Cult Japanese confectionary brand Hi-CHEW has launched in the UK, backed with a social media promotion which allows London-based consumers to claim a free sample pack.

The promotion was put together by Hi-CHEW’s UK marketing agency, tbk, with the digital vouchers being delivered by i-movo.

The social media campaign launched at the beginning of March, with thousands of consumers clicking through to the i-movo service to request the voucher. All of the initially available vouchers were claimed within 24 hours; Hi-CHEW now plans to extend the online campaign shortly, and will also be running a series of experiential campaigns in the Greater London area.

Targeted advertising on social media sites has been driving relevant consumers through to a promotional site where they can claim their vouchers, which are sent to their mobile phones, as well as find their nearest participating retailer. Consumers can then redeem their vouchers at participating stores – the initial campaign ran with around 700 convenience stores in the Greater London area.

Hi-CHEW is a chewable soft candy, described as a cross between chewing gum and sweets like Starburst, which has been sold in Japan for decades. Made by Japanese company Morinaga & Co, the brand was launched in the US in 2008, and is also available in various Asian countries.

tbk is an award-winning independent creative marketing agency that also includes Carlsberg, Pringles, Lucozade, Krispy Kreme, Boots and Wickes amongst its clients.

i-movo is one of the largest Secure Digital Voucher networks in the world, advising agencies and brands on initial creative concept, planning and execution, and post-campaign analysis, as well as providing systems and skills to minimise the risk and maximise the return on investment. It works with over 60,000 participating retailers, has delivered over 300 successful campaigns and has processed over 10 million vouchers worth over £100 million.

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Easy-to-digest milk brand a2 Milk has just run a digitally-powered “Try Me Free” campaign to increase visibility in store at the point of purchase and drive trial.

a2 Milk is a pure cow’s milk that’s naturally free-from the A1 protein found in regular cows’ milk, which some people have challenges digesting. a2 Milk hand-select cows that naturally produce only the easy to digest A2 protein so that many people can enjoy the benefits of dairy without stomach problems.

To increase awareness of the brand and the promotion, over 200,000 bottles were promoted using a “Try Me Free” neck collar. On purchasing the promotional product in-store, consumers opened the neck collar and were prompted to visit www.trya2milk.co.uk where they could claim their free product.

The promotion and the supporting website were created by Activate by Shopmium through a completely digital redemption process. Consumers registered on the site, provided feedback on their experience with the product, uploaded a picture of their receipt, entered either their PayPal or Bank Account details and then received their cashback.

The campaign was initially trialled across Waitrose over the course of November 2017 and was successfully rolled out across all retailers during January and February 2018.

Sarah Shakespeare, Social & Digital Content Manager at a2 Milk, says: “The Try Me Free campaign has gone very smoothly. The neck collars delivered good stand out on shelf and the redemption process was very easy for our consumers to use.”.

Activate by Shopmium is a Quotient Technology brand, enabling brands to drive measurable sales from their digital, on pack and in-store marketing spend.

Quotient Technology Inc., which was previously known as Coupons.com Incorporated, is a leading digital promotion and media platform that connects brands, retailers and consumers. It distributes digital coupons and media through a variety of products, including: digital printable coupons, digital paperless coupons, coupon codes, and card linked offers.

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Independent shopper insights consultancy Shoppercentric has published its Shopper Stock Take Index for a third year, which reveals that 41% of consumers use store loyalty cards ‘a lot’ and 47% use them ‘occasionally’. Only 1% of survey respondents said they had never heard of loyalty cards.

However, Danielle Pinnington, Managing Director at Shoppercentric, warns: “Retailers and brands must keep a finger on the shopper pulse and appreciate that each customer is now using a range of strategies to cope with increasing pressures on household budgets. Which categories or sectors will suffer most this year is likely to depend on how they react to changing shopper needs.”

Pinnington adds: “With shoppers picking and choosing between stores for particular items based on their own experience of how well different retailers deliver, there is even greater pressure to differentiate and create memorable in-store experiences. Equally, avoiding or challenging misconceptions based on bad experiences has become more important. If, as our report shows, shoppers are actively widening their repertoires, loyalty as we used to know it is an outdated term.”

Shoppercentric collected more than a thousand online survey responses from shoppers, covering how they felt about the stability of their household budgets, how their shopping habits are changing, and what brands and retailers need to do as a result.

The 2018 Shopper Stock Take index reveals that while shoppers aren’t yet feeling the same pinch as in the worst of the recession, they are certainly starting to feel more pressure. Only one in four claims to be unaffected by the current economic situation, with a considerable proportion of UK shoppers having to make minor changes to spending.

The speed of change is rapid – just 12 months ago, the proportion of those making minor changes was just 16%, but today it stands at 44%. 26% of shoppers have noticed prices increasing a lot, and 56% have noticed small increases.

Shoppers primarily put these increases down to the state of the economy (54%) and Brexit (50%), although the exchange rate, cost of ingredients and greedy companies are also ‘blamed’ by a fair proportion of shoppers.

80% of shoppers are now “being careful to avoid waste”, while 75% are “avoiding being tempted to buy things I don’t need”. 50% are “going out of their way to find the best prices” and will “split shopping across different stores to get the best deals.” 60% are now buying “own label where I can to keep costs down” and 33% are now using “online shopping to check spending as I go.”

2017 saw a continued increase in the proportion of shoppers who had abandoned weekly main shops in favour of shopping little & often – rising from 11% to 16%. This year, however, there has been no change in that figure, suggesting this trend may have reached its ceiling.

Instead, shoppers are becoming more active as they make the most of the choice available. Shoppers’ average repertoire has changed to five stores or websites in the last fortnight, up from four in 2017. 26% of UK shoppers say that they fit their grocery shopping in where and when they can. 33% of shoppers switch stores based on what they need – to get the best places for what they want (versus 28% in 2017).

The biggest change in the five channels covered by the report was in the use of discounter stores – up 13% on 2017 figures to 57% of UK shoppers. Use of the Big Four supermarkets rose by four percentage points on 2017 figures to 83%. There was no significant change in convenience store or online grocery usage penetration – 49% and 30% of shoppers using those channels respectively.

With the exception of Smart TVs, all digital devices covered by this report saw increased usage by UK shoppers. Computers/laptops were cited as the most used touchpoint – up six percentage points on 2017 figures to 63%. In second place were smartphones with a huge 18 percentage point increase on last year to 45%.

Interestingly, despite a number of retailers and brands moving away from catalogues, usage by shoppers rose to 22%– up four percentage points on 2017.

There has been a seven percentage point increase to 58% in the number of shoppers that have been triggered to shop by content on their smartphone. Using a smartphone to carry out ‘research’ has remained on a par with last year at 61%. However, using the device to ‘find’ an item has risen from 56% to 60%, while the number of shoppers using smartphones to buy a product has gone up from 37% to 42% of shoppers.

However, despite the considerable shift in shoppers using their smartphones as they shop, particularly in relation to actual purchasing, there has been no increase in the uptake of mobile-based promotions, which remains at 20%.

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Mars brand SNICKERS is launching a money-off promotion with a difference in the US, to support its long-running “You’re Not You When You’re Hungry” marketing platform. A special ‘Hungerithm’ has been created to monitor the mood, and the hunger level, of the Internet. As the Internet’s “hanger” increases, the value of coupon discounts off SNICKERS at participating U.S. 7-Eleven stores will increase in real time.

“Sometimes you say stuff online you don’t mean in a moment of hunger,” said Michael Italia, Senior Brand Manager, SNICKERS Brand. “We’ve all witnessed this type of behavior from friends and family in our newsfeeds. Now SNICKERS can help satisfy in real time.”

“Hungerithm” was developed by Clemenger BBDO Melbourne under the “You’re Not You When You’re Hungry” umbrella and originally piloted in Australia to critical acclaim and business success. The algorithm checks social media posts in real time against a list of 3,000 commonly used words and phrases to determine sentiment and capture a snapshot of how people are feeling. It even understands slang and sarcasm. As hanger goes up, the coupon value goes up too.

Consumers can view the SNICKERS Hungerithm at www.Hungerithm.com and track the value of the money-off coupons across the day – they can then use their mobile devices to lock in a coupon value and generate a barcode which they can redeem at participating 7-Eleven stores.

“Hungerithm” went live mid November and will be available until December 22nd, 2017.

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SwiftReceipt, a new digital receipt validation service which claims to be the fastest in the UK, launched this month with a promise to revolutionise the service for shoppers and brands alike.

Backed by integrated service agency, Granby, bespoke technology validates customer redemptions in less than an hour – and potentially in as little as 15 minutes – delivering digital rewards (for example cinema codes) instantly, with the ability to dispatch physical ones within 24 hours.

Granby is the exclusive UK partner for the receipt validation technology which has been developed in the US and is a well-established platform in the US market.

Joanne Kimber, Managing Director at Granby, says: “Digital receipt validation has been taking shopper marketing by storm for several years, but hasn’t offered instant redemption – until now. Consumers are less likely to take the time to complete complex redemption processes these days. They want everything quickly, and brands know it. SwiftReceipt is a gamechanger. Not only is it easy to set up, but brands will have access to more accurate data, aiding tracking and making ROI easier to prove.”

Granby says that SwiftReceipt does not rely on on-pack codes; instead, customers are asked to upload a photo of their till receipt to a mobile-optimised, branded microsite for validation. It also claims to offer a best-in-class data capture mechanism which will provide brands with important information about shopper trends, making it easier to retarget customers and cross-sell multiple brands and categories.

The technology is compliant with ISO27001, GDPR and EU data protection legislation, and offers access to full campaign analytics and reporting, which will also help brands accurately and compliantly grow databases and track ROI.

SwiftReceipt offers both an out-of-the-box solution for single-purchase reward claims, getting campaigns off the ground quickly, and bespoke solutions for more complex needs, such as multi-brand, multi-buy or threshold-spend solutions.

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Even though the volume of money-off coupons and vouchers in circulation appears to have fallen, UK consumers still saved £3.4 billion in the 12 months to April 2017, a new survey conducted for coupon company Valassis reveals.

Almost all consumers said they use coupons when supermarket shopping (99%) and almost all (96%) say they are actively looking for promotional offers more often or as much as a year ago.

However, while the appetite for coupons and vouchers remains high, 41% of consumers report that they are receiving fewer than a year ago. The survey’s respondents reported decreases in coupon availability across most of the usual sources, with nearly two thirds (65%) claiming they now receive fewer coupons at till and 35% spotting fewer coupons online.

Charles D’Oyly, managing director of Valassis UK, comments: “Several grocery retailers have pulled back from using basket price comparisons against other supermarkets, which often resulted in the price difference being printed out as a voucher when checking out. This promotional mechanic has been popular since early 2010, but with the rise of the deep discounters and the need to compete on everyday low prices for household staples, it looks like retailers are not issuing as many of those types of coupons and vouchers.”

The hunger for coupons and vouchers remains high, especially among younger shoppers, with 49% of 16-24 year olds stating they had increased coupon use compared to 33% of all consumers.

Regarding new shopping habits, 20% of all shoppers claim to regularly use online shopping and home delivery, and it is particularly popular among the younger age group. Younger shoppers are also more likely to try other new shopping methods – 11% of shoppers aged 16-24 often use “Click and Collect” compared to 1% of shoppers over 65, while 15% of younger shoppers often use a handheld scanner when shopping compared to just 2% of all shoppers.

Over half of all those surveyed (54%) claimed to have used Amazon for grocery shopping, with 19% using it regularly.

However, some traditional shopping habits remain – most people still use a shopping list, with just 30% saying they never use one for their main grocery shop, suggesting that most shopping decisions are made before setting off to the supermarket. The research underlined this further, with 37% of respondents agreeing that offers will sway what they intend to purchase and what goes on the shopping list.

Loyalty to retailers is decreasing, with far fewer people using only one supermarket for their regular shop.  Shoppers visiting just one store for their grocery shopping has dropped to just 8% from 12% in the previous year. Likewise, over two thirds of shoppers (67%) report that they use two to three stores on a monthly basis.

The research also suggested that the rise of discount supermarkets may be slowing down and that the discounters may even be falling out of favour – exactly a quarter of shoppers stated that the hassle and inconvenience of shopping in places like Aldi and Lidl were not worth their lower prices.

The findings are based on an online survey of 2,000 nationally representative adults, conducted by GfKNOP from April 3 to 10 2017 on behalf of Valassis.

Valassis Limited is the UK’s largest coupon and voucher services provider, performing crucial data management and financial clearing services for brands, retailers and others. Responsible for handling most of the UK’s coupons and vouchers, Valassis Limited is uniquely positioned to deliver insights on UK consumer promotions.

In North America, Valassis is a leader in intelligent media delivery, providing over 58,000 clients with innovative media solutions to influence consumers wherever they plan, shop, buy and share. By integrating online and offline data combined with powerful insights, Valassis precisely targets its clients’ most valuable shoppers. NCH Marketing Services, Inc. and Clipper Magazine are Valassis subsidiaries, while RedPlum is its consumer brand. Valassis is a wholly owned subsidiary of Harland Clarke Holdings.

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Eagle Eye, the SaaS technology company which validates and redeems digital promotions in real-time for the grocery, retail and hospitality industries, has won a new three year contract with John Lewis PLC for the deployment of its Eagle Eye AIR platform to deliver improved digital customer marketing.

Tim Mason, CEO of Eagle Eye, says: “We are delighted to have won this contract and to be imbedding Eagle Eye’s technology as an integral part of John Lewis’s digital strategy. John Lewis is a market-leading, high-profile retailer and this win further reinforces the clear competitive benefits our solutions deliver to retailers.”

Mason adds: “Consumers are increasingly using mobile as their preferred channel and savvy retailers are using digital promotions as a key driver to enhance customer engagement. Eagle Eye has the proven technology to capitalise on this structural industry shift.”

Eagle Eye’s digital marketing platform, Eagle Eye AIR, enables the secure, real-time, multi-channel issuance, management and redemption of digital promotions and rewards, replacing previously used paper-based methods. The Eagle Eye platform creates a network effect between merchants, distributors and brands enabling stronger connections and value to all parties.

Current customers include Asda, J Sainsbury, Greggs, JD Sports, Ladbrokes, Marks & Spencer, Mitchells & Butlers, Pizza Express, Tesco and Thomas Pink.

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Stuart Sankey of Quotient Europe explores strategies to drive consumer engagement via mobile advertising and promotions

With the recent news from eMarketer[1] that mobile is now taking the majority share of UK time with digital media, the question of how brands can make mobile media contribute to in-store product trial, sampling and acquisition goals becomes ever more pressing.

Brands have been diverting more and more of their advertising spend into the mobile channel, with FMCG marketers being the biggest spenders on mobile display ads[2]. However, the basic nature of mobile media formats means that brands are finding it difficult to make them fulfil core goals such as engagement and in-store product trial.

Marketers need to address the paradox at the heart of mobile marketing: more and more, campaigns require a mobile element in order to reach and appeal to target audiences, yet the vast majority of consumer spend on FMCG occurs offline, in ‘bricks & mortar’ stores.

Brand teams are trying a variety of different approaches, such as interruptional display ads, contextual ads, in-game ads and Facebook media. As yet, though, these have not delivered the engagement levels brands seek nor have they had any clear, measurable impact on in-store, offline sales.

The inconvenient truth of mobile advertising is that UK consumers are only clicking on 1% of ads[3]. Furthermore, PwC states that 44% of UK consumers claim to not have clicked on any ads at all in the past month[4]. Add to this the growing issue of mobile ad-blockers, which 21% of smartphone users are currently using to opt-out of ads altogether[5].

So what’s a marketer to do?

Mobile Engagement and Acquisition

Brands that want to win in the mobile-first world need to be equipped to put mobile at the heart of campaign planning. This means being able to run entire campaigns through mobile; campaigns that push the consumer through the sales funnel from engagement to in-store purchase.

This is more easily achieved than many might believe. Although mobile users are often reluctant to engage with brands; many respond positively to targeted campaigns that offer genuine relevance and value: 

• 59% of consumers say ‘relevant ad content’ is the most important attribute for mobile ads[6].
• 79% of mobile app users are likely to engage with brands that offer value[7].

When it comes to relevance, the key is for brands to ‘show up’ when the consumer is actively looking for inspiration and ideas on their mobile – e.g. for new products to try or use. Brands, particularly those with new products, need to ‘show up’ when the consumer is in this exploratory mode and trigger their curiosity with relevant and engaging content.

To then deliver on this engagement, FMCGs are likely to have more success if they treat mobile as a combined advertising and promotions platform, offering ‘value’ in the form of a targeted promotion.

A strong call-to-action to purchase the product can ensure that the customer journey continues seamlessly into the store to make a purchase. Ideally the brand should be able to furnish information on the nearest store – and even aisle – that has the product in stock. Again, this is easily achieved.

Lastly, it’s crucial to ensure that high quality, on-brand messaging supports the value proposition in any mobile advertising to ensure that the audience buys into the ethos and usage ideas of the brand.

A variety of di­fferent activation mechanisms are now available to FMCGs: these include digital and mobile coupons, both of which do a great job of converting consumer engagement and brand media into significant purchase intent and of tying in-store activity back to digital engagement.

Stuart Sankey is European Sales Director at Quotient Europe. In the UK & Europe, Quotient delivers digital promotions and media solutions that help FMCG brands and supermarkets engage consumers and activate in-store sales through web, mobile and social. Founded in 1998, the parent company Quotient Technology Inc. is listed on the NYSE (QUOT). Quotient has put together a free Mobile Marketing Playbook which explains to FMCG marketers how it is vital to understand ‘how’ consumers want to engage with brand content on their hand-held devices – and that this is key to ensuring that mobile delivers the high levels of engagement and customer acquisition that they are looking for. You can download the FREE Mobile Marketing Playbook from the Quotient website. (link to: http://www.quotienteuropeblog.eu/fmcg-playbook-reg/)

[1] https://www.emarketer.com/Article/Mobile-Takes-Majority-Share-of-UK-Time-with-Digital-Media/1014676

[2] http://www.thedrum.com/news/2014/10/08/mobile-video-ad-spend-triples-64m-display-advertising-hits-35bn-uk-first-half-year

[3] http://www.campaignlive.co.uk/article/1367930/stop-advertising-mobile-youre-missing-bigger-picture?src_site=marketingmagazine

[4] http://www.pwc.com/gx/en/industries/entertainment-media/consumer-intelligence-series-mobile-advertising-what-do-consumers-want.html

[5] https://www.emarketer.com/Article/Mobile-Ad-Blocking-on-Steep-Ascent-Globally/1014023?ecid=NL1002

[6] http://www.pwc.com/gx/en/industries/entertainment-media/consumer-intelligence-series-mobile-advertising-what-do-consumers-want.html

[7] http://www.mecglobal.com/our-news/news/mec-study-reveals-79-of-mobile-app-users-are-likely-to-engage-with-brands-that-offer-value/

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Supermarket loyalty is decreasing, according to the latest research from Valassis: only 12% of shoppers claim loyalty to just one supermarket brand, with most (70%) shopping across two to three different stores. The number of shoppers loyal to just one supermarket has nearly halved since 2014, when it was 22%.

The figures, from a consumer survey carried out in November for Valassis, the UK’s largest coupon and voucher services provider, reveal that there is even less loyalty during the festive season, particularly among female shoppers. Only 10% of women stating they would stay loyal to their main regular supermarket.

Promotional offers are the deciding factor behind where the Christmas supermarket shop is done, with half of all women surveyed declaring they would switch supermarkets in order to use coupons or vouchers, although only one third of men say they are persuaded by such deals.

The research highlighted a number of other changing trends relating to promotional mechanics.  Coupons and vouchers are now favoured by 42% of shoppers compared to 38% three years ago; and loyalty points are favoured by 43% of Tesco and Sainsbury’s shoppers, compared to 38% in 2013.

In today’s increasingly digital age, paper coupons are still a favourite with most shoppers, although younger shoppers are more likely to embrace technological advances – nearly half of 25-34 year olds (48%) are highly likely to use a mobile coupon.

“With the consumer’s head being turned every which way by promotions at Christmas and grocery loyalty being at a low, no supermarket can afford to sit on the side-lines, especially when targeting women shoppers.” Valassis’ Managing Director, Charles D’Oyly (pictured), says.  “Within the grocery sector, digital promotions are still far from being embraced by the consumer although younger shoppers are certainly more predisposed to use them.  Clearly, offering a choice of promotional formats is currently the way to go.”

The weekly shop remains a firm habit of the majority of shoppers (58%), although a third of shoppers (33%) undertake daily top ups and 21% regularly opt for online shopping and home delivery.

The findings are based on an online survey of 2,000 nationally representative adults, conducted by GfK NOP on behalf of Valassis between 4^th and 7th November 2016.

Valassis Limited is the UK’s largest coupon and voucher services provider performing crucial data management and financial clearing services and responsible for handling most of the UK’s coupons and vouchers.

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