We’ve visited four of the top retailers this October to find new trends in store, shopper innovations, and plenty of spooky goings on…
It’s spooky season!
From hanging displays to plenty of FSDUs to Halloween-inspired products, spooky season is in full swing in our supermarkets.
A shout out to 19 Crimes in Sainsbury’s, who have gone big with an end-of-aisle slim plinth, limited edition glow-in-the-dark bottles, and a free gift with purchase glass. Very eye-catching amongst the rest of the Nectar purple plinths!
As usual, there are plenty of Halloween SKU variants in cakes, sweets, and chocolates, but a nice, slightly unexpected move from St Pierre with their ‘Bats, Bonfires, and Brioche’ FSDU.
But the spookiest of all in our opinion… Heinz and Monster Munch’s Pickled Onion Mayo. That is terrifying.
Shelf stripping on the rise… literally!
Tesco has really kick-started this trend, but Sainsbury’s is coming in at close second. It’s something we’ve recently created for our client, Branston Pickle, and it’s all about gaining extra space for brand creative and messaging within a busy fixture.
Fantastic for brand blocking, Green Giant really stood out here, helped by the lack of price labelling, but contrasted so nicely against their yellow SRPs.
We think making more of standard shelf strips will grow and grow across retailers – it’s a great eye-catcher.
Charitable causes
Particularly noticeable in Asda, with their yearly Tickled Pink campaign at the heart of most of the store, charitable links are proving popular on pack and within store media.
There are so many brands involved in Tickled Pink this year, from Napolina to Andrex, to our client Wall’s Pastry. Great to see this campaign back again.
A lovely branded bay in Asda for Ben’s Original shows the brand supporting Children in Need. Pudsey packs will soon be available to pick up in major retailers, and alongside raising awareness of the charity, the brand will donate £200k to help with food poverty.
Rowse Honey is also running a ‘Spread some joy’ on pack promotion, partnering with Trussel Trust, with a 10p donation with every pack.
It’s lovely to see, and Asda really came out on top here.
Money, money, money
From a promotional point of view, if it wasn’t charity, it was cash, or some way of mixing the two together. Green Giant is going big in stores at the moment, with various aisle fins, shelf stripping, and wobblers in different retailers, but is giving away the chance to win a series of cash prizes in Sainsbury’s.
Two other on-pack promotions offer consumers the chance to win big, with Ryvita offering up 1,055 cash prizes and Carlsberg offering £10k (whilst showing their long-standing commitment to WWF).
Cadbury is doing something quite unique, no prizes for the entrant, but if you win, you can nominate a friend to take the instant cash win, or be placed into a draw to win £25k. You can even nominate up to 5 people to receive the winnings. We’re sure that the winner will be pretty popular!
Bespoke builds
There are a lot of bespoke builds in store this Autumn – our personal favourite is St Pierre’s very unusual SRP, which, although subtle, catches the eye and seamlessly fits with their lovely brand world (remember their fantastic Eiffel Tower FSDU?).
Booze brands in Asda are making the most of bespoke displays, too – with Jack Daniel’s using theirs to educate shoppers on their different types of whiskey, and Smirnoff using a red, tiered display to highlight their vodka. With all bottles in Asda now in security netting, it’s a neat way to help with stand-out.
