A good Field Marketing Award Entry: Chilled Product Launch

We have been asked to provide greater insight into what makes a good entry, specifically for the field marketing categories.

So, here is an example of a well-structured Field Marketing award entry – to suit categories A-F. It is about launching a new product variant via store presence at a major grocer. We have anonymised the brand and the store where this was activated, as well as the agency.

This entry is unlikely to be as helpful to Brand Experience/Experiential entrants, where the consumer/ shopper/ visitor or fan reaction to the event or campaign  is likely to play a major part in the write up and is easy to report/demonstrate.

FM judges like this type of entry as it follows a straightforward structure. The challenge is clearly set out, the solution story is engaging, the results are good and meet the objectives. Entering FM Awards is really quite simple. If you have a compelling story that met and surpassed your expectations then following this structure will also engage the judges. Note specifically that the entrant offers their results after first reiterating the objectives.

1. THE BRAND CHALLENGE

Clearly show the rationale behind this campaign/work e.g. the trading conditions, the brand or manufacturer’s position prior to the promotion. Then state the objectives that the campaign was expected to achieve. Within this it is a good idea to show why this particular category was the one chosen for entry.

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Following the unprecedented success of the launch of XYZbrand’s ProductABC launch, XYZbrand were keen to quickly develop their portfolio and introduce another ProductABC variant into their range.

The chilled category is itself a major challenge due to limited fridge space and shelf life, but the chilled yoghurts and pot desserts category is already extremely complex and busy with space on shelf at a premium. XYZbrand could not decide which range of products would be most successful, so the marketing team came up with an innovative idea to test the market. Two variants were developed –ProductABC1 and ProductABC2. Both variants had an “On pack” call to action for shoppers to “Vote for me to stay.”

Despite the launch trial coming outside of range review, XYZbrand was successful in negotiating with GroceryMultiple to take an exclusive listing of the 2 trial SKUs. In conjunction with XYZbrand and the GroceryMultiple team, we designed a support strategy campaign to deliver fast speed to shelf and engagement to ensure the success of the launch.  We devised a store & field team Incentive program to engage the store and field team backed by POS, In Store Magazine, Staff canteen posters and Online banners.  For GroceryMultiple, The SKU needed to drive category growth but we also needed to engage both the Shopper and the Store to drive selection of which pack should be a permanent SKU in store. The biggest challenge was to get the product on sale in store with no official planogram space and no additional field support budget!

The campaign held a high level of significance as it demonstrated outstanding collaboration between the GroceryMultiple Buyer, the XYZbrand commercial team and OurAgency to deliver the campaign from concept to execution. A great success for both XYZbrand’s and GroceryMultiple trading relationship deemed ‘Best in Class Execution’ by the GroceryMultiple buyer, despite the campaign being a small scale under the radar activity.

The challenges this activity faced were that there was no “Above the Line” TV support (as for all other XYZbrand SKUs) so the campaign had to be activated in store only. Also both products did not have a planned space on shelf as the activation was outside of range review and the products needed merchandising next to each other on fixture to support shopper choice which involved negotiating moving other SKUs around on the fixture to accommodate the non-planned SKUs. A 2 for £4 promotion was activated across the XYZbrands’s Other Products range to coincide with the launch to drive shoppers to pick both packs from shelf.

The full campaign period was 7 weeks and there was an urgency to deliver maximum selling distribution. Supporting a 7 week campaign naturally meant there was a limited field budget to support success as there was nothing additional added to our annual budget to support this campaign – hence why this compelling piece of Retailer, Brand and Agency activity is right for this category.

2. YOUR SOLUTION

Outline the strategy employed to achieve, or go beyond the objectives outlined in part 1.Then describe the campaign and explain how/why it worked.

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The in store actions for the field team had 2 key aims :

1/ Merchandising both variants on sale on fixture next to each other, by creating new & adjacent space on the main fixture

2/ Launch & Communicate the Store Incentive to key store personnel

Prior to the visits being completed we did test visits to ascertain what internal communications had been sent out to stores to prepare them for the launch and to establish how our Project team should construct the brief to ensure the “first time right” successful actions of our field team.

We took a “data led” approach by analysing GroceryMultiple data by store on a daily basis to check stock allocations through supply chain. Once stock hit store we then scheduled visits. This ensured that the SKUs could be implemented on sale – This was a staggered approach throughout the week to ensure that visits were not wasted to stores where stock hadn’t yet arrived, but potential sales were maximised to ensure that stock wasn’t sitting in the warehouse. With there being no planogram space for this SKUs the stock would have simply sat in the warehouse.

We tracked daily sales, stock and distribution build using our own real time data analysis system scheduling visits to stores accordingly to ensure we delivered a maximum selling potential across the ranged stores. Focusing resource on stores that really needed the support and minimising spend on visits.

The activity included siting posters in the staff canteen to communicate the activity, Siting POS to drive visibility, benefit selling the shopper engagement of the “On pack” promotion and the store reward available through the Incentive programme. In addition we looked to obtain secondary sitings in highly supportive stores and drive local orders to support these secondary locations.

The campaign was a live and rolling campaign over week 1 and 2 reacting to the data story and activating field team members nationally to address & rectify zero sales days. Calls were created, staffed and completed in many instances within 24 hours.

We provided XYZbrand with a bespoke website, available 24/7 on which they could view results and photos as they came in, before the field member has even left the store.  Stores opened at 8am, and the initial photos from the activity were seen by the client by 8.30 on Day 1, along with an interim Powerpoint update by 2pm that day, enabling speedy circulation of results around the XYZbrand business. Further summary updates were provided at close of business on day 1, and then a final report was supplied at the end of the activity.

3. RESULTS

Reiterate the objectives set out in 1 and how these were met or surpassed (or if not met, explain why), supported with meaningful, robust data and/or testimonial(s). Also state any key data from the post-campaign analysis that adds weight and credibility to your entry. Outline any additional learnings from the campaign and note any post-activity conclusions.

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XYZbrand’s aim was to launch 2 NPD SKUs outside of Range review in GroceryMultiple to drive category growth and to engage both the Shopper and the Store to drive selection of which pack should be a permanent SKU in store. Both packs had an “On pack” call to action for shoppers to “Vote for me to stay.” In support of this XYZbrand ran a Store Incentive program to engage the store team backed by POS, In Store Magazine, Staff canteen posters and Online banners.
By day 5 following Launch, 95% of stores had both SKUs selling….. By Day 7 that was 100% of stores

• OurAgency negotiated side by side merchandising in over 70% of stores which was an amazing achievement; the KPI was 50%
• In the 7 weeks of the campaign 60% of the gains were incremental to the category
• During the period these SKUs (NPD from a standing start) achieved No 4 & 5 ranking for all SKU in both Base and Promo sales ranking
• 35 secondary sitings to main fixture had been agreed to support visibility
• Compliance to the wider 2 for £4 promotion in store (POS, SEL, Poster and product availability and location) was driven from 35% on Entry to 99% on exit
• The store Incentive winners had grown their volume sales (from base target) by 386%.
• ProductABC1 won with the most shopper votes and becomes the permanently listed SKU at the next range review
• All this with only In store activation, without a budget
• All this with no place on shelf agreed or product adjacencies confirmed.

The wider result of an excellent delivery of this highly important piece of Buyer inspired activity are being seen in the XYZbrand and GroceryMultiple commercial partnership. The trust in delivery and also the agility and speed to react to support this at store level guided by data.

See Supporting documents for client testimonials and background to results.

4. BUDGET (optional)

Disclosure of budget is often not necessary as each category criteria is specific about the data that it either requires or recommends. However entrants that are keen to show how much they have achieved on a modest or restricted budget should disclose the figure here if it is not already noted in sections 1-3 above.

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Total budget spend was under £WASDISCLOSED