With this ‘Promotions Seen’ trip being one of the biggest that the PromoNow Insights team has conducted, there’s a lot to say about Sainsbury’s promotional offerings, approach, promotional strategy, and ideas.In total, there were 22 promotions, 15 of which we’ve thoroughly reviewed, including our shopper POVs, so keep reading. Some were also found on Sainsbury’s competitions page; and 7 of which have already been explored in previous ‘Promotions Seen’ insight articles which will be linked to at the end of this article or, can be found on the PromoNow insights page.
Store POS (point-of-sale) materials
Shelf stoppers, shelf-barkers, aisle fins
Free standing display units (FSDUs)
Nectar & Sainsbury's -- Retailer-own promotions and e-retail
Experiential promotional space
McVities – The Great Biscuit Break Bonanza
Identity by Journey’s End – Win A Big Green Egg
Kellogg’s – Chance To Win Football Prizes
Magners – Win With Magners, Your Summer Vibe Starts Now
Ribena – Win Family Experiences Every Day
Le Rustique – Win A Picnic Hamper
Cadbury (Premier Foods) – Win A Prize For Your Loved Ones
Old El Paso – Win Vip Tickets To The Paris 2024 Olympics
Kettle – Win Virgin Experience Days
Cadbury (Mondelez) – Home And Away Wins
Arla LactoFREE – Win A Dream Wellness Escape
Sainsbury's is one of the UK’s biggest retailers and the particular branch the insights team visited had a strong and consistent array of promotional displays. Sainsbury’s doesn’t shy away from using these point-of-sale materials, and uses them frequently to promote Nectar alongside individual brand promotions.
There were several aisle fins and shelf stoppers with various purposes, some to simply draw attention to a product, holding a more general advertising purpose; several had a more specific promotional purpose attached. For example, as seen in the images below, several are ‘calling out’ to the brands’ activations and promotions with the aisle fins.
Shelf-stoppers like these, play with the concepts of design hierarchy to get shoppers to focus on the most appealing parts to get them more invested and intrigued. Keywords for prize draws, and instant wins, among other promotions, are usually verbs and ‘action words’ like “win”, “scan”, or “enter” as a form of call-to-action. There are also a few outstanding but common keywords and phrases, usually appealing to the shoppers referring to the prize pool with descriptors like “VIP”, and “family” or quantifying the size of the prize pool and chances of winning with terms like “1000s”. These types of terms and phrases are most commonly emphasised in various promotional materials, not just limited to shelf-stoppers, aisle fins, and shelf barkers. CAP code considerations are equally as important on POS as on-pack - it’s important to not mislead or exaggerate chances of winning.
Sainsbury’s was also home to quite a few shelf barkers of varying sizes and styles. A few standouts were, as seen in the image above, the take-home recipe cards, a promotional display that shoppers can take away for free. It’s a great way to inspire and motivate shoppers to buy certain food and drinks products without making it overtly sales-focused, of course, the sales intention will still be obvious but unlike other types of promotional displays, it takes a more subtle approach, opening up partner marketing opportunities across brands
It’s not uncommon to see food brands sharing recipes and cooking ideas with their audience, whether it’s on social media or their website, it’s a popular type of content shared by brands and taking this type of content to stores extends it to a different and wider audience. Moreover, the shoppers in stores are actively thinking about food and cooking, they expect to be sold to and are therefore more receptive to it whereas on casual social media platforms, they don’t want to see heavy brand content and do not want to be sold to.
Sainsbury’s had several FSDUs in the store, like many retailers, they could be seen on the end-cap area of their aisles which have the most footfall and display value.
As seen in the images below, these FSDUs were a mix of brand promotions and price promotions. Almost all of them feature the Nectar logo, accompanied by a Nectar-exclusive price, pushing for shoppers to sign up for a Nectar card, which is wholly owned by Sainsbury’s.
Using existing shelves and displays, the retailer was able to dedicate a section of shelving to various brands’ products and promotions. The examples below are just a few of the custom shelvings in Sainsbury's. There were also strong examples of end-cap displays that were specifically branded, involving a few more customisable elements than aisle shelves are capable of.
There were several display boxes seen around the store for various purposes. Whilst most were generically branded with the brand’s logo and copy, there were quite a few with special promotional designs to match its on-pack promotion.
Whilst there were a few floor decals as promotional displays, other promotional displays had a stronger presence and significance at Sainsbury’s. The floor decals kept to a rather standard rectangle shape and weren’t particularly prevalent but the rarity of their appearances made it stand out.
Like many other retailers, Sainsbury’s often runs and has a collection of promotions which can be found on their website. However, what makes Sainsbury’s promotions particularly special is that promotional displays for these promotions can be found in-store as well. This is often a rarity for retailers and Sainsbury’s has been a strong in-store advocate for their promotions. Most, if not all have been promotions done via Nectar, the loyalty card scheme which is under the sole ownership of Sainsbury’s.
Sainsbury’s promotions typically require a purchase, sometimes running alongside a brand’s promotion as a supporting promotion. A recent example is Robinson’s ’Super Splashdown’ promotion. There’s an accompanying and exclusive Nectar version of the prize draw in which, although Britvic is the promoter, it is entirely exclusive to Sainsbury’s shoppers.
Another stand-out aspect of Sainsbury’s is that their online shopping often features and highlights the on-pack promotions of a brand’s product.
Although not all active on-pack promotions can be found on their grocery website, there are significantly more promotions pictured and available than the offerings of competing retailers.
At flagship stores, brands can boost their activations with events and experiential promotions that engage the local community. These activations call out to shoppers who are actively buying and spending, they anticipate being sold to and are more receptive. Being right by the entrance of stores, in a correlating aisle, or at the hub of a shopping centre allows brands to maximise their outreach and target shoppers with the highest chance of purchasing.
With plenty of promotional opportunities to choose from, the terms of use for display space can vary but with several options, there are choices for various budgets. The main experiential events, as provided by LINK communication are as follows:
Just at the end of 2023, Sainsbury’s doubled their in-store digital screens, becoming the largest connected digital screen network among competing retailers. Their external network includes 420 screens. Up to 400 75” screens were launched internally, across nationwide stores.
We can expect Sainsbury’s to continue their digitalisation and for these displays to increasingly improve in-store experiences for shoppers and account more for omnichannel user journeys.
The connected screens offer huge potential to generate a range of customer interactions including QR codes and relevant offers, as well as building brand and product awareness. The digitisation of the store environment is expected to be the next evolution of retail media networks, so it’s important that we connect our digital capabilities across channels. Over time the Sainsbury’s Live partnership will play a part in allowing us to connect our entire retail media offering through ad tech – in-store, on-site and off-site – using our rich insight to enhance the customer journey.
Amir Rasekh, managing director at Nectar360
For brands that wish to advertise and promote in this space. According to Retail Adverts, the cost fluctuates between £800 and £1,000 per screen for two weeks. The price is influenced by the context surrounding the digital screen, for example, the location of the screen.
The Sainsbury’s magazine attracts dedicated and loyal Sainsbury’s shoppers and is also a promotional space that can reach an audience of shoppers who value and trust the magazine they’re subscribed to.
From the insight team’s research, the magazine is published and written by Seven Publishing Group Ltd with the main editor being Helena Lang. Brands that want to reach that highly loyal audience, can post ads in the magazine by submitting and sending an ad via specle and searching for Seven Publishing Group. There, the fixed display sizes and specifications for ads can be found. Alternatively, advertising enquiries can be directed to Leeonna Mooney at Seven Publishing at [email protected]. All of this information can be found on Sainsbury’s Magazine contact page.
Offering participants the chance to win various experiences as well as cash prizes, McVities (owned by Pladis) has launched ‘The Great Biscuit Bonanza’ promotion. The main portion of the instant win prize draw spans approximately 2 months but there’s also a chance for late entrants to join the wrap-up prize draw (between 20/06/2024 and 17/07/2024) to win a beach break for 2.
There are 10 guaranteed winners for the tier 1 cash prizes of £2,500. The tier 1 prizes are distributed via an ‘open winning moment’ promotional mechanic.
Whilst thousands of other prizes are up for grabs, unlike the tier 1 prizes, they’re not guaranteed to be won. For all prizes to be won and redeemed, all codes on promotional packs need to be entered into the promotion. Whilst the on-pack promotion does disclose that “Not all prizes may be won.” As pointed out by Di Coke of the popular UK comping blog, superlucky.me there are other aspects of the on-pack terms & conditions which could result in a poor ASA ruling.
The misleading on-pack advertising suggests £1million of prizes will be won, and there’s no mention of the promotion start date or the late entry draw dates on the packaging (which are essential T&Cs). With 8.5 million coupon prizes I simply can’t understand why we’re not hearing of more winners! Some brands who run this type of algorithmic instant win will state the odds of winning in the T&Cs (by telling us how big the flashed ‘pack universe’ is), but McVitie’s are certainly not interested in being honest with their customers.
Di Coke, superlucky.me
This is exactly the small but crucial part of running a promotion that can be overlooked, such a small breach in the CAP code could result in some catastrophic outcomes with the Advertising Standards Authority.
The wine brand, Identity by Journey’s End begins its debut into the promotional space with an on-pack promotion. Featuring a simple bottleneck tag on their bottles, participants are led to the identity product line’s page on Journey’s End’s website.
This prize draw offers 1 main prize and 2 runner-ups, taking on a minimal but effective format.
Kellogg’s and associated cereal product ranges tackle the football fan audience across Great Britain. Partnering with EFL, Manchester City, Rangers FC, and Celtic FC to bring shoppers prizes such as football tickets, equipment, and signed merchandise, all of which are sought-after prizes for football fans.
This on-pack promotion is being run in support of Kellogg’s larger campaign, ’Kellogg’s Football Camps’ which is an initiative that gives children, aged 5-15, the chance to spend a free day at 1 of 71 participating football clubs.
The promotion is featured on a microsite, at the domain kelloggsfc.com which is due to expire on the 27th of July 2024. With so many FMCG brands cornering the football fanbase, for example, Cadbury who have their own ‘Cadbury FC’ it begs the question if Kellogg’s will maintain or return to their Kellogg’s FC microsite and continue connecting to football fans.
Irish cider brand, Magners held a summer-themed prize draw promotion, lasting a total of 3 months, starting in March. The QR code found on the on-pack promotion can be scanned by shoppers which will lead them to the microsite, Win With Magners, at winwithmagners-ni.co.uk for Northern Ireland participants or winwith.magners.co.uk for the rest of the UK which shares the same designs as the promotional on-pack designs. This promotion is administered by the Dorset agency, Quantum Marketing.
For participants in Northern Ireland, Magners requires participants to enter a unique 8-digit number (URN) to enter the promotion, this code is printed inside of the pack which will deter most bad-faith actors and ensure that entrants follow the promotion’s purchase-necessary conditions.
For the rest of the UK, purchase is not required and the prizes offered also have some differences.
Working with Umbrella Risk Management, Diageo, parent company of Pimms is running a promotion to give shoppers a chance to win a pair of tickets to a match on Centre Court at Wimbledon.
There are 5 tickets exclusive to Sainsbury’s that this text-to-win win offers. This promotion also requires proof-of-purchase from a participating Sainsbury’s. The retailer uses aisle fins to advertise this promotion..
Similarly, Pimms also runs a similar promotion, relating to Wimbledon with Tesco, also via a text-to-win promotional mechanic.
Getting shoppers and their audience of families anticipating the summer with this on-pack promotion, RIbena has worked with Cloud Nine Incentives to offer participants the chance to win various prizes in this instant win prize draw.
However, whilst in the terms and conditions of this promotion it’s first introduced as a “free instant win prize draw”, later, the terms and conditions state that entrants “will be required to provide proof of purchase.”
This promotion is an example where the promotional packs were released before the promotion is live, it’s a good way to build anticipation for a promotion, but when the waiting period for entry is too long, it becomes unreasonable to expect shoppers to hold onto the packaging for so long, especially if it requires proof of purchase or a specific element of the promotional packs in order to enter.
Le Rustique also appears in stores with an on-pack promotion with a total of 1 million promotional packs. As opposed to a total transformation of their packaging, the promotional additions include a small circular sticker which, when opened reveals the unique reference number, and a longer label on the back, containing terms and conditions and other vital information, including a QR code to their microsite at win.lerustique.uk. The promotion lasts for 5 months and there’s something to be won for every valid entrant. Even if entrants don’t win the hamper prize, they can still get a 50p off voucher for their next purchase of Le Rustique camembert or brie.
As mentioned previously, the instant win promotion uses a URN code which is hidden on a sticker. Each code, being unique, reduces comper entry fraud.
As an initiative to get families and children to explore the UK, Dairylea and Trainline have partnered together to offer participants £10 off of family journeys by train over £30. With Dairylea’s strong customer-base of families, this promotion and partnership targets the right consumers.
The on-pack promotion appears to be the main focus and is being accompanied and supported by various OOH, PR, social, and radio advertising efforts.
Working with the agency, 20Ten Creative to bring shoppers this promotion, Premier Foods, the official promoter in this promotion, also celebrates the 200 year anniversary of Cadbury with a give a gift promotion.
This activation uses a winning moment mechanism to decide winners and ends with a wrap up draw. In total, the promotion lasts just short of 3 months.
Despite being a free-to-enter promotion, this promotion also came with a on-pack design across Cadbury products which were made using Premier Foods’ partial ownership over the branding, including products such as mini rolls.
In anticipation of the 2024 Olympics, Team GB and Old El Paso have partnered together and Old El Paso has launched an on-pack promotion which gives participants the opportunity to win VIP hospitality tickets to Olympic events.
By scanning the QR code on-pack, shoppers will be led to a page to sign up to the promotion on the Old El Paso website. The faces of this campaign includes double Olympic swimming champion, Tom Dean; silver medal-winning weightlifter, Emily Campbell; three-time Olympic diving medallist Jack Laugher; and current BMX Olympic gold medal winner, Bethany Shriever.
This partnership between Kettle and Virgin offers participants a variety of prizes up for grabs with an on-pack promotion across their core Kettle crisp flavours. A spokesperson at Kettle cited that the partnership with Virgin was a “no-brainer” due to both of its premium branding and “shared ethos of quality and adventure”.
This on-pack promotion is also being supported by social media, shopper marketing, and sampling efforts. Shoppers can enter the promotion by visiting the promotional microsite, winwithkettle.co.uk.
Actimel returns with another hunt for Pokemon with their on-pack promotion. Across all promotional packs, there’s a total of 12 Pokemon to collect, shoppers can find each Pokemon across their Actimel Kids product lines before being able to enter the draw to win prizes.
Build for the busy shopper using mobile, the microsite at pokemon.actimel.co.uk is where participants can track which Pokemon they’ve already scanned and is accompanied by engaging but simple animations and illustrations, reminiscent of the beloved game and show. Overall, the microsite is easy to navigate and use and is kept quite minimal.
Working with the agency, savvy, Robinsons created an on-pack promotion that has hit store shelves.
Running their very own branch of this promotion, Sainsbury’s has a parallel activation for their Nectar card-holders, running alongside Robinsons main promotion.
For the main and the Sainsbury’s brand of the Robinsons promotion, participants need to purchase a participating promotional pack. To sign up for the main promotion, participants need to visit and enter at the URL, robinsonssquash.co.uk/campaigns/splashandwin. Meanwhile, the Nectar card promotion just required shoppers to scan their Nectar card while buying a participating product.
Both the main promotion and this Nectar branch of the promotion is being ran by Britvic, the parent company of Robinsons.
Cadbury reappears in this article, this time with a promotion ran by Mondolez. Again, to build and consolidate their football fan audience with Cadbury FC, this promotion brings participants various football-themed prizes and other prizes that are highly popular among football fans and collectors who are a very dedicated and loyal audience. With prizes that give participants the chance to get personalised messages and meeting, this promotion is a brilliant activation to get casual and dedicated fans involved, engaged, and invested.
This promotion is being run by PromoVeritas, a long time agency partner. The promotion has a microsite which can be found at homeandaway.cadbury.co.uk appears similar in style and layout as previous promotional microsites, laying out the user journey visually and using animations to be engaging.
Working with the agency, Cloud Nine Incentives, to bring shoppers this on-pack promotion. Arla uses their lactose free product line and targets their audience of more health-conscious shoppers with a wellness promotion.
This main prize draw period is just over two months long and there's a short period open for late entrants. Moreover, Arla guarantees that all 2001 prizes in the prize pool will be won with their winning moments promotional mechanism.
That wraps up April’s Sainsbury’s insights, in the meantime, the insights team at PromoNow will continue to monitor the UK's biggest retailers and keep readers informed on brand promotions, retailer shopper marketing, and their various promotional strategies.
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