Now the holidays are over, there’s never been a better time to review December’s in-store and digital promotions.
Let’s start with a list of in-store promotions spotted by the PromoNow Insights team:
We found two Coca-Cola promotions, an app-based promotion available at large, and a gift with purchase, exclusive to Waitrose.
As usual, Coca-Cola had a game on their app alongside a prize draw. Customers can enter the prize draws by winning points in the game and then redeeming them for the chance to win in the draw, this time, the game was Christmas themed.
This promotion was advertised in the same way app-based promotions for Coca-Cola have been previously marketed, on the labels of Coca-Cola bottles and across multi-packs of Coca-Cola cans with supporting point-of-sale material to highlight the on-pack; these display materials were available to retailers on request. There were also digital downloads available.
There was also an accompanying ‘Gift-With-Purchase’ (GWP) promotion. By buying a multi-pack of Coca-Cola cans, customers can get a Coca-Cola bauble for free by buying a pack of 6 Coca-Cola cans. We found the promotion only in Waitrose stores, with the bauble itself retailing at £5. Since the baubles were an in-store exclusive during the promotional period, there were no extra fees to be paid.
In December, there was a text-to-win (TTW) promotion to win Nutella-themed Christmas jumpers. In 2023, this Christmas promotion was a retailer exclusive with Tesco; who are consistent hosts of text-to-win promotions.
This promotion was supported by point-of-sale materials and displays in Tesco stores.
Packaging for Nutella jars was Christmas-themed but did not feature any text or links to the text-to-win promotion itself. The promotion was primarily advertised through in-store displays as well as social posts on Instagram and Facebook, but not on X (formerly Twitter) or YouTube.
Winners were encouraged to share images of their Christmas jumper alongside the hashtag #nutellawithlove alongside tagging @nutellauk
Nutella has previously run Christmas jumper promotions since 2020 but this year, it seems they’ve handed the reins for the promotion to Tesco who are the official promoters of this promotion, a definite change from previous years.
In 2020, Nutella used an entry form, hosted on their website. In 2021, the promotion encouraged social engagement, prompting consumers to comment and interact with Nutella’s Facebook and Instagram posts for the promotion. In 2022, the promotion encouraged user-generated content (UGC), prompting consumers to share their Nutella recipes - extending the brand's digital footprint, audience reach and engagement.
Pladis (aka United Biscuits) ran a 12-week-long promotion, spanning from October to December on their most popular products for Flipz.
The on-pack promotion was spotted in Co-Op, Morrisons, Sainsbury’s, Tesco, and ASDA. Participants who were Co-Op members and ticked the “I am signed up to the 'Co-Op Members' loyalty scheme” box cited that they received a 50p off Flipz voucher for Co-Op stores. However, there’s no validation mechanism for this checkbox and it’s not mentioned in the terms and conditions.
Flipz also promoted this competition on their socials, although not always with a social post, it’s often advertised in the ‘bio’ section of the account. This was done for their TikTok and Instagram, both @flipz_uk
Further advertising also included further PR, shopper activity, and a geo-targeted social campaign to drive consumers in-store.
Babybel was another brand that launched a Christmas promotion. We spotted the promotion in Tesco but also found this promotion in most major retailers during the Christmas period.
The promotions feature special Christmas-themed on-pack designs for both the plastic wrap around the cheese and also on the tag on the netting. Accompanied by a QR code that takes consumers to babybel-xmas.co.uk.
Prizes and entry are all free and the ‘Pick A Gift' screen that pops up for the participants is a purely cosmetic addition. Consumers can enter as many times and win a print-out template for a Babybel ‘promotional product’ every time, the prize list includes:
Chrismas Decoration Baubles
Christmas Decoration Tree
Babybel Memory Game
Babybel Snakes and Ladders
2024 Calendar
Find the Babybel Characters
The next brand we’re talking about is Cadbury. When Christmas had rolled around, Cadbury had Christmas sorted. With Christmas packaging and designs across several products, including advent calendars and selection boxes and an impressive promotion that had a multichannel approach.
Cadbury’s approach to Christmas in 2024 netted the brand a 5.3% increase in sales.
The promotion, “Cadbury Secret Santa Postal Service“ was massively successful and utilised QR codes to bring an interactive experience to consumers in static, digital, and out-of-home (OOH) media, sending free chocolate to others with an experiential moment.
2023 is the 6th running year for the Cadbury Secret Santa Postal Service promotion.
This promotion was supported by many channels. With a microsite at secretsanta.cadbury.co.uk/; digital and social media push on both posts and ads; pop-up experiences in 50 Tesco stores. There were several display materials at the point of sale, including free-standing display units.
The online hub received 1.4 million visitors.
Alongside the Cadbury Secret Santa promotion, which was the main focus during the holiday season, there was also an additional on-pack promotion on the Cadbury selection boxes for “Big Ticket Savings” for selected Merlin Entertainment attractions which is a common and frequently occurring promotion but just adds a touch more appeal to the line of Christmas products at Cadbury.
Kinder had a collaborative promotion with Warner Bros. Entertainment for the Wonka movie across their Kinder Chocolate and Kinder Surprise lines, the Surprise eggs even would include a toy based on the Wonka movie inside, and the promotion was free to enter.
Winners had the opportunity to either win 1 of 5 London family breaks or 1 of 1000 cinema vouchers.
This is a brilliant case of brand partnership and reverse product placement. With the Wonka movie about chocolate and the magic and joy it brings to children and its origins of a golden ticket prize draw, a collaboration with one of the biggest chocolate brands out there, beloved by kids and adults alike, to hold a prize draw just makes sense.
There were also relevant and supporting posts about this promotion on Kinder’s social media, including Facebook and Instagram.
The whimsical nature of the Wonka film was undeniably captured in the Kinder Surprise line of products but as a whole, this promotion did not fulfil the potential it could have reached. When we compare Kinder’s partnership with Warner Bros. with other brands like Xbox, Bloomingdale’s, and Fossil which had also partnered with Warner Bros. for Wonka. Kinder’s promotion despite not being bad, is lacklustre.
Batchelors is a brand that has been a repeat promoter, running promotions with movies for some time now.
In December, their Aquaman Prize Draw launched, following a tried-and-true formulae as their previous promotions. This promotion is still ongoing and is open until the 12th of August 2024
Like previous promotions with Shazam and Batman, Batchelors has hosted them on their win with Batchelors microsite with supporting on-pack designs and animations (Promotions Interactive)
The promotion was found in several major retailers, including Co-Op, ASDA, Tesco, Sainsbury’s, and Waitrose.
What’s particularly interesting about this promotion is the consideration for online shoppers. The product images on retailer websites include a small promotional image alongside the product which is not a common addition amongst on-pack promotions. This is a great move to entice purchases for shoppers with promotions who shop primarily online - hats off to the shopper agency, Blue Chip. So far, Batchelors has been the first brand we’ve seen to feature their on-packs in a digital context and we can expect to see more considerations for the online shopper soon, especially in promotions.
J2O met the holiday season with repackaging and an on-pack promotion, giving shoppers the chance to win some cash with the “Win Some J2O Jingle” promotion.
The entry form was hosted on their website at j2o.co.uk/win
The on-pack promotion was featured across their three most popular flavours including Glitterberry, Orange & Passion Fruit, and Apple & Watermelon Spritz.
This promotion was supported by a budget of £1,000,000 for out-of-home advertising (OOH) which was expected to reach 67% of UK adults during the key weeks of the holiday season, including festive in-store display materials such as baubles and Christmas tree displays in stores.
Other than the in-store and on-pack promotions, there were also a lot of promotions which, although we didn’t see in-store, we found online.
Coors with their “Coors-Mas” Promotion ran a social engagement promotion, inviting participants to engage with their Instagram @coorsbeer for the chance to win Coors merchandise and vouchers.
Ferrero Rocher also held a promotion called “Get Wrapped Up In Christmas” Although there were no on-pack designs, there were in-store display materials that were used and a lot of advertising for the brand itself, this year, they were the 2nd biggest spender for food media, just begin Coca-Cola.
It would be remiss of us to not talk about the O2 Priority Advent Calendar promotion.
This promotion was a massive success for the brand, offering a wide variety and range of prizes in both trips, vouchers, and experiences - winner management / legal by PromoVeritas.
It embraced the holiday season with a daily instant win mechanic behind each advent door, with custom digital and claim journeys (running on PromoNow).
Announced initially to the millions of Priority members via SMS and app messaging, with further above-the-line (ATL) media, including radio.
Nutella wasn’t the only brand that met the season with a Christmas jumper promotion quite a few drink brands took to run their own Christmas jumper promotion in 2023, including VK, Birra Moretti, and Guinness.
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