Minion madness, an omnipresent summer of sport and fridges galore.
Buckle up folks, it’s time for another Store Watch.
TescoEaston, Bristol
Let’s start with Tesco.
Despite the kids only just breaking up for school holidays, Tesco is pushing their back-to-school comms hard, so brands must work twice as hard to make their presence known.
Walking through the ambient aisles, it felt as if there was a ‘branded mod’ at every turn. We’ve seen these before, with the likes of Pot Noodle leading the way, but more and more brands are utilising these touchpoints to brand-block in the aisle. Old El Paso gets a notable mention here, their yellow brand world has been utilised at every opportunity – the metal frame, header board and shelf stripping are guiding consumers to their mod like a big yellow beacon. Nice work!
Tesco loves a digital screen (as do we!). At larger stores like this one, they’re dotted around the store at the end of the aisles. We’ve noticed they tend to be located near the back of the store, near the booze. But what really caught my eye was the digital screen near the confectionary for Reese’s and the digital screen in the baby care aisle for the Tesco baby & toddler event.
Hats off to Robinsons too with their promotion to win a summer of sports. This well-timed promo was noticeable at several touchpoints throughout the store, including clear messaging on FSDUs and aisle fins.
Sainsbury'sStoke Gifford, Bristol
As soon as you enter the store, you’re greeted with a sleek branded chiller, from Danone. Offering the chance to win an AR road bike, you can’t miss this promotional, branded takeover. The use of black floor stickers and the nectar arch frame this fixture nicely. We’ve not seen lots of these executions before, but I have a feeling we’re about to see a lot more of them soon…
Attention seeking gondola ends are found at Sainsbury’s stores, and a good example of this comes from the Spanish brand, Mahou. Offering up the chance to win a 5* trip to Madrid, the brand uses this space well. The red colour blocking and use of aisle fins are great, but what really caught my attention was the use of models in product photography. Using human faces in advertising is a fantastic way of capturing the attention of consumers (humans are naturally drawn to other humans) and yet, you rarely see this on in-store POS.
With the promise of more digital screens in Saisnbury’s stores in the near future, it’ll be interesting to compare the effectiveness of Gondola ends with the new shiny screens, or if they’ll be replaced entirely!
AsdaCribbs Causeway, Bristol
This superstore was filled with some pretty super POS.
Asda are pretty hot on their digital screens and we’re seeing more of these digital header screens pop up in the aisle. McVities do a great job of this – who can resist a chocolate digestive when they’re practically jumping out at you!
As part of their partnership with Despicable Me 4, Mr Kipling is pushing minion madness to the masses! This is a huge partnership and the scale can be felt in-store.
Supporting their partnership with Team GB, P&G’s “Go for Gold” gondola end was just one of many in-store today, as to be expected with an Asda store of this size.
Whilst I will put my hand up and say it’s been a while since my last Asda visit… The most notable take away from my trip to the store was the fridge doors. (Yes, you read that right). In the chilled section of the store, hundreds of fridge doors have been installed across the normally open-facing fridge units. Whilst this is fab news for their eco credentials, I can’t help but wonder if this is the end of POS as we know it, now that they’re all hidden behind glass doors. I’m looking forward to seeing how retailers use this valuable real estate in the future, whether that be with stickers or digital screens etc! Only time will tell…
MorrisonsBristol
When I say Morrison’s, you say floor sticker!
Morrison’s love a bit of floor media don’t they! And we do too, especially when used in conjunction with aisle fins and hanging media – chef kiss! This non-minion Mr Kipling execution is my top pick of the day. Simple – letting the taste do the talking and hard to miss, in all its baby pink glory. 10/10 Mr Kipling!
What I did notice was the absence of any Olympic (or otherwise!) sporting mention. Alongside the Robinsons example I spotted in Tesco earlier, one of the few examples I happened to notice in Morrisons was actually our own work with Whole Earth (shameless plug). This header and aisle fin combo sat above and alongside the product, calling out the chance to win tickets to the biggest sporting event of the summer. And yet, I couldn’t see any other brands doing anything similar – strange!
It’s great to see Morrison’s new cardboard bay headers spreading more widely in-store. Examples include Bachelor’s, Cup Noodles, Branston and Napolina, to name a few, adding interest to the otherwise plain fixture.
In summary – the Euros led us last month, it’s now the turn of the Olympics this month. The instore digital media revolution continues to take great steps forward and brands that are getting the right message in front of the right shopper at the right time… are always going to be the winners.
