Lucozade Ribena Suntory (LRS) is giving away £5,000 cash to 12 retailers, for a total of £60,000, from now until the end of September as part of a new competition rewarding the independent channel.

The multi-brand activation is designed to encourage independent retailers to buy Lucozade Energy, Lucozade Sport and Ribena stock via wholesale depots this summer. The cash competition will be available across price-marked stock of LRS’ best-selling SKUs.

Retailers just have to visit www.lrsuntory.com/win and enter the details printed on promotional shrink-wrap of participating SKUs for a chance to win.

Lauren Maddocks, Shopper Marketing Manager at Lucozade Ribena Suntory, comments: “We’re really excited to launch this LRS-first competition and give something back to our loyal independent retail customers. On average, an independent store already generates in excess of £4,400 worth of sales through our portfolio of leading brands each year, but we wanted to reward retailers with an extra cash boost. With the hottest months of the year coming up retailers should stock up now to ensure their chillers are summer-ready, not to mention the chance to win a big cash prize!”

The competition began last week and runs until September 23^rd.

Lucozade Ribena Suntory (LRS) is one of the leading soft drinks businesses in the UK and Ireland. LRS was formed in 2014, and is part of Suntory Beverage & Food Europe. Its brand portfolio includes Lucozade Energy, Lucozade Sport, Fitwater, Ribena, Orangina and True Nopal cactus water.

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Mondelez has launched an on-pack promotion to support the launch of its latest “hunting” season TV ads for Cadbury Creme Eggs, as part of a £4m marketing investment. Creme Egg “super fan” Gregg, introduced this time last year for the brand’s first new creative campaign in four years, returns for the TV campaign.

The ‘Hunt the White Cadbury Creme Egg’ promotion, which is running from January 1^st 2018 and Easter Sunday, will see limited edition Cadbury White Creme Eggs distributed across selected convenience stores and participating supermarkets, including Sainsbury’s Local, Tesco Express and Co-op.

Shoppers who find one have to ring a dedicated phone line provided on a voucher and quote a unique reference number; they will then find out whether they have won £1,000 or a lesser amount.

The promotion runs for 13 weeks in all participating outlets except Sainsbury’s, where it runs for 14 weeks.

In the independent trade, one egg worth £1,000 and six eggs worth £100 will be distributed somewhere across mainland UK (England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland) each week for the duration of the promotion.

In Sainsbury’s, there will be one £1,000 egg and six £100 eggs distributed each week. In Tesco, there will be seven white Creme eggs worth £1,000 each and 84 worth £100 over the course of the promotion. In the Co-Op, one white Creme egg will be worth £2,000 with another 90 worth £200 each.

There is a No Purchase Necessary route for consumers in Northern Ireland.

In the TV ads, Gregg is shown on the porch of his custom built Creme Egg Hunting Lodge on wheels, when he spots a Cadbury delivery van containing the season’s first batch of chocolates. Unable to contain his excitement, he sounds his hunting horn and chases after the van, joined by an eclectic mix of fellow Creme Egg fans on a range of vehicles including a ride-on lawnmower, motorbike and sidecar and even rollerblades.

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William Grant & Sons UK is running two separate promotions, one targeting convenience retailers and the other shoppers.

The ‘Get your sales on the move’ trade promotion aims to get convenience retailers to stock up on premium brands such as Glenfiddich, Grant’s, Russian Standard, Sailor Jerry and Three Barrels in the run-up to Christmas. It offers retailers the chance to win several instant prizes as well as entry into a prize draw.

The main prize will see one retailer win William Grant & Sons UK stock for a year (up to 70 cases), and is supported by several instant win and prize draw competition pools. William Grant & Sons UK will also have a team to merchandise and sell-in the campaign.

To be in with a chance of winning, retailers must display the free POS kit provided when they purchase one of William Grant & Sons UK’s premium brands, and claim their prizes via a unique code printed on each case.

To drive rate-of-sale at convenience store level, every promotional bottle includes an on-pack consumer competition, ‘For Whatever the Night Brings’, offering shoppers the chance to win 1 of 10 ultimate party experiences with a group of friends, plus 1000s of other prizes. To be in with a chance of winning, shoppers must enter a unique code found on a bottle neck tag onto a competition website. The 10 winners will be assigned a ‘party planner’ who will help tailor their luxury weekend party experience, for eight people. Other prizes on offer from the £1million prize pool include home party kits and branded glassware.

Martin Silver, customer marketing manager at William Grant & Sons UK, said: “This campaign allows us to build on our existing relationships with our convenience partners, and increase the distribution of our portfolio in the run up to Christmas, a major period for both brands and retailers. The activity also supports a trend identified in the 2017 William Grant & Sons UK Market Report, which shows that consumers are increasingly looking to host at home and are searching for premium ‘home-entertainment’ experiences.”

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Mondelez is backing its latest Cadbury Creme Egg TV ad, the brand’s first new creative campaign in four years, with an on-pack promotion offering one consumer a day the chance to win £1,000, plus a trade promotion for retailers.

The “It’s Creme Egg Hunting Season” campaign will be supported with a £4m media investment, spanning TV, social, experiential and PR, forming part of a wider £10m marketing investment for all Cadbury brands across the 2017 Easter season.

The 30-second TV ad was created by Elvis Communications. It features a Creme Egg ‘super fan’ named Gregg who announces a three-month Creme Egg Hunting Season in the run-up to Easter Sunday (April 16th 2017).

Gregg is shown on the porch of his custom built Creme Egg Hunting Lodge on wheels, when he spots a Cadbury delivery van containing the season’s first batch of chocolates. Unable to contain his excitement, he sounds his hunting horn and chases after the van, joined by an eclectic mix of fellow Creme Egg fans on a range of vehicles including a ride-on lawnmower, motorbike and sidecar and even rollerblades.

The Cadbury on-pack activity, which is exclusive to the convenience market, marks the return of the Cadbury Creme Egg’s Gooless promotion for 2017. Running from January 1st until Easter Sunday, one consumer every day who buys a gooless Creme Egg will be in with the chance to win up to £1,000. The prize will then be matched for the relevant retailer with either stock vouchers or Love2Shop vouchers.

Cadbury’s Creme Egg first unveiled eggs without the goo for the first time in 2013; 90 eggs were made without the fondant filling as part of a three-month nationwide promotion.

The eggs feature a ‘you’re a winner’ ticket inside instead of goo, but will be indistinguishable from the usual Creme Eggs in terms of looks and weight.

The brand is also giving retailers another chance to win in the lead up to the spring season 2017 with its ‘Take a Shelfie’ competition. Retailers who upload a photo of their Gooless Cadbury Creme Egg display before March 31st 2017 to www.deliciousdisplay.co.uk will be entered into a prize draw for the chance to win up to £250 in Love2Shop vouchers.

Hortense Foult-Rothenburger, senior brand manager for Cadbury Easter, said: “Every year, Cadbury Creme Egg devotees tell us how excited they are that Cadbury Creme Eggs are back on shelves, and the success we’ve seen in 2016 is testament to the fact that fan’s love for the product has not waned.  We have incredible plans for 2017 and are more excited than ever to kick it off with our brand new creative; It’s Creme Egg Hunting Season.”

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Consumers and C-store operators can both win cash prizes in a new promotion from Cadbury Double Decker, part of the second phase of the chocolate brand’s ‘Obey Your Mouth’ three-year campaign. Consumers who find a Double Decker bus coupon inside promotional packs can instantly win up to £1,000 cash, with the brand matching the prize for the retailer where the winning pack is bought in either stock or Love2Shop vouchers.

The promotion will run from September 1st 2016 until October 31st 2016 and will offer four £1,000 cash prizes and a number of £100 cash prizes.

Cadbury Double Decker is the third best­selling Mondelēz single, according to AC Nielsen, with 24 million bars sold every year. It is celebrating its 40th birthday in 2016 alongside the 60th anniversary of the iconic London Routemaster Double Decker Bus.

POS supporting the promotion will be available to retailers to help with stand­out in­store and the brand will return to TV from September 6th with a media spend of £3m.

Barbora Hrdlickova, Brand Manager for Cadbury Singles, said: “Obey Your Mouth is all about heroing our singles brands and it’s great that the second brand we’re focusing on is Cadbury Double Decker, which is in its 40th year. Double Decker is one of the most unique bars in the market with its double layers of chewy nougat and crispy base, and is now worth £35m. Along with TV support for the brand, we believe this promotion will help provide an unmissable opportunity for retailers to drive excitement and repeat purchases in store.”

Cadbury has also launched Dinky Deckers in 120g bags at an RRP of £1.99 for the bitesize market.

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Maria Sze, Managing Director at whynot! thinkpeople, has some advice for independent retailers on how to survive and prosper

I love my local shop.

Apart from stocking the essentials I’ve run out of, or the ingredients I’ve forgotten, it’s got a whole fridge dedicated to cheese and last Easter they had amazing hot cross buns with dark chocolate chips in them.

What’s more, I know the people who run it – they own it, they work hard, their kids go to the same school as my kids – so I like to support them.

With 30% growth predicted over the next five years and 78% of UK shoppers ‘mostly using’ convenience for their grocery shop, it appears that I’m not alone. It’s easier to manage your budget, it reduces food waste, the opening hours are much better suited to our busy lives… it’s simply more convenient for us.

The multiples have caught on to the opportunity. The heady combination of the business gains coupled with the chance to rebuild some local trust and engagement has seen a ‘space race’ with multiple-owned convenience stores delivering the largest increase in numbers (+10.6% YOY).

However, despite what appears to be an invasion of Sainsbury Locals and Tesco Express formats popping up in a town near you, multiples actually represent less than one in 10 of all convenience stores.

But are all convenience stores delivering for us?

From a shopper point of view, overall satisfaction is still an issue. The key driver – location – can only sustain you so long. The biggest challenges remain around price, range and layout. So what do independent convenience stores need to do to survive and grow?

3 things independent convenience stores can do

1          Solve and serve your shoppers. Get under the skin of why shoppers are in store; understand their missions; and merchandise to meet the shopper need. Above all, make sure your food to go offer is right. If it’s food for tonight, don’t slavishly merchandise to reflect category ranging – that helps nobody. Instead, merchandise multiple categories together to make it easy for them to pick up everything in one go. Putting ambient, vegetables and chilled together might not feel natural but it helps provide a swift solution. Suggest and upsell – having dinner tonight? Perhaps try this starter, dessert or wine? Support, enable and enhance their everyday lifestyle.

2          Push your local credentials. You’ll never compete with the multiples on their terms. Instead build a reputation around community spirit and local quality. Some local independents have delivered this by working in partnership with other local businesses and producers e.g. butchers, green grocers, florists. As small business owners catering to the same local catchment, you are stronger against the multiples when you work together AND your opening hours provide more opportunities for them e.g. fresh flower display on Sundays when the florist is closed.

3          In store excellence. Clear away the crap, take down the day-glow hand-written signs and make sure that your store is well stocked, well presented, easy to navigate and swift to serve. Consider ways to elevate your produce to suggest freshness and quality. Are there cues from farmers markets that might work e.g. blackboard signs and wicker baskets?

How can brands get more involved and benefit from the convenience boom?

Because of their fragmented infrastructure and sketchy retail compliance, many brands struggle to engage with convenience store formats. However, convenience provides a unique brand experience opportunity, as the shopper is often a consumer looking to make a purchase to consume now. Are most brands missing an opportunity to engage with the end consumer at that moment of truth? For brands that are prepared to commit, the rewards are worth it.

A confectionery brand I worked with recently saw their product return to growth for the first time in 10 years, driven by a successful focus on supporting convenience. This improved their prominence within the category, drove growth with younger consumers and helped them step away from a damaging cycle of multiple pack discounting within the multiple grocers.

3 things brands can do to win in the convenience channel:

1          View it as a longer journey. Unlike shopper activation in grocery, the rewards may take longer to deliver in convenience. Instead of thinking campaign planning by brand, start thinking long-term (years not months) portfolio investments.

2          Help them deliver local resonance for their community. Most C space owners/managers have no time for local marketing but have an appetite to engage. Providing meaningful tools and inspiration to help them build their local market share and engage with local consumers can transform your trading relationship.

3          Help them deliver in store excellence. Schemes like Heineken Star Retailer have really helped retailers with useful product information and merchandising guidance. It’s a perfect win-win. The retailer grows their category and profits whilst the brand secures prominence of display and gains the retailer’s trust.

My local shop brings out something almost patriotic and protective in me. It’s more than some faceless façade run by fat cats – these are real people and, by supporting them, I’m putting money back into my community.

Shopping there makes me feel better about me.

If they gave me a free sample of something it would feel personal, not some mass commercial push. In a world of cynicism and disillusionment, this is marketing gold dust.

Wouldn’t it be amazing if more brand spend started landing there? Smarter signage, more of the products you expect and need, when you need them. Perhaps some seasonal food and wine tastings for regular customers… and if it meant more of those hot cross buns with the chocolate chips in them, I’d be first in the queue.

Maria Sze is Managing Director at integrated marketing and shopper agency whynot! thinkpeople.

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