In this latest article of PromoNow Insights, we feature current brand & shopper promotions seen in Waitrose. 15 promotions were seen in total, with 6 of those being new promotions we haven’t covered in previous articles appearing on store shelves. Brands featured; Lindt, Cadbury, Whole Earth, Pringles, Coca-Cola, and Gü Desserts.
Store POS (point-of-sale) materials
Fewer FSDUs were present in store (Waitrose), vs other grocery retailers - confirming the need for brands to be innovative with FSDUs and high quality to warrant the premium floor space. Raising the value of premium floor space. In terms of POS material, here’s what was seen:
Free-standing display units (FSDUs)
There were FSDUs for a few promotions, including the Lindt Gold Bunny text-to-win and the Creme Egg hunt.
They also had other FSDUs to promote other products and goods in-store but they were not branded and acted more as additional shelving rather than promotional display material.
Shelf stoppers & barkers
The shelf stoppers we saw were quite unusual, unlike other retailers these display materials were placed quite deep into the shelving, however, they mostly functioned the same way, grabbing the attention of passing shoppers as they walked down each aisle.
These displays were also not promotionally branded, they were reserved for calling out certain products on the shelves rather than advertising promotions and brand activations. If there a promotion running with Bonne Maman, the display could easily display something like, ‘WIN a VIP trip to France’s apple orchards with @Bonne Maman’.
Although there were a few display boxes, there was a noticeably smaller amount compared to other retailers we’ve visited.
We only spotted a few display boxes, including boxes for Horlick’s Win Wellness Weekends promotion; a set of display boxes for Cadbury’s Win A Chunk Of History promotion; and a few plain display boxes for Essential Waitrose goods or display boxes that simply have a brand logo on them without any additional text or images.
Other than the display board behind Coca-Cola bottles (as part of the Love A Pizza? Win A Pizza promotion) there were no other stand-out large promotional display materials like floor decals, hanging ceiling displays or the like.
Waitrose Competitions
Waitrose also has a competition website, hosting promotions to drive sales of certain products whilst giving away some prizes to shoppers at the same time. Most of these require the participant to provide receipt proof of purchase and are also, for the most part, prize draws.
There are also other promotions that shoppers can enter without buying a specific product. Customers can also join the prize draw for MyWaitrose cardholders. Readers of the Waitrose Weekend magazine can also complete the crossword for the chance to win a £100 John Lewis Partnership gift card.
What’s New?
Gü Desserts – Chance To Win 1 Of 1000s Of Prizes
This promotion by Gü Desserts began mid-January. It was spotted in-store with an on-pack design across 5 product packs and released close to Valentine's Day with the matching copy, offering shoppers an “easy and affordable way of showing their love.” as an effort to bolster sales around the Valentine’s season.
This promotion was released in support of their campaign ‘Love Is…’
Gü uses a simple ‘spin to win’ gamification mechanic, adding a little bit more intrigue to the otherwise straightforward form that shoppers have to fill in to enter the instant win promotion. Transporting shoppers to their digital activation with a QR code on the promotional packs.
There has also been a focus on social media as part of this campaign, encouraging UGC (user-generated content) and getting customers to share what ‘Love is…’ to them on Instagram.
Coca-Cola – Love Pizza? Win A Pizza
Coke follows its usual promotional format, encouraging shoppers to download the Coca-Cola app to sign up for the promotion with a QR code on the label. Said app is accompanied by mini-games users can play to win tokens to use on prize draws. However, this particular ‘Love Pizza? Win A Pizza’ promotion doesn’t require tokens to enter and shoppers can jump straight into the instant win and join the prize draw.
The on-pack promotion can be seen on Coca-Cola Original Taste and Zero Sugar sharing bottles, featuring a simple design and QR code that prompts the user to download the app.
Pringles – Level Up Your Gaming Night
Last year, Pringles partnered with Logitech and Lukasz Zolynia, the Esport & Partnership Marketing Manager for Logitech Europe for an exciting gaming-based activation and promotion. That promotion was done with a few different agencies, including, ZEAL Creative, PromoVeritas, Hogarth, Publicis Sapient, and Digitas UK. This year, Pringles has yet again, launched an on-pack promotion across their 165g core flavour cans.
Pringles is no stranger to gaming promotions, and this promotion will make it the 5th year of running one, Pringles has dialled into gaming audiences, particularly the e-sports sector as of late. Seeing as the industry shows continuous growth, it’s likely that Pringles will continue with this theme of tech and gaming-based promotions and larger campaigns.
“A lot of our best-performing activations in the last five years have been Gaming, and this has landed us to be the 1st associated snack with this key space” David Juvany, European Senior Brand Manager of Pringles (Kellanova).
Promotions around gaming continue to grow far and wide, several countries in Central and South America have promotions with the popular free-to-play, battle royale game, Free Fire. Regions in Asia also frequently run promotions with game-based incentives and campaigns. For example, a recent promotion held by Pringles in Korea in partnership with Xbox landed. Xbox is a regular promotional partner of Pringles.
Whole Earth – Win Tickets To Paris 2024
Given that this year is the Olympics, Whole Earth is one of many brands which have taken advantage of the season, offering related experiences as part of their promotion.
After a successful partnership in preparation for the 2020 Olympics in Japan, Whole Earth has partnered with Team GB again to offer participants the chance to win tickets with a specially designed on-pack promotion, spanning several of their products.
"After a successful partnership with Whole Earth in the run-up to Tokyo 2020, we’re delighted to be joining forces again in the lead-up to Paris 2024” Tim Ellerton, Commercial Director at the British Olympic Association
The promotion has a dedicated microsite where participants can go to sign up and enter.
Lindt – Gold Bunny Easter Competition
Multiple promotions are being run with the iconic Lindt gold bunnies in celebration of easter and done with the intent to increase sales around the easter period. One of which is a text-to-win promotion, available at several major retailers, including Waitrose but also at ASDA, Morrisons, Co-Op, Tesco, Sainsbury’s, and Ocado.
The promotion was not accompanied by on-pack designs but is often seen with promotional materials such as being in free-standing display units.
Another promotion by Lindt, which although was not seen in stores, was another Easter-time promotion. A prize draw for Lindt products specifically purchased at a Lindt store or on their eShop.
In previous years, Lindt had nailed the activations for Easter, encouraging younger age groups (3–12 years old) to join in on their competitions with their 2022 Easter colouring competition. In 2023 they also nailed their easter promotion, hiding ten gold bunny tokens in their Lindt Gold Bunnies.
Creme Egg – Find This Egg And Win
Creme Egg has embraced the Easter season and took the phrase ‘egg-hunt’ to the next level, hiding split-coloured eggs for shoppers to find and have the chance to win some serious cash prizes. Prize location seeding is handled discreetly and independently by PromoVeritas.
This activation is a really fun and exciting way to engage shoppers, getting them excited with every creme egg they open.
Alongside this, Cadbury Creme Eggs, has launched an entire campaign and bringing back their tagline ‘How do you eat yours?‘ getting customers more engaged than ever with a light-hearted quiz and comical adverts on out-of-home (OOH) advertising and on social media, including YouTube.
The test leads participants to the opportunity to enter a prize draw and win some prizes, even without finding a split-coloured egg.
What Was Seen Before?
Alongside the aforementioned promotions, we also saw several others that we’ve come across in other retailers and some, we’ve also covered in previous insight articles. They’re seen below, if they don’t have an accompanying description, they will have been covered in a previous article. Click on whichever promotion you’d like to learn more about.
Kopparberg – Win An e-bike Every Month
We saw this promotion at our last Waitrose retailer insights trip. Although by the time this article is published the promotion will have ended, the microsite calls for shoppers who’ve visited too late for the entry period, to keep their eyes peeled for April of 2024, likely for another promotion for their alcohol-free product lines.
They also had this promotion featured on the ASDA groceries’ website, alongside the promotional pack as the product image as well, something that is not always seen for online product photos, making a nice touch for this activation, pique more interest for digital shoppers as well.
Capri-Sun – Spooky Pouches
This promotion was spotted way back during the Halloween period of 2023.
Capri-Sun had taken a bold leap into AR with their packaging, incentivising sales by providing shoppers with a seasonal augmented reality experience, something many brands are looking to incorporate into their promotions and brands as a whole.
The promotion was supported by promotional packaging & social posts across 4 platforms including Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, and Facebook.
