact on shopping behavior due to the pandemic — across most product categories, according to the survey.

More than three-quarters of bread shoppers in the survey (77%) shop the category in-store. The next category most often shopped solely in the physical store among survey respondents is fresh meat and seafood at 74% (see Chart 1).

Among the category-specific differences are: • Beverages: Since the pandemic began, there is a good selection anywhere they shop, survey respondents said.

• Cereal and bread: These shoppers are most concerned about prices.

• Prepared foods: The priority is the freshness/expiration date.

• Frozen foods: Respondents reported looking at the printed store circular before shopping.

THE SOMETIMES AND ALWAYS-ONLINE SHOPPER Among survey respondents, health/ personal care and beauty is the mostshopped category either sometimes online or always online at 51%. It’s

(PERCENTAGE OF SHOPPERS WHO PURCHASED EACH PRODUCT)

Bread

39% 77%

Dairy/dairy-alt

23%

73%

Snacks

27%

60%

40% 27%

73%

Fresh produce Frozen foods

67%

Fresh meat/seafood

33%

74%

Deli meat/cheese

26%

71%

29%

Cereal

66%

34%

Canned goods/soups

63%

37%

Pasta/rice Health/personal care/beauty

67%

Pet food/supplies Cooking/baking supplies Confectionery/candy

33%

49%

51%

Prepared foods

66%

34%

56%

44%

52%

48%

62%

Alcoholic beverages

38%

69%

Q. How do you typically shop for [product]?

31% Physical store only

Some/all online

Source: Purchase Preferences at the Category Level (Path to Purchase Institute, August 2021)

2. PREFERENCES FOR GROCERY DELIVERY BEFORE PANDEMIC AND TODAY

FAST FACT:

Comparison shopping in-store using shelf labels is most common in the frozen food, fresh meat and deli categories.

61%

Beverages (non-alcoholic)

Before the pandemic

27% 32% Delivery to my home

Today

In-store pickup

9%

44%

Curbside pickup

Didn’t/don’t order online

38% 29% 18%

32%

Q. Please indicate how you preferred to receive your purchased items before the COVID-19 pandemic and how you prefer to receive your purchased items today when you purchased/purchase online. (n=1,000) Source: Purchase Preferences at the Category Level (Path to Purchase Institute, August 2021)

October 2021

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You know how some people are really into essential oils? Or CrossFit? That’s us, but it’s with converting shoppers into buyers. We’ve reimagined an entire agency around conversion.

Check out the new WelcomeToEdge.com to see how our obsession can help you succeed.

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9/20/21 1:36 PM

SPECIAL REPORT: Purchase Preferences at the Category Level

3. TOP CHOICES FOR RECEIVING ONLINE ORDERS

FAST FACT:

(PERCENTAGE OF THOSE WHO SHOPPED ONLINE)

51% of grocery shoppers

purchase their health/ personal care and beauty items either sometimes online or always online. followed by cooking and baking supplies at 48% (Chart 1).

After trying online shopping at the height of the pandemic, many shoppers have made online shopping part of their regular routine in the following categories: Beverages, dairy/dairy-alt, snacks, frozen foods, fresh meat/seafood, deli meat/cheese, cereal, pasta/rice, health/personal care/beauty, and pet food/ supplies. Respondents found some products hard to find at the height of the pandemic, such as bread, frozen foods, deli meat/ cheese, cereal and pasta/rice.

Online shoppers are heavy users of online tools across categories. In some cases, they’re more likely to use non-digital resources before purchasing in categories such as dairy, fresh meat and seafood, and deli meat/cheese.

Additionally, online shoppers are more likely to care about the following factors in the indicated categories: • Product ingredients/dietary considerations (for dairy, snacks, frozen foods and cereal) • Innovation/new products to try (dairy/dairy-alt, prepared foods) • Package functionality (snacks, fresh produce, frozen foods, pasta/rice and prepared foods) • Package appearance (pasta/rice)

FULFILLMENT PREFERENCES As anticipated, the continued adoption of online shopping is driven by those who are following a more cautious path during the pandemic. “At the beginning of the pandemic I shopped in stores once every few weeks, but stopped completely when COVID-19 numbers went up,” said one survey respondent. “Since then (approximately October 2020), I have not been in a store.

I shop online and have everything delivered. And the infection numbers have gone up again, so I have no plans to change anytime soon.” Survey respondents who indicated they are less concerned about the pandemic are more likely to shop in-store.

Preferences for delivery have changed markedly since the

October 2021

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Respondents who ordered online

Home delivery

In-store pickup

Curbside pickup

Beverages (non-alcoholic)

68

60%

38%

25%

Bread

40

42%

42%

30%

Dairy/dairy-alt

48

46%

35%

44%

Snacks

69

62%

39%

32%

Fresh produce

47

45%

40%

43%

Frozen foods

58

53%

31%

40%

Fresh meat/seafood

46

54%

35%

39%

Deli meat/cheese

50

50%

50%

28%

Cereal

59

49%

41%

36%

Canned goods/soups

64

61%

33%

36%

Pasta/rice

58

53%

36%

34%

Health/personal care/beauty

89

76%

37%

19%

Prepared foods

60

65%

42%

38%

Pet food/supplies

77

65%

38%

16%

Cooking/baking supplies

84

55%

45%

35%

Confectionery/candy

66

77%

35%

21%

Alcoholic beverages

54

61%

46%

35%

Products shopped for in past month

Q. When you shop online for [product], which of the following is/are your preferred method(s) of receiving your items?

Source: Purchase Preferences at the Category Level (Path to Purchase Institute, August 2021)

pandemic. Use of online ordering has jumped — currently only one-third of survey respondents said they do not order online compared to 44% before the pandemic began (Chart 2). “Some of these changes in the e-commerce landscape will likely be of a long-term nature — in light of the possibility of new waves of the pandemic,” said one respondent in the survey.

Home delivery has become the most preferred method, comprising 38% of those survey respondents who order online.

Home delivery is especially common within 56% of the subgroup of shoppers who are most concerned about COVID-19, compared to 28% of those who indicated they don’t live any differently.

Usage of curbside pickup has doubled from 9% to 18%. “I am almost exclusively doing curbside pickup and found I like it — very quick and efficient,” said one survey respondent. “I will go into a store for prescriptions or when curbside did not have a substitute and will shop while inside.”

Fulfillment preferences also vary at the product category level (Chart 3). Home delivery is preferred for non-perishables, with 77% of online shoppers going this route for confectionery

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SPECIAL REPORT: Purchase Preferences at the Category Level

4. CHANGES IN KEY SHOPPING BEHAVIORS THEN AND NOW, PART I Using a five-point scale between two characteristics, shoppers indicated their typical behavior before the COVID-19 pandemic, and what they do today.

Planner

Impulsive

In & Out

Browse

Stock Up

Few Items

Before Pandemic (as recalled in July 2021)

35%

16%

24%

11% 15%

22% 11%

21%

15%

16%

23%

32%

22%

13%

26%

16%

23%

Pandemic Current State (July 2021)

42%

20%

20% 7%10%

32%

11% 17%*

19%

25%

11% 18%

*26% among those least concerned about COVID-19

Source: Purchase Preferences at the Category Level (Path to Purchase Institute, August 2021)

items and 76% for health/personal care and beauty products. Other categories scoring high for deliveries are prepared foods and pet food/supplies, each at 65%. A common theme among these categories is that overall they are less urgently needed in certain situations.

Curbside pickup is used the most for dairy and dairy alternative products (44%), fresh produce (43%) and frozen foods (40%) — all items that need to remain refrigerated in some capacity.

The most popular categories for in-store pickup do not have a common thread.

They are deli meat and cheese at 50%, alcoholic beverages at 46% and cooking/ baking supplies at 45%.

27%

5. MEAL PLANNING AND TYPE Using a five-point scale between two characteristics, shoppers indicated their typical behavior before the COVID-19 pandemic, and what they do today.

Strict Meal Plan

Spontaneous Meal Plan

More Homemade/ From Scratch

More Convenient/ Quick and Easy

Before Pandemic (as recalled in July 2021)

13% 9%

30%

20%

28%

20%

13%

30%

18%

20%

Pandemic Current State (July 2021)

20%

17%

30%

14%

20%

26%

18%

27%

13% 16%

Source: Purchase Preferences at the Category Level (Path to Purchase Institute, August 2021)

A CLOSER LOOK Within most product categories, at least half of the respondents indicated they have no permanent changes in their purchase preferences. The categories with the highest amount of respondents affirming no change in purchase preferences are dairy and dairy alternatives at 62% and fresh meat and seafood at 61%.

One category that is showing change is alcoholic beverages. A total of 26% of respondents said they are permanently buying a different type or variety of alcohol as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The subgroup making the most change in this category are those who identified themselves in the survey as not letting the pandemic deter them from living life normally, but still remaining careful.

October 2021

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FAST FACT:

77% of bread shoppers

purchase in the category only at the physical store.

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SPECIAL REPORT: Purchase Preferences at the Category Level

Understanding How Shoppers Live (and Shop) There have been plenty of things said about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and its effect on how shopping has changed. I’ve heard enthusiasm and chatter about the growth of e-commerce and frictionless services that retailers have adopted in response to a more safety-conscious shopper. However, there is seemingly minimal depth of discussion on how different audiences and their COVID-19 response to how

BY L I Z F O G E R T Y they live has driven change in their points of influence.

Among primary grocery shoppers, four distinct lifestyle behaviors have come to light in Path to Purchase Institute’s research. Shoppers are evenly split between being two lifestyles that are more cautious and two that try to live normally, with some differences based on age, race and gender. The increase in online purchasing driven by COVID-19 is undisputed. Perhaps surprising to many, in almost all categories studied, a majority of shoppers across all four lifestyles always make their purchases in physical stores. This remains particularly true for perishables like bread, meat, fresh produce and dairy. A small percentage of more traditional stock-up purchases like health/beauty/personal care and baking supplies shoppers claim these categories are purchased “always online.” Nonetheless, across audiences, more than half of their purchases in these categories remain in-store.

On the surface, all groups demonstrate similar shopper behaviors. The actions of checking inventory at home and writing out a shopping list fall in the top one and two positions, respectively, for steps used in product purchasing across all surveyed categories. As we progress one level deeper into the data, the behavioral and tactical preferences and product purchase drivers between the identified groups show some distinction.

The survey data indicated that the cautious shoppers

October 2021

20-27-P2PIQ_cover story2.indd 26

are the ones embracing online shopping. Therefore, it will come as no surprise that digital tactics with online price comparison and looking for digital/online coupons delivered a higher than average preference among shoppers sheltering in place and those who go out if necessary, compared to the other two audiences. The product factors these two groups consider and weigh more heavily in their purchase decisions become important for a brand’s communication and activation planning. Across 10 or more categories, shoppers from the two cautious groups claimed that packaging size, package functionality, and the availability of new varieties and product innovation were more important than brand when making a product choice.

The utilization of online tactics and more traditional in-store tactics seems to be in balance with these shoppers with comparing prices at shelf and reviewing the printed store flyer as steps used frequently across categories.

COVID-19 has created a more complex shopper landscape than ever before, one where a more engaged shopper resides. Shoppers are making choices based on their personal need in achieving a level of safety that is both comfortable and convenient. This desire has, in turn, caused them to adapt their shopping behavior across categories and embrace both digital/online practices and in-store influences.

So what does this mean to manufacturers as they adapt and plan for 2022 forward? Manufacturers need to invest more time in understanding the relationship of “how I live” and “how I shop.” By doing so and unlocking that relationship, it will allow brands to make strategic decisions and subsequent tactical choices — using both online and in-store vehicles — that are driven by purchase factors and preferences grounded in shopper understanding.

Liz Fogerty is chief strategy officer at Edge Marketing. In the world of borderless retail, Edge is conversion obsessed. Edge creates enduring bonds between people and brands through agility, brave thinking and retail prowess.

| 26 | pathtopurchaseiq.com 9/20/21 1:36 PM

SPECIAL REPORT: Purchase Preferences at the Category Level

6. CHANGES IN KEY SHOPPING BEHAVIORS THEN AND NOW, PART II

Methodology

Using a five-point scale between two characteristics, shoppers indicated their typical behavior before the COVID-19 pandemic, and what they do today.

Brand Loyal

New Brands

Online

In-Store

Before Pandemic (as recalled in July 2021)

21%

15%

35%

13% 15%

7% 6% 16%

13%

59%

Pandemic Current State (July 2021)

16% 11%

39%

16% 18%

Source: Purchase Preferences at the Category Level (Path to Purchase Institute, August 2021)

14%

9%

21%

44%*

*54% among those least concerned about COVID-19

Another category exhibiting change is cooking and baking supplies. There were 24% of respondents who indicated they are buying a different type or variety of supplies, and 23% indicated they are permanently buying these products online instead of instore. The subgroup making the most change in the cooking and baking supplies category were those who identified themselves as going out in public if necessary and taking safety precautions when they do.

OTHER BEHAVIORS Survey respondents affirmed that they are more apt to plan ahead, stock up when shopping, and be in and out of stores more quickly compared to before the pandemic (Chart 4).

FAST FACT:

Curbside pickup is preferred most for the dairy and dairy alternative, fresh produce and frozen food categories.

October 2021

20-27-P2PIQ_cover story2.indd 27

12%

The Path to Purchase Institute fielded an online survey of 1,000 shoppers from July 14-22, 2021. To qualify, participants had to be the primary grocery shopper for their household and have purchased at least one of the product categories in the past month.

The demographic breakdown is as follows: Gen Z ................................................ 5% Millennial ..................................... 31% Gen X ..............................................26% Baby Boomer ..............................33% Mature ............................................. 5% Survey participants were asked overall questions about the products they shopped for in the past month. They were then asked several questions regarding up to three product categories.

Shoppers’ meal preparation behavior also has changed.

Compared to before the pandemic, they follow more strict meal plans and also do more homemade cooking (Chart 5).

Finally, in-store shopping and brand loyalty both saw some decline compared to before the pandemic (Chart 6).

LOOKING AHEAD The trends in the survey indicate that in-store remains king, but alternative fulfillment and online shopping continue to gain ground. Marketers in the health/beauty care and cooking/baking supplies categories should consider leveraging more digital marketing for an omnichannel approach to reach shoppers, as more of them are now pivoting to online.

There also are implications for those shoppers who will continue utilizing curbside pickup and home delivery.

Whereas some of these shoppers might have once been receptive to displays and signage due to a standard practice of buying in brick-and-mortar, the days have come where they might be missing in-store activations of key campaigns.

Diversification in tactics will continue to be key. IQ

More at P2PI.org

Institute members have access to complete results from the survey, which includes more than 20 charts and accompanying analysis.

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HOW BRANDS CAN THRIVE IN A WORLD WITHOUT COOKIES Facing stricter limits on third-party data collection, digital marketers must seek new ways to engage with consumers without relying on behavioral targeted ads

BY M I C H A E L A P P L E B A U M

October 2021

28-31-P2PIQ_cookie feature.indd 28

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HOW BRANDS CAN THRIVE IN A WORLD WITHOUT COOKIES

One of the most pressing issues facing today’s marketers can be summed up, albeit glibly, by the following question: What will brands do when the cookie crumbles?

The cookie, of course, refers to those small text files embedded in internet addresses that have become a flashpoint in the ongoing debate over consumer data privacy, thanks to their ubiquitous use in targeted digital advertising.

Google is set to complete a gradual phasing out of the third-party tracking device from its Chrome browser in the second half of 2023. Last June, the company announced that it would delay the move for one year in the midst of backlash from influential players in the digital media ecosystem, including ad tech firms that depend on cookies to collect information about a web user’s browsing history, build audience segments and deliver precision-targeted ads.

Other browsers, such as Firefox and Safari, have been blocking cookies for years, but Chrome is by far the most

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widely used desktop web browser, with about a 60% U.S. market share, according to Statista.

How deeply Google’s decision will impact any given marketer depends on the extent to which the brand relies on programmatic ads fueled by third-party cookies (including ads that retarget or “chase” users around the internet with an offer for an item they’ve browsed or purchased before) to drive engagement, conversions and sales.

All told, U.S. marketers are projected to spend $191 billion, or two-thirds of their overall media budgets, on digital ads in 2021, according to eMarketer. Within the digital display ad category, the researcher notes, the overwhelming majority of spending (90%) is devoted to programmatic channels.

“The death of cookies could be a nightmare for a brand that builds its entire marketing engine on the back of behavioral, targeted digital advertising,” says Shubham Mehrish, vice president of analytics, data management and integration at Mars Inc. “Companies that haven’t invested in data strategies will struggle a lot more, and so will those that do not have strong direct-to-consumer (DTC) relationships. If you combine those two, a more traditional CPG company [than Mars] will absolutely struggle.”

A couple of factors will help Mars mitigate any negative consequences of the loss of cookies, explains Mehrish. One is the fact that 25% of its business comes from the broader retail confectionary and pet owner/ hospital categories, both of which foster more direct communication and transactions with customers than most CPG brands. “We are a heavier first-party data business than other CPGs, since we have direct relationships with our pet parents and hospitals,” he says. “Access to this first-party data allows us to gain insights into the broader pet parent cohorts, thus helping to optimize marketing spends in our more traditional CPG pet nutrition business.”

Additionally, Mehrish says that Mars has spent the last four years building a sophisticated ROI measurement model that can compensate for the resulting gaps in campaign reporting data. “Where we will lose visibility is on the end-to-end consumer journey,” he notes. “And we’ll have to build up that visibility in a different way through the ROI engine.”

Even DTC brands with much deeper access to firstparty data are making significant adjustments to adapt to the cookie-less world. “We are already working on

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HOW BRANDS CAN THRIVE IN A WORLD WITHOUT COOKIES

having alternative ways of evaluating media that do not rely on cookies and are engaging in more meaningful projects and infrastructure to look at customer journey insights,” says Courtney Fadjo-Biro, vice president of growth marketing at Zenni Optical, a DTC eyewear brand.

“We are testing new marketing tactics, developing new ways to understand media performance, investing into our first-party data and leaning into the data that we do have available to us. We also keep a close eye on developments within the ad marketplace that help with programmatic spending adjustments.”

THE NEW PRIVACY-FIRST TERRAIN The push to eliminate cookies is part of a broader effort by privacy advocates to increase transparency in data sharing on major ad platforms like Facebook and Google, and it is being supported by government privacy laws including GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) in Europe and CPR (Consumer Privacy Act) in California.

Unscrupulous parties will still be able to track web user behavior with lesser-known technologies, such as LSOs (local storage objects or “flash cookies”), which essentially do the same thing as cookies.

“The death of cookies could be a nightmare for a brand that builds its entire marketing engine on the back of behavioral, targeted digital advertising.”

Shubham Mehrish, Mars Inc.

Google has said it will not introduce an alternative user-level tracking system for the cookie. The company is banking on its new Federated Learning of Cohorts (FLoC) technology — which creates a lookalike audience that protects data privacy by using machine learning algorithms to process web browsing behavior on individual devices — to drive conversions at a similar rate. Digital media experts say the level of targeting precision will almost certainly diminish under FLoC. “It’s definitely a step back in the marketer’s ability to personalize,” says Tim Glomb, vice president of content and data at Cheetah Digital. “Google is basically saying,

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‘Trust us. We know people and what hobbies they’re into. You don’t need all that filtering and segmenting data.’”

In the mobile marketing space, Apple recently replaced the common tracking device known as IDFA (Identifier for Advertisers) with an opt-in data sharing system on its new iOS 14, a move that industry observers say has dramatically reduced participation rates. Many experts believe the confluence of these developments is likely to hurt digital/mobile campaign performance in the short term. “The near-term impact will be a significant hit on marketing efficiency, increase in CPMs and loss in marketing-driven revenue,” says TJ Reilly, executive vice president of performance media at VMLY&R Commerce.

Attribution also will become more challenging. Increasingly, socalled deterministic attribution models that require access to user-level data are being replaced by probabilistic models that rely on aggregated sets of privacy-safe, anonymized data. As Mehrish explains, “I will not be able to deterministically say that ‘John Doe’ saw an ad on Hulu then went to The New York Times, and then I showed him my display ad and then he went to my website. But because my ROI engine is so sophisticated, I’ll still be able to determine if The New York Times is good enough for me to keep investing. I’m solving for the [ROI question] through probabilistic means, not through deterministic journey maps that I used to do earlier with third-party cookies.”

BUILDING DEEPER CONSUMER RELATIONSHIPS In the midst of these headwinds, some see a silver lining: an incentive for marketers to wean themselves off programmatic advertising (which carries risk of error and waste due to fraud) and deploy other tactics that build deeper relationships with consumers.

“Cookies made marketers lazy in the sense that they could just spend some money to go get conversions,” says Marcel Van Eeden, senior director of retail media at Bold Strategies, an e-commerce agency. “There are plenty of other lower-funnel tactics that marketers can use to get consumers onto their web pages.”

Reilly agrees. “Once a consumer is on your site, they are already a qualified [lead], so it’s about how do we re-engage that individual?” he notes. “Are they an existing customer or a potential first-time customer? What is the next best action and messaging we should take? We should be thinking less about the technology and more about the stage of the journey where the gap is being created, and how to fill that void.”

Both Reilly and Van Eeden advise marketers to renew their interest in conventional methods (like SEO marketing and surveys/email/SMS, which are consent-based) as well as privacy-compliant digital advertising strategies like keyword or contextual targeting, in which ads are served to users based on the content of the site they’re visiting without needing to know their identity or browsing histories.

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HOW BRANDS CAN THRIVE IN A WORLD WITHOUT COOKIES

Glomb says that traditional tactics such as email are an opportunity for marketers to learn more about customers directly and leverage “zero-party” data in more efficient ways than advertising. As an example, one of his former clients, a small global archery company, was able to take North American market share from bigger competitors while eliminating its dependency on third-party data and reducing its ad budget by one-third over 18 months.

Here’s how he described the client’s approach: “Say you’re going to market and you’ve got to sell 50,000 products. You’ve got 1 million people in your database and 70%, or 700,000, have told you 10 specific things about themselves — including which brands they buy — through email conversations or SMS. That’s the marketer’s holy grail. You can build relationships with your competitor’s customers that are stronger than that brand has with its own customers if it’s not doing zero-party data.”

Others predict that CPG brands will funnel more media dollars into Amazon and brick-and-mortar retailer advertising platforms (led by those of Walmart, Target, Kroger and Albertsons), which offer some of the same benefits of behavioral targeting while relying on the retailer’s first-party data instead of cookies.

“Retailer media networks provide closed-loop measurement and give brands the ability to know how media dollars are driving incremental lift in campaign performance by matching sales data back to the spending, which is something they get less of from the walled gardens of the world,” says Sunil Rao, vice president of analytics at Merkle, a customer experience management agency.

Marketers that conduct campaigns within retailer networks are at the mercy of the retailer to provide the data of its choosing (and many retailers are known to be stingy with their data). Still, experts say that demonstrating a commitment to greater investments may allow brands to exert more leverage in the relationship.

“If you are a brand with an existing retail partnership, you can negotiate for more access to insights and results from your retailer’s first-party data,” says Heidi Froseth, who develops retail marketing solutions as senior vice president of sales and marketing at Aki Technologies, a digital marketing agency. “For example, during your annual summit or planning meeting, propose that your retail partner receives a deeper share of your financial investment in exchange for their exhaustive first-party insights, attribution and results from your shared campaign.”

BIGGER FORCES AT WORK Given how vocally some marketers have shared concerns in the past 18 months, it is easy to have an over-inflated view about the repercussions of a marketing world without cookies. Arguably,

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“When you step back in the larger picture and ask, ‘How much does the whole cookie issue impact us as marketers?’, the answer is, ‘Overall, not very much.’”

John Ostman, Jack Link’s Protein Snacks

there are more consequential trends and bigger industry forces at work. E-commerce growth, for example, seems like a much bigger catalyst for brands to advertise with retailers than the loss of cookies. “We’re absolutely going to up our investments with retailer media platforms, but we’re doing so primarily because e-commerce is growing,” affirms Mehrish. It is the growth engine in the pet care and nutrition category, accounting for 25%-30% of U.S. revenues, he notes.

There are also plenty of other opportunities for targeted or “addressable” (i.e., one-to-one) advertising in emerging digital media, particularly in the streaming content category with over-the-top (OTT) and connected television (CTV). More than three-quarters (78%) of all U.S. households currently own a streaming subscription service from Netflix, Amazon Prime or Hulu, according to the Leichtman Research Group.

All of the above is part of the evolving digital playbook of the Jack Link’s brand, according to John Ostman, senior director of e-commerce and digital strategy at Jack Link’s Protein Snacks. Ostman says that long-term shifts in consumer behavior (as well as the impact of the pandemic) motivated the company to double down on its investments in DTC/ecommerce well before Google’s announcement about cookies. However, given its appreciable spending in programmatic advertising, the brand has been further prompted to strengthen its presence in alternative channels such as streaming media and retailer ad platforms, the latter of which Ostman says “is probably the most impactful use of our dollars” going forward.

“Where the loss of third-party data is really going to impact us is in our emerging brands like Lorissa’s Kitchen, Wild River and Golden Island, where there is a lot of brand building to do and the targeting does become more limited,” says Ostman. “But when you step back in the larger picture and ask, ‘How much does the whole cookie issue impact us as marketers?’, the answer is, ‘Overall, not very much.’” IQ

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EXAMINING THE AGENCY PARTNERSHIP Brand marketers are relying on their shopper agencies for expertise in collaboration, strategy and execution

BY E R I K A F LY N N

W

hen it comes to shopper marketing and omnicommerce efforts, there are no clear-cut avenues CPG companies take today in terms of utilizing outside agency partners for strategy and execution.

According to the special report, “The State of Shopper Marketing Organizations” that ran in the June/July issue of Path to Purchase IQ, we know that nearly two-thirds of CPGs are calling on their agency partners to collaborate across a number of critical needs.

Brands are increasingly relying on their agencies to bring ideas from other markets, help push their thinking and elevate their game to the next level. But how much are brands leaning on their agency partners and what exactly are they doing for them? What are the pros and cons? We wanted to find out …

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BRINGING IN AGENCY SUPPORT We asked five leading CPG marketing executives, “Which of the following types of agencies do you currently have a partnership with?” Digital marketing, creative, media planning/buying, retail marketing/in-store, social, a single shopper agency/agency of record, and/or multiple shopper agencies/agencies of record.

The answers varied, even in the largest companies. At Beiersdorf, the team ensures close collaboration with its media agency, shopper agency and shopper marketing team to leverage their expertise. “This is particularly important these days with the proliferation of retailer digital assets and the connectivity required to other digital marketing assets outside of the shopper sphere,” says Rodney Waights, vice president shopper and customer

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marketing, Beiersdorf. digital team. “We’re also managing our own retailer media The company’s agency partners co-create the shopper strategy strategies and negotiations,” says Jen Reiner, senior director of and are relied on to define the campaigns and executional omnichannel marketing and e-commerce, Del Monte Foods. elements, from creative through to recommendations on tactic Besides cost, on the shopper side, the team needs to have a direct choice. “We expect them to truly understand our brand strategies relationship with its retailers to partner with buyers, Reiner argues, — they sit in on our brand strategy meetings — and we definitely having found greater efficiencies since media agencies don’t know expect them to bring the latest thinking on retailer paths to their retailers as well, or the objectives at each account. execution,” Waights says.

Waights’ team at Beiersdorf drives the agency agenda inThe Kellogg Co. partners with outside agencies for strategy and house, supplementing or challenging their thinking on strategy, execution. As the teams at Kellogg are building their annual plans, campaign development/measurement and execution elements. their agency partners work with brand teams to avoid reinventing “And of course we own the decision making,” Waights adds. the wheel. When building a national campaign for Frosted Flakes, It’s a true partnership on co-creation of elements, aligning for example, that same agency works with the brand team initiatives with marketing, sales and other agencies and ensuring to figure out how they integrate the shopper earlier into the that the programs remain within budget, Waights explains. “We process. “So the idea and some of the tactics they’re planning consider them an extension of our organization rather than a at the national level can be leveraged down at customer team third-party agency that is kept at arm’s length. And this has been a levels,” says Aaron Elleman, senior director, integrated marketing, truly successful approach,” he says.

Kellogg. “That way we’re not building from scratch, but from a Assuming you have the number of resources required to keep base that has a shopper perspective built in.” things in-house, Waights says, most still believe everything As the company has evolved into the shopper media space, can be self-contained. The shopper marketers have complete Kellogg brought in national media agencies (in part because responsibility and accountability for every element and there is “customers are requiring it and it’s a big part of our plans,” Elleman one point of contact for any specific initiative, which is especially notes) to help evaluate those media opportunities with retailers important for cross-functional teams. “And you could argue that — one agency to plan and execute display media and another to the shopper marketers would be more invested in the success of plan and execute search media. “We’re still working against some each campaign or element,” he notes. core Kellogg’s and retailer strategies and then reach for agencies to help us create a plan and help execute that plan,” he says.

The Coca-Cola Co. has partnerships with all types of outside agencies, and while a senior marketing executive on the team says the relationships are utilized for both strategy and execution, there are some facets that are still driven from within its own walls. “From a shopper standpoint, we run oversight of our Social Center and Rodney Waights, Beiersdorf management of the Social Center in-house, but with close engagement from our agency partnerships,” the executive says. Similarly, the team leads the management of the overall process in-house, Using in-house resources ensures better knowledge of the but agency partners are on point for the translation of the brand strategies and company objectives, says Steve McGowan, strategy and creative development. head of shopper activation and strategic partnerships at Mondelez International. The other benefit is having the ability to shift or move those resources as appropriate according to updated initiatives.

IN-HOUSE OR OUTSIDE? And yet, having agency partners to help bring forward new Given the fast pace of social and the need to be always on and technologies, partnerships and learnings is critical. “To help reacting in real-time, the team at Coca-Cola has found that having ensure we’re always on the cutting edge of the industry and as a its social team and agency partners co-located is best, working facilitator for testing and learning,” says the Coca-Cola exec. together in partnership with business leads, PR, legal and other The team at Mondelez International sees advantages to both. cross-functional partners.

“They are creative specialists in that field,” McGowan says. “By The team at Del Monte Foods runs its own photo shoots and partnering with an agency, we secure talent in the areas we need creates some of its own content for social efforts via its in-house

“[Agency collaboration] is particularly important these days with the proliferation of retailer digital assets and the connectivity required to other digital marketing assets outside of the shopper sphere.”

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supported.” Additionally, by leveraging an agency that goes across all of its different clients, the agency is able to see best practices and apply them across each of their respective clients.

“They can leverage the resources of their business to ensure we’re armed with the latest knowledge to inform and guide our thinking and execution,” says Waights, adding that it is a big advantage for the oft-overworked teams. He also points to statement of income (SOI) management, which is one way of providing resources to the team and bringing different ways of thinking, specifically around creative and tactical considerations.

“They [agency partners] challenge our thinking and lead us to better places,” Waights says. “Given that the agency people working on our business know our business so well, we find their thinking to be truly value-added to our objectives. Their ideas are trusted and respected.”

USING AN AGENCY OF RECORD There are both advantages and disadvantages to using a single shopper agency. The depth of knowledge the agency acquires, its complete understanding of the brand as well as its retailer partners, can only serve to enhance any program’s outcome.

On the other hand, some executives have seen an inability to handle a high velocity of work. “As they become part of your culture and are susceptible to your way of thinking, it can lead to complacency,” says the executive from Coke.

Kellogg’s single shopper agency of record provides connectivity to business needs across customers, brands and categories, says Elleman, adding: “The streamlined approach creates simplicity internally and drives efficiency of process.”

Waights believes choosing one agency of record lends itself to partners that are more invested in the business, because “we’re so invested in them,” he says. “They get to truly understand our business from all angles and, as a result, can make ‘more rounded’ recommendations,” Waights adds. The absence of silos (which is often the case) is especially important as the fine lines between the shopper team’s responsibilities versus marketing or

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“We have the ability to leverage different agencies and their specialties for the different needs of the business.”

Steve McGowan, Mondelez International

sales is constantly evolving. “The ability to be the one source of ‘shopper agency truth’ for our commercial teams truly helps with efficiencies,” he says.

And if the proverbial “too many cooks in the kitchen” can be equated with a shopper marketing or omnicommerce plan, then disadvantages of utilizing multiple agencies would point to a more superficial understanding of the business and retailer. Not to mention mistakes that haven’t already been learned and a disjointed project, which may be slowed down if the agencies aren’t in lock-step with the brand. And if silos and “turf protection” creep in, many agree the result is extreme inefficiencies and incremental costs.

But, as Del Monte’s Reiner notes, it can be difficult to find one agency that has expertise in strategic platform work and on all customer-executional specifics.

When partnering with multiple agencies, executives have found a greater breadth of ideas, fresh thinking, often higher-quality creative and teams that can manage a portfolio and balance risk of work. “Different agencies have different areas of strengths, so you have an ability to shift work to agencies that are best suited for any given project,” says the Coke executive.

Executives at Mondelez believe there is enough diversity in the marketplace that it requires different agencies that specialize in creative, strategy, planning, execution, digital, etc., to get the optimal benefit of using an external resource. “We have the ability to leverage different agencies and their specialties for the different needs of the business,” McGowan says. IQ

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Drugstore Beauty Drugstore beauty is known for its affordability and access to mass brands, but in recent years the channel has veered into the prestige and indie beauty territory with elevated merchandising, marketing and expanded assortments — particularly in emerging subcategories — while often still maintaining that value price point. Channel leaders CVS Pharmacy, Walgreens and Rite Aid have led the charge, driving competition with retailers such as Sephora and Ulta Beauty. To view more drugstore beauty activations, Path to Purchase Institute members can visit the image vault at P2PI.org.

BY J AC Q U E L I N E B A R B A

Rite Aid’s “Store of the Future” redesign, introduced in 2020 in tandem with its integrated brand refresh and RxEvolution strategy, makes the beauty department one of the stars of its revamped concept stores while offering a larger product assortment.

Located near the entrance doors, the beauty department, which offers a shopping experience resembling a combination of Ulta Beauty and a medical spa, is identified by a commanding ceiling fixture outfitted with lights and hanging green plants that give the area a natural feel and illuminated aisles.

Walgreens devotes significant space in its beauty walls to No7 and Soap & Glory, own brands via parent company Walgreens Boots Alliance and its Boots beauty business. Additionally, “plant powered skincare” from the Botanics own brand receives similar treatment in-line as part of the beauty department gondolas.

CVS Pharmacy tapped Nyma Tang — a popular beauty influencer, activist and long-standing CVS Beauty Mark partner and supporter — as its first Beauty Inclusivity Consultant to reflect its ongoing commitment to transparency and equity in the beauty aisles. As part of the collaboration, CVS launched a dedicated “Beauty Influencer Picks” shop on its website, which spotlights Tang and her monthly beauty picks and populates commissioned YouTube tutorial videos. Since 2018, CVS has enlisted more than 600 influencer partners to share more than 50 million impressions of unaltered social media imagery.

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CVS leveraged the pandemic in an April circular to dangle a free “Beauty Unaltered” face mask to ExtraCare loyalty members with the purchase of $10 worth of cosmetics from Markwins International’s Wet n Wild and Physicians Formula.

The feature highlighted the purchase incentive alongside multiple products from the brands elevated as “New to CVS.” (Beauty Unaltered represents CVS’ marketing guidelines and depicts the CVS heart-shaped beauty mark to signal an image has not been materially altered.)

CVS has grown its footing in an emerging category with the recent launch of its first men’s grooming private label, Goodline Grooming Co., spanning cruelty-, paraben- and phthalate-free skin care, beard care, shaving, and bath and body SKUs. Employing a “Look Good, Be Well” trademarked tagline, the brand boasts it was built “For Guys, By Guys” (a CVS trademark), while its packaging flaunts a blue and white, modern barber shop aesthetic.

Rite Aid lobby and gondola displays are positioned on the floor, some serving more as product showcases than primary merchandising units. The display assortment even includes an upfront gondola display stocking a slew of miniature personal care and cosmetic SKUs, such as facial cleaners, makeup setting spray and dry shampoo, while reminding shoppers to “Bring home your favorite beauty Minis.” Signage in the department calls out “Natural Beauty Products” and identifies particular “free-from” ingredients lists.

Walgreens showcases major beauty brands, including Coty Inc.’s CoverGirl, with dedicated sections of its beauty walls. Within their space, the brands leverage product glorifiers as well as backlit promotional signage.

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Earlier this year, CVS began merchandising multiple new and exclusive shades of L’Oreal USA’s Brilliant Eyes shimmer liquid eyeshadow on an account-specific shelf display positioned in the cosmetics aisle. With names such as “moonstone,” “seeing stars” and “meteor shower,” the SKUs were presented under a “Star-gazing in paradise” message. The exclusive shades are also available on CVS.com.

Walgreens elevated “Beauty must-haves” from Procter & Gamble’s Olay in August, running a three-day exclusive savings event that promoted special deals on select products. In some stores, table displays were set up near store entrances and the beauty department showcasing a few encased Olay SKUs next to a corrugated, account-specific standee depicting a QR code that linked to a live Olay chat bot and fliers promoting the event.

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Technology Innovation

P2P Toolkit

A roundup of technology-driven tools that drive consumer understanding, engagement and conversion on every step of the path to purchase.

In early September, Hunt Valley, Maryland-based UnDigital launched “Unboxing Marketing Automation.” This system uses proprietary software and on-demand printers to enable brands to place personalized inserts and offers into their e-commerce packages and then measure the results. These inserts can include loyalty acquisition programs, first-order promotions, tips on using the items ordered and even automated “handwritten” notes. Brands can access a dashboard to track metrics, such as revenue per campaign, impression count or the buying behavior of users.

In mid-August, Old Navy, a division of San Francisco-based Gap Inc., launched BODEQUALITY, a fundamental rethinking of how women’s fashion should be merchandised and marketed. Basically, from now on Old Navy will offer every one of its women’s styles, in every size, with no price difference. For online shoppers, the chain has merged its Women’s and Women’s Plus collections in the navigation menu, so it serves as a single, size-integrated destination for sizes 00-30. Old Navy also administered body scans of 389 women to create digital avatars based on real women’s bodies. Now an online shopper can toggle all fashion imagery to default to their preferred model display size. In-store, all women’s styles (sizes 0-28) will be merchandised together — no special sections — along with inclusive marketing imagery and visual merchandising cues such as mannequins in sizes 4, 12 and 18.

Bill Schober is Editor Emeritus of Path to Purchase IQ. He’s been associated with the Institute since 1994, covering all aspects of consumer marketing with a special emphasis on the shopping experience. He welcomes any questions, comments, requests or pitches about P2P Toolkit, and can be reached at bschober@ensembleiq.com.

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On International Women’s Day in March, Minneapolis-based General Mills and its Betty Crocker brand introduced the BettyLab, an online STEM-learning platform that combines kitchen experiments with chemistry lessons. The site features step-bystep, science-based tutorials on, for example, how to make rock candy or ice cream in a bag, how to test the pH scale in lemonade, or what a slow cooker can do to a s’mores cake. A special-edition Betty Crocker/ Barbie Dream Gap Project called “Baking Better Futures” cake mix was available at retailers for a limited time. Some critics (i.e., The Boston Globe) argued that putting STEM into the kitchen felt like a throwback to “home economics” classes.

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New Taipei City, Taiwan-based Perfect Corp., the developer of the YouCam Makeup app, announced a partnership with Avon Mexico in late August. Now, when Mexican customers are visited (back in the 20th century, the ad tagline “Avon Calling” was everywhere) by Avon’s 400,000 DTC sales reps, a facial-analysis “smart beauty” tool built with augmented reality and artificial intelligence technologies will be used to give personalized recommendations.

Perfect Corp. uses a patented “Agile Face” technology that automatically identifies unique facial features like eye and eyebrow shapes.

In August, Procter & Gamble period-care brand Always and Thrive Global, a behavior-change tech company, launched “Always You,” a wellness app that helps women track their cycles. Always You also offers personalized, science-backed articles and videos, as well as Thrive Global’s “Microsteps,” which are small, science-backed actions that users can track daily to promote healthy habits, increase productivity and reduce stress. By registering with the app and tracking “every period or bladder leak event,” users earn points that can trigger donations of period products to help #EndPeriodPoverty through partners like Feeding America.

It’s been quite a summer for Madison, Wisconsin-based Fetch Rewards. In late July, Parsippany, New Jersey-based Reckitt announced a partnership with the shopper app to earn points on the purchase of select brands, including Airwick, Finish, Woolite, Resolve and Lysol Neutra Air. A month earlier, Fetch announced its firstever retailer partnership, a deal with Albertsons Cos. in which exclusive offers are made available through the chain’s 2,200 supermarkets in 34 states. Perhaps most notably, Fetch raised another $210 million in Series D funding in April, bringing the total to $328 million and making it one of the few startups with headquarters outside of Silicon Valley or New York to reach the “unicorn valuation milestone” (a valuation of more than $1 billion.) CB Insights reports that as of August 2021, there were only 800 of these “unicorns” in the world. Fetch reports that its app has 8 million users and more than a million five-star reviews from Apple’s App Store and the Google Play Store.

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The pandemic hammered the out-of-home (OOH) ad business hard, contracting it by as much as 20%, according to some estimates. In late August, Istanbul, Turkey-based Airsqreen launched what it claims is an industry-first: An ad platform for the digital-out-of-home (DOOH) segment connecting advertisers to screen operators. Airsqreen says that advertisers mistrust DOOH because they can only get delayed reports from the screen operators. The company says its “built-in ad verification technology” will perform as an agnostic third party, reporting on digital campaign performance in real-time. The company has operations in 20 countries across the Americas, Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia-Pacific regions. It claims L’Oreal, Knorr, Castrol and Algida (Unilever) as clients.

In August, Plano, Texas-based Crossmark, a sales and marketing services agency, launched Accelerator, a data-analysis platform for CPG sales and marketing activities. Developed with IBM, Microsoft and several other tech companies, the platform is built on what Crossmark calls one of the “largest datasets in CPG” and delivers an “intuitive visualization” of the analytical tasks needed for smarter selling. Accelerator’s design is said to merge information sources and info about virtually every transaction in supermarkets, drugstores and mass merchants. It can then dissect the data using a “decomp tool” that evaluates the results of promotions and recommends a course of action.

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P2P Toolkit

SPOTLIGHT: Internet of Things

If you’ve ever tried to “Hey Google” a blaring Alexa speaker or aimed the wrong app at an uncomprehending smart thermostat, then you know that home automation is hardly automatic. The sheer number of smart outlets, HVAC controls, door locks, garage doors, sensors, security systems, window coverings, TVs, access points and who-knows-what-else coming our way is staggering, especially considering that they really don’t play nice together.

The good news is that the internet of things (IOT) industry realizes that their incompatible platforms are a buzzkill for consumers. In May, The Zigbee Alliance (an organization working toward open standards for IoT device communication) was rebranded as the Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA). The CSA board includes executives from Amazon, Apple, Google, Huawei, IKEA, The Kroger Co. and Signify (formerly Philips Lighting.) CSA then announced that the Project Connected Home over IP or “CHIP” initiative was being re-organized as “Matter.” Sometime in early 2022, Matter’s single, cross-functional standard will begin to be implemented. The prospect for shoppers is that, eventually, the devices produced by these competing brands will nonetheless work natively together and thus become much easier to purchase and use.

The plan is that these items will carry the Matter logo, a sign of assurance along the lines of the UL or Good Housekeeping seals of approval. Members projected to be early adopters of Matter include Amazon, Comcast, Google, Schlage, Schneider Electric, Signify and Texas Instruments. (Note: CSA should not be confused with the ioXt Alliance, which was founded by many of the same companies as an IoT product security program.)

Your smart fridge now has company.

In late July, Keurig Dr Pepper rolled out BrewID, a new connectedtechnology platform for its single-serve coffee-makers. Keurig Dr Pepper (which is dual headquartered in Burlington, Massachusetts, and Frisco, Texas) says its smart coffee-maker can identify the specific brand and roast of more than 900 different K-Cup pod varieties and then fine-tunes its temperature, strength and size settings to the recommendations of the coffee expert who created it. The best part of not waking up is a feature called “Smart Auto-Delivery,” which will automatically reorder K-Cup pods based on consumption.

Frank Mayer and Associates has long been the tech-nerdiest of in-store marketing companies. Since the 1970s, the company was the earliest-adopter of game-changing technologies like video-game console displays, interactive kiosks and smart monitors, so when you see them touting turnkey “smart lockers” now, take it seriously. Amazon paved the way for contactless shopping with its Hub Lockers: Place an order, get a PIN or QR code sent to your phone, skip any lines, scan or enter it, grab the order from “your” locker and go.

But now, Grafton, Wisconsin-based Frank Mayer sees opportunities in restaurants (using lockers for take-out orders), BOPIS and rental orders for retailers, cannabis dispensaries, hospitality (spas and fitness centers) and so on. Frank Mayer’s metal lockers have seven cubicles, as well as a control panel module on each side. Customizable “GRUBBRR” software provides the fully-integrated contactless experience.

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StoreSpotlight

Wilson

Heritage Store

BY J AC Q U E L I N E B A R B A

After 108 years in business, Wilson Sporting Goods opened its first brick-andmortar store in July 2021. Located in the same city (Chicago) that the sporting goods giant was born and is still headquartered, the Wilson Heritage Store is situated in the city’s Gold Coast neighborhood right between a Lululemon athletic apparel store and a Madewell clothing store. The move into a physical space was important, the company said, particularly after the summer launch of its first mass apparel line, Wilson Sportswear, following a century of designing equipment specifically for athletes.

Path to Purchase IQ recently visited the location, and here’s what stood out.

Upon entering, the store seems quaint compared to massive flagship stores from competitor brands such as Under Armour and Nike found on Michigan Avenue, Chicago’s busiest shopping district. However, a minimalistic merchandising strategy gives the Wilson store a spacious feel, and the extensive use of illumination and shelf lighting allows product to pop, giving a modern twist to the iconic brand’s heyday scattered throughout the store.

At checkout, the wall behind the counter features a large, vintage-inspired art piece resembling an enlarged page straight out of a Wilson scrapbook. Various illustrated relics of Wilson’s history appear on this wall, including what looks like a newspaper excerpt covering 1930s tennis professional and Wilson pro Henry Ellsworth Vines Jr., as well as other artwork representing sports coverage over the years — including golf, baseball, boxing and football. The art piece also includes an illuminated “Since 1914” sign in the center, showcased between two shelving units displaying baseball gloves.

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A less-noticeable element used to amplify the shopping experience is a distinct, socalled “leather-inspired Wilson signature scent” diffused in stores, according to the company. Wilson is also piloting sensory marketing company Mood Media’s “Mood Social Mix” offering, which enables shoppers to interact with and influence the store playlist through their mobile devices.

On the table in the sitting area, a sign housed in a wooden frame promotes a Wilson giveaway and invites shoppers to enter to win one of six Blade tennis rackets, autographed by a Wilson tennis pro. The promotion, running from Aug. 17-31, tied in to the launch of the Wilson Blade V8 racket. The ad carried a QR code that linked to a promotional entry site within Wilson.com.

Located at the back of the store near the fitting rooms, shoppers have access to a long, high-top table and seating area in front of a large, flatscreen TV (which was tuned in to ESPN at the time of our visit). The screen is positioned between two merchandising shelves stocking mini basketballs and footballs.

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StoreSpotlight

The store stocks a curated assortment of sporting goods — including Wilson’s high-performance sports equipment across categories, such as tennis, baseball, football, basketball and golf — and Wilson’s athletic-lifestyle sportswear collection, available for men and women. Shoppers can have rackets and ball gloves customized during regularly scheduled special events held in the store.

With plans to further expand its physical presence in Los Angeles, Beijing and Shanghai later this year, Wilson has already debuted a New York location since the Chicago opening. Located in New York’s SoHo neighborhood, this larger location comprises 7,000 square feet. To hype the launch, Wilson also opened a museum-like, pop-up experience that paid homage to the brand’s long-standing history in tennis, some sports milestones and its ties to the city. The location opened Aug. 19 and operated for six weeks. The first exhibit, “Love All: A Wilson Tennis Experience,” launched leading up to the 2021 U.S. Open tennis tournament, held in New York, and offered interactive elements, including a “racket maestro” for racket customization and stringing, apparel personalization and a photoworthy tennis ball room that included an immersive art installation.

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Solution Provider News

Avery Dennison Acquires Vestcom Avery Dennison has completed its acquisition of Vestcom, a provider of shelfedge communications and specialized marketing and labeling services for the retail industry, for $1.45 billion.

Vestcom will help advance Avery Dennison’s strategies, including accelerating its adoption of smart labels, by bringing new assets to drive similar automation and data management offerings. This move will synthesize and streamline store-level data and deliver item-specific, price-integrated and promotional messaging at shelf edge.

As one, Avery Dennison and Vestcom plan to accelerate their respective solutions, and combine inventory availability, price management and frictionless checkout to offer a complete solution across multiple U.S. retail channels. New capabilities include an end-to-end retail experience that bridges the physical and digital, driving conversion amongst retail shoppers, while providing opportunities to engage shoppers at the point of purchase with digital solutions embedded directly into apparel and footwear items.

OneView Commerce Launches on Microsoft Azure Software company OneView Commerce has teamed with Microsoft Corp. to offer its solutions on the Microsoft Azure platform, signifying the combination of OneView’s unified commerce transaction engine with Azure’s infrastructure. The launch aims to extend the point of sale to

any place along the buying journey, enabling retailers to secure brand loyalty and drive revenue opportunities.

OneView’s platform infrastructure, using Azure functions, aims to create a seamless connection between physical store operations and digital engagement with a unified commerce transaction engine built on cloud-native, API-first architecture. A framework with feature-as-a-service functions will provide immediate access to hundreds of pre-built commerce microservices, such as search, add product and calculate to enable retailers to manage any interaction.

Connections can also be made through physical and digital interactions ready for market or easily customized and scaled per unique retailer needs.

Biotech Company Amyris Acquires Influencer Marketing Agency Global influencer marketing agency MG Empower has been acquired by Californiabased Amyris, a synthetic biotechnology company and sustainable consumer brand manufacturer in the clean health, beauty and wellness markets. For Amyris, the acquisition of London-based MG Empower represents its continued investment in the future of marketing by establishing an operating model that places digital technology and influencer marketing at the core of its future growth strategy, which is underpinned by the appointment of MG Empower’s founder, Maira Genovese, to the executive board.

General Manager Bruno Genovese was appointed CEO of the agency this year.

MG Empower — which provides digital influencer marketing services across five continents to brands including Amyris, Bumble, Chopard and TikTok Bytedance — will operate as an independent entity within Amyris and continue to serve and expand its portfolio of international clients. MG

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hopes the acquisition by Amyris will help it expand its global footprint, scale new business lines and invest in developing its proprietary technology.

GroundTruth Grows Support for No Kid Hungry Location-based marketing and advertising technology company GroundTruth is expanding its relationship with national hunger relief organization Share Our Strength’s No Kid Hungry campaign to provide advertising and marketing solutions supporting the mission.

The company also joins No Kid Hungry’s network of corporate partners, which includes several retailers and U.S. restaurants. As a partner, GroundTruth will work with developing and activating food awareness marketing campaigns in communities across the country using a variety of different media formats, including connected TV, mobile, desktop and social media. This also includes working closely with national restaurant brands to drive donations, community engagement, donating ad impressions and matching donations.

No Kid Hungry has been focused on ending childhood hunger since 2010 by launching and improving food programs aimed at providing all kids with healthy food. Since 2018, GroundTruth has been providing direct access to locationbased marketing solutions through its self-serve ad platform to help No Kid Hungry reach relevant audiences, highlight community resources and drive awareness for meal services. The joint effort is part of GroundTruth Impact, a cause program focused on creating sustainable change in communities through GroundTruth’s location-based advertising technologies.

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Solution Provider News

InMarket Expands Curbside Solutions Location data company InMarket has expanded its curbside solutions to help brands and retailers meet shifting consumer behavior in today’s evolving omnichannel environment. The expansion enables brands to target and engage audiences curbside, and measure the success of their omnichannel marketing efforts across an integrated offering.

The expanded offering follows the general availability of InMarket’s “Curbside Audiences” across data management and demand supply platforms in August. With the expansion, the company’s curbside solutions include expanded audiences. The solution, now available across multiple verticals and brands across big-box, quick-service restaurants, grocery, department and specialty store channels, can be custom built to drive incremental purchases and shopper loyalty. There are also real-time activation and analytic capabilities that identify key demographics, attributes, motivations and opportunities.

Zebra Technologies Partners with Retail Consulting Firm Retail consulting firm Columbus Consulting International has partnered with Zebra Technologies Corp. to join the mobile computing and manufacturing company’s PartnerConnect program.

Columbus Consulting is on board as Zebra’s “Alliance Partner Track” as a consulting partner, focusing on software integration and data management.

Participating in the PartnerConnect program gives Columbus Consulting

access to a product and supplies portfolio (comprised of Reflexis and Zebra Prescriptive Analytics SaaS solutions), comprehensive training, and finally marketing, sales and technical resources.

Columbus Consulting credited Zebra’s long history of developing exceptional hardware technologies and its growing SaaS portfolio for retail and CPG companies as its reason for joining the PartnerConnect program.

Columbus Consulting’s retail experts have worked with retailers and brands for the past 20 years. The consulting firm offers services ranging from strategic insights to tactical project delivery. Columbus Consulting recently witnessed a shift among clients as they became more eager to utilize the rich volume of data generated from day-to-day business operations.

Criteo Expands E-Commerce Advertising with Integration Online advertising company Marin Software is integrating with Criteo’s Commerce Media Platform to expand e-commerce advertising capabilities. The integration aims to help brands manage and optimize both Criteo marketing solutions and retail media campaigns — from display advertisements on the open web to promoted products appearing on retailer websites — all within the MarinOne platform.

Criteo will now offer Marin clients access to elements of its Commerce Media Platform, where brands can activate and measure advertising campaigns against a large set of commerce data. The integration aims to provide MarinOne’s clients a more complete growth solution across search, social and e-commerce advertising.

The self-serve MarinOne platform unifies commerce advertising with paid search and paid social campaigns, while simplifying reporting and management of advertising campaigns across channels. Automated

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insights help advertisers identify growth opportunities and improve ROI. In addition, bidding tools help advertisers plan and pace campaigns to hit their targets.

Takumi Acquires Media Buying Agency Unieed Amid its expansion into the U.S. market, Takumi, an international influencer marketing, branding and social media platform, acquired Unieed, a content and strategic media-buying agency that specializes in content-driven campaigns working with leading outdoor and cycling brands.

Since 2015, Takumi has worked to expand its talent and offerings to further its mission of professionalizing and growing the “createch” economy. Takumi’s evolution of createch enables creators to commercialize their talents and have seamless input into brand activations.

This acquisition solidifies Takumi’s growth within the U.S. along with the addition of several new hires in leadership roles.

The acquisition of Unieed will expand the company’s global paid media offerings and build out the paid media team in both Takumi’s London and New York offices. Joe Adsett, founder and managing director of Unieed and a Facebook-certified media-buying professional, has led more than 3,000 successful marketing campaigns across the world. He will now join Takumi as paid media director. IQ

Send your solution provider news — new products, projects, programs and technologies — to Charlie Menchaca at cmenchaca@ensembleiq.com.

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Personnel Appointments BRAND MARKETERS Anheuser-Busch, St. Louis Labatt President Kyle Norrington was promoted to U.S. chief commercial officer, overseeing sales and marketing in the U.S. Prior to leading Labatt, Norrington was based in New York where he oversaw global brands at AB InBev, including Budweiser, Stella Artois and Corona.

Marcel Marcondes, currently U.S. chief marketing officer, is transitioning to a new role within AB InBev that will be announced at a later date.

RETAILERS Publix, Lakeland, Florida Miami division VP John Goff was named senior VP of retail operations, effective Jan. 1, 2022. He will be succeeded by regional director Matt Crawley. Goff began his career in 1991 as a front service clerk in Jacksonville, Florida. He worked in various positions before being promoted to store manager in 2005. He was promoted to Jacksonville division district manager in 2010 and Miami Division regional director in 2014 before becoming division VP in 2019.

Walgreens, Deerfield, Illinois Tracey Brown, former CEO of the American Diabetes Association, was

TRACEY BROWN

JOHN GOFF

BETH ANN KAMINKOW

named the retailer’s first president of retail products and chief customer officer. When she begins the role in November, Brown will lead Walgreens’ customer experience across all consumer touchpoints and help create and execute key strategies. She will also be responsible for the visioning, leadership, strategic direction and performance of the customer experience, developing a unique and modern customer value proposition. Additional duties for Brown include overseeing marketing and merchandising at Walgreens and working to accelerate the retailer’s digital transformation to provide a unified and consistent brand experience.

SOLUTION PROVIDERS ChaseDesign, Skaneateles, New York Effie-award winner Holly Meloy is joining the management team at ChaseDesign, an Interpublic Group (IPG) design agency and consultancy. Meloy is the second female

HOLLY MELOY

managing partner at ChaseDesign and the first new managing partner in more than a decade. With more than 20 years of marketing and CPG experience, Meloy most recently served as EVP and managing director at communications and advertising giant WPP, where she led an integrated team to drive omnichannel marketing programs.

VMLY&R Commerce, New York Global CEO Beth Ann Kaminkow’s role expanded to include CEO of VMLY&R New York. She succeeds Jason Xenopoulos, who becomes global chief creative officer across WPP’s work with Ford. Xenopoulos will continue in his role as VMLY&R North America co-chief creative officer. Kaminkow will unite 1,000 creatives, strategists, data scientists and analysts into a single VMLY&R New York hub at 3 Columbus Circle, located near Central Park. IQ

Editorial Index 6Degrees Integrated Communications . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Airsqreen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 Aki Technologies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Albertsons Cos. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17, 41 Amyris . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 Avery Dennison . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 Avon Mexico . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 Beiersdorf . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 Bold Strategies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Campbell Soup Co. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Cheetah Digital . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Chicory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Coca-Cola Co., The . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 Columbus Consulting International . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 Connectivity Standards Alliance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 Coty Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 Criteo. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 Crossmark . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 CVS Pharmacy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .36-38 Del Monte Foods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 Dude Wipes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Edge Marketing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6, 20, 26 Fetch Rewards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

Flower Beauty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 Frank Mayer and Associates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 Freeosk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Gap . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 General Mills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 Goodline Grooming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 GroundTruth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 Henkel. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 InMarket . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 Jack Link’s Protein Snacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Kellogg Co. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 Keurig Dr Pepper. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 Kroger Precision Marketing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 L’Oreal USA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 Marin Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 Markwins International. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 Mars Agency, The . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Mars Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16, 18, 29 Mars Petcare . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Matter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 Merkle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 MG Empower . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 Microsoft Corp. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

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Mondelez International . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 OneView Commerce . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 Perfect Corp. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 Procter & Gamble . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38, 41 Reckitt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 Ripple Street . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 Rite Aid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36, 37 Share Our Strength . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 Takumi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 Thrive Global . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 Undigital . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 Unieed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 Unilever . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 Universal McCann . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Valuegraphics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Vestcom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 VMLY&R Commerce . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Walgreens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36-38, 50 Wilson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 Zebra Technologies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 Zenni Optical . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

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Retail Intel

SmartyPants Uses Digital Sampling to Engage Walmart Shoppers

BY C Y N D I L O Z A

Unilever’s SmartyPants tapped Tarrytown, New York-based Ripple Street to run a pandemic-friendly, digital sampling program aimed at driving trial and purchase of the brand’s vitamins at Walmart.

Known for its gummy vitamins for children and adults, SmartyPants enlisted the in-home consumer-engagement company earlier this year to distribute 1,000 product packs to shoppers comprising: • Five, two-gummy samples of SmartyPants women’s multivitamins, each in custom packaging, redeemable for $2 off a SmartyPants purchase at Walmart; • One informational Walmart and SmartyPants-branded flyer, positioning the brand as made with premium nutrients and free of genetically modified organisms (GMOs), synthetic colors, artificial flavors and gluten; and • Instructions to guide them through an experiential shopper journey.

For the program, SmartyPants leveraged Ripple Street’s “Chatterbox” sampling solution, which allows brands to send products (“Chat Packs”) to try.

The consumers review and share their experiences on social media. About 3,750 consumers — primarily women ages 25-54 who are interested in health and wellness products — applied via RippleStreet.com to receive a Chat Pack during the application process (which ran Jan. 14 through Feb. 4). To apply, consumers were instructed to sign up for emails from the brand, visit their local Walmart store and take a “shelfie”

FOR A HEALTHIER TOMORROW SmartyPants Multi is designed with the most premium ingredients in their most effective forms to provide you with good health at a great price. All the main nutrients you want to support whole body health.*

PREMIUM NUTRIENTS

NON GMO

GLUTEN FREE

with SmartyPants women’s multivitamins, and share content on social media. The 1,000 most engaged and “socially savvy” participants, according to a Ripple Street representative, received a SmartyPants Chat Pack along with instructions to share their samples and coupons, write product reviews and detail their experience via social media. The product trial phase ended on March 3.

The effort with Ripple Street was part of a larger, 360-degree “New Year, New You” shopper program at Walmart that aimed to drive awareness and sales of SmartyPants SKUs. The New Year, New You campaign included paid search on Walmart. com, on- and off-platform targeted digital media, influencer and paid social activity, savings incentives and sampling efforts.

October 2021

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NO SYNTHETIC COLORS/ ARTIFICIAL FLAVORS

*These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

The goal with the Ripple Street program was to increase social media reach and impressions, generate trials and reviews, and increase purchase intent at Walmart.

Activating Ripple Street’s Chatterbox solution made sense for SmartyPants as sampling is an integral part of the brand’s shopper marketing strategy to drive trial and build brand awareness, says SmartyPants’ Amy Avellar, senior manager, shopper marketing. “We always put an emphasis on trialdriving tactics and measures because we are confident in our product and know that once you try it, you’ll be a repeat customer.”

Considering the lower store foot traffic driven by the COVID-19 pandemic at the time, finding a digital platform that could deliver samples and drive engagement was a key win for SmartyPants, Avellar says.

Besides generating trial, the brand also benefited from “other byproducts of the campaign to help drive awareness through the social content that’s garnered, as well as help improve dot-com performance with the reviews that we were also able to capture from the campaign,” she adds.

The program with Ripple Street proved successful, says Avellar, noting that it helped her hit all her important marketing KPIs. The activation generated more than 5,000 trials, 450-plus authentic product reviews, 11,000-plus posts and comments from participants on social media, and increased purchase intent for SmartyPants items at Walmart by 76%. IQ

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