Design of the Times offers “Academy Awards” of shopper marketing industry
CHICAGO — Call it the Academy Awards of the shopper marketing business.
The Shopper Marketing Expo, scheduled for Oct. 8-10, here, at the Navy Pier, will once again host the Path to Purchase Institute’s annual Design of the Times merchandising display competition.
In mid-August, 50 judges convened at the Path to Purchase Institute headquarters, here, in Chicago, to pick finalists in eight different retail channels, including drug, food, mass, consumer electronics, convenience, home center/hardware, sporting goods and specialty stores. More than 100 finalists were selected, and final judging will take place on site at Shopper Marketing Expo on Tuesday, Oct. 8., with official winners announced the following evening during the Design of the Times Awards reception, with gold, silver and bronze winners, as well as one platinum award winner in each retail category, and one overall “Best of the Times” winner selected across all retail channels.
Here, DSN examines the 17 finalists in the drug store channel. For the complete list of finalists, visit: http://www.dot-awards.com/pdf/DOT_Finalists.pdf.
Palmolive Coconut & Cotton Glorifier
Colgate-Palmolive Colombia sought to introduce shoppers to a variant of the brand with its display that appeared in 100 drug stores in Colombia over an eight-month period. The display depicts the coconut converting into a natural soap. Also part of the display, a cotton stem conveys a sense of softness associated with the product.
Rimmel 'London Look'
In promoting its Rimmel Cosmetics, Coty put together a display that was featured in more than 4,000 Walgreens stores. The objective was to lift sales, build Coty's Rimmel brand and launch two exclusive-to-Walgreens' lines of lipstick and nail polish while promoting top seasonal foundations and a new mascara. The combination delivers plentiful stock and one-stop shopping for the "London Look."
Someday by Justin Bieber
Elizabeth Arden put together this display in 5,000 Walgreens stores to drive awareness and trial for the new fragrance, Someday by Justin Bieber, at drug and mass retailers, and to obtain prime, high-visibility placement at Walgreens on its étagère fixture. According to Elizabeth Arden, incorporating fragrance tester-bottles to display vehicles is critically important in mass retail. Testers perform as a "silent" sales associate in this environment, providing an authentic sampling of the fragrance and bottle to shoppers.
J&J Medicine Cabinet
Johnson & Johnson fielded a number of brands within this display that ran in some 2,600 Walgreens stores. The display's primary objective was to use high introductory Balance Rewards point offerings and unique graphics to draw consumers to the endcap and generate incremental sales. The design leverages three insights of successful promotion:
- Surprise — The design must be unexpected to draw the shopper to the display;
- Relevance — Once attracted to the display, the products must be relevant to the target; and
- Information — The offer must be easy to spot and quickly explained.
J&J Neutrogena endcap
Johnson & Johnson rolled this display into 5,000 Walgreens stores. The objective of the in-store activation tactic was to drive the Neutrogena brand with a unique endcap coinciding with a national Neutrogena FSI drop (May 5), a Neutrogena SaturDate (May 18) and the Neutrogena "Night at the W" (May 22). The goal was to encourage shoppers to purchase more than one product across Neutrogena skin care, cosmetics, bath, and sun care brands, and the display allowed J&J to bring all of the categories together in one place.
belVita countertop display
Kraft Foods rolled this display out across 300 drug, convenience and grocery stores in Puerto Rico. The objective of placing the belVita breakfast bars at the cash register in a single-serving size was to introduce shoppers to the new, healthy, on-the-go breakfast option.
L'Oreal new items tower
L'Oreal Cosmetics unveiled this display of L'Oreal Cosmetics across more than 6,000 Walgreens stores to increase consumer awareness for its newest product offerings, and to create an innovative, interactive buying experience for the shopper. The tower needed to fit within an enclosed three-sided Walgreens space and draw the shoppers’ attention.
SensatioNail Island Fever counter unit
Pacific World promoted its gel nail supplies in an effort to leverage its leadership position in the gel polish category and showcase its vibrant array of summer shades. SensatioNail's target shoppers are women, ages 18 years to 54 years, with household incomes of more than $50,000. When shopping, they expect to see what’s new and want to be delighted.
ZzzQuil 'Snoring' shelf tray
Procter & Gamble featured this promotion of its new ZzzQuil Sleep-Aid across more than 6,000 Walgreens locations. The objective was to drive trial of ZzzQuil and subsequently grow the overall sleep category. “We knew that our shopper's trust in NyQuil to rest when she has a cold was paramount, so we used the iconic bottle visual the two brands share and emphasized the ZzzQuil logo to drive brand recognition of the ‘Quil’ line of trusted products,” P&G noted.
CoverGirl ‘What's New' 2013 displays
Procter & Gamble sought to promote its new 2013 CoverGirl products in more than 7,000 Walmart, CVS/Pharmacy, Target and Walgreens stores. Development of a new sleek “beauty case” to launch the first CoverGirl Gold new item initiatives would prove to be a win-win for logistics and in-store execution excellence, the supplier noted.
Duracell 'Mini Tower' floorstand
Featuring Duracell Duralock batteries, Procter & Gamble helped to disrupt the consumer-shopping pattern to stop and look at this display. Batteries are typically an impulse purchase, and the display is meant to draw the consumer's focus.
Pantene Expert Collection floorstand
In this Pantene Expert Collection display, Procter & Gamble helped to drive awareness and trial outside of the hair care aisle for an entirely new, premium sub-brand across some 5,000 Walgreens locations. The language used helped communicate that the line was geared toward the youth-seeking hair care shopper — with the claim, "For hair that acts up to 10 Years Younger."
P&G Tim Gunn and the People’s Choice Awards endcap
Procter & Gamble promoted a number of products in this endcap, including Pantene, Crest, Olay, Cover Girl, Secret, Always and Tampax, in Walgreens and Duane Reade stores. The People's Choice Awards was looking for a vehicle that would help its image, to regain its “cool,” to be taken seriously and to get people to participate and watch the show again. To help drive the point home, P&G invested in celebrity spokesman Tim Gunn, who delivered a call to action to shoppers to “make it fabulous.”
Axe Apollo Astronaut floorstand
Unilever featured its latest Axe product, Axe Apollo, in this display to drive awareness and encourage participation of Axe's contest to go to space camp. Because the majority of Axe purchase decisions are made in store, the display needed to be disruptive in nature and command the shopper's attention, Unilever noted.
Vaseline Spray & Go countertop display
In this display, Unilever's new Vaseline Spray & Go Moisturizer helped to highlight the uniqueness of the product’s new breakthrough lotion and spray format/delivery system. The campaign's eye-catching, premium-looking Spray & Go counter display helped to stop the shopper and allo