Effie Trophies for Shopper Marketing Effectiveness Awarded at Path to Purchase Institute’s Shopper Marketing Summit to Agencies including Saatchi & Saatchi X, Geometry Global and Team Unilever Shopper


NEW YORK (March 16, 2016)--Winners of the 6th annual Shopper Marketing Effie Awards were celebrated tonight at the Path to Purchase Institute’s 2016 Shopper Marketing Summit. Shopper Marketing Effie Awards honor work that showcases the best utilization of shopper insights that lead to effective engagements and activations with shoppers along their path to purchase.

Walmart and Unilever led this year’s competition, each winning four Shopper Marketing Effies. Procter & Gamble won three Shopper Marketing Effies (two partnering with Saatchi & Saatchi X, one partnering with Leo Burnett/Arc), while Kimberly-Clark and Mondelez International each won two Effie trophies. Saatchi & Saatchi, Geometry Global and Team Unilever Shopper were awarded the most Shopper Marketer Effies among agencies (4), followed by Starcom MediaVest Group and Leo Burnett/Arc (2). Overall, it was a good evening for Geometry Global, as they play a significant role within Team Unilever Shopper:  a group within WPP comprised of resources from multiple companies.
 
“To earn a Shopper Marketing Effie, winners must have the insight, creativity and results, as each case study is scored and scrutinized by a team of experts from the retail, agency and brand side,” said Neal Davies, President and CEO of Effie Worldwide, who presented the awards at the Shopper Marketing Effie Gala, along with Amy Hahn, Senior Vice President of Marketing for Ahold.

“As the Shopper Marketing Effie program celebrates its sixth year, we celebrate new and returning finalists and winners who achieved marketing effectiveness,” added Davies.

Unilever won the most Gold Shopper Marketing Effie Awards (2) in the Shopper Experience and the Single-Retailer Program – Drugstores categories for “CVS Love Your Skin” for Unilever’s brands Dove, Vaseline and Simple.   The team comprised of lead agency Team Unilever Shopper and contributing agencies Shopper2Buyer, Lunchbox and Barrows centered on skin health education, helping to build a broader, more intentional skin care regimen for women while leveraging each brand’s area of skin expertise. The campaign grew CVS’s share of the skin category to 5.7%, outpacing the rest of the market.

The 2016 Shopper Marketing Effie (SME) winners (by category) in North America are:

In the Shopper Experience category:

Unilever’s Dove, Vaseline, Simple, with lead agency Team Unilever Shopper and contributing agencies Shopper2Buyer, Lunchbox and Barrows won a Gold SME for “CVS Love Your Skin.”  

SOUR PATCH KIDS & SLURPEE, Mondelez International, 7-Eleven, Inc. and Phoenix Creative Co. won a Silver SME for “SOUR PATCH Watermelon SLURPEE Campaign,” with contributing agencies T3, Ketchum, TPN and Camelot Strategic Marketing & Media.  Mondelez and 7-Eleven teamed up to solve a mutual issue:  The SOUR PATCH KIDS were on a mission to become famous amongst teens, and at the same time, 7-Eleven’s non-chocolate candy/gum sales were underperforming. To make SOUR PATCH KIDS famous with teens, the team connected the candy with a brand teens already loved…SLURPEE. After a little sour/sweet listening on social media the team created the SOUR PATCH Watermelon SLURPEE! Teens thirsting for an authentic experience slurped it up and came back all summer long.

In the Single-Retailer Program category:

Single Retailer Program-Drugstores: Unilever’s Dove, Vaseline, Simple, with lead agency Team Unilever Shopper and contributing agencies Shopper2Buyer, Lunchbox and Barrows won a Gold SME for “CVS Love Your Skin.” (described above)

Single-Retailer Program - Mass Merchants: RB’s Amopé Pedi Perfect™ and IN Marketing Services won a Gold SME for “Love Your Feet: Amopé Pedi Perfect™ launch at Target” which engaged beauty-minded female guests and tactically redirected them to the foot care aisle. The effort inspired women to embrace Amopé™, and her feet, as part of her beauty routine. The result was a significant increase in foot care category sales at Target, which was an average of seven units/per store/per week for the first 10 weeks – 600% over KPI.

Leo Burnett/Arc won two Silver Shopper Marketing Effies:

Single-Retailer Program – Drugstores:   “Walgreens Healthy Home Solutions” for Proctor & Gamble, which changed the target's perception of Walgreens as a household needs retailer by creating seasonally-inspired product collections to spotlight Walgreens healthy home solutions— on the home improvement show Home Made Simple. 

Single-Retailer Program - Mass Merchants: Along with Starcom MediaVest Group, Leo Burnett/Arc created  “Alcon's Howard and the Amazing Eye Exam” for Alcon, by creating a Back-to-School activation at Walmart to support kids most powerful learning tool (their eyes) through an E-Book and an experienced-based omnichannel approach.  The Alcon program delivered a 262% increase in sales vs. the previous year and shed light on the importance of eye care in setting kids up for academic success.

Bronze Shopper Marketing Effies were awarded to:

Single-Retailer Program - Mass Merchants: Walmart and Saatchi & Saatchi for “Fight Hunger. Spark Change”, (with contributing agencies The Mars Agency, Brand Networks, Starcom MediaVest Group and Tiny Horse).  This initiative created a genuine 3-way partnership between the retailer, its brand partners and its customers to make a huge local impact on the fight against hunger. This highly collaborative, socially supported omnichannel initiative made it so easy for Walmart’s Millennial target to participate that it blew past its initial goals, securing 78.8M meals and resulting in Feeding America’s largest campaign to date.

Single-Retailer Program - Mass Merchants:  Kimberly-Clark Corporation’s Depend and Geometry Global won for “Real Women of Depend®” along with contributing agencies Organic, Inc., Marina Maher Communications LLC and Mindshare.  With the launch of New DEPEND® Silhouette® Active Fit* Underwear, the company’s most premium female product to date, Walmart charged Kimberly-Clark to grow the total category and bring in new users in an increasingly crowded aisle. Success meant convincing bladder-leakage pad shoppers, who refused to shop for “old-people diapers,” that DEPEND® was actually designed for active women just like them.  A uniquely relatable customized program changed shopper perceptions, and their behavior, resulting in significant incremental sales gains for DEPEND® and for Walmart.

Single-Retailer Program - Other: Geometry Global also won alongside Nestlé USA for “Dollar General Frozen Merchandising Campaign” for Nestlé Frozen Scale: DiGiorno, Tombstone, Stouffer's, Hot Pockets and Nestlé Ice Cream.  Frozen food sales at Dollar General weren’t just cold — they were freezing. Shoppers ran in when they ran out of things like paper towels, toilet paper and dish soap. That’s when Nestlé stepped in, getting shoppers to see the retailer as more than just a place for paper plates, but for what goes on them (like frozen pizza and ice cream). Sales grew, freezers emptied and dinnertime got a whole lot easier for a whole lot of people.

In the New Product/Service Introduction category:

FLONASE Allergy Relief, GlaxoSmithKline and Epsilon won a Gold SME for “FLONASE Allergy Relief Over-the-Counter Launch,” along with contributing agencies Geometry Global and Brand Union. The campaign used an omnichannel approach to educate allergy sufferers about the more complete allergy relief of FLONASE. Within the first six months of the launch, FLONASE exceeded its target brand share and grew the category for all of its retail partners.    

Unilever, Team Unilever Shopper and Lunchbox won a Silver SME for “Unilever Dry Spray Antiperspirant Launch” for Dove, Dove Men+Care, Degree, Axe. The effort encouraged shoppers to "Try Dry!" and brought shoppers new benefits they didn’t know they could expect from their deodorant. During the launch period, Dry sprays grew the category- contributing 93% of total category growth.

In the Multi-Brand Shopper Solution category:

Walmart and Starcom MediaVest Group won a Silver SME for “Chosen by Kids,” along with contributing agencies Shopper Events, The Martin Agency, OneKreate and Quick Test. The effort leveraged ratings and reviews, demonstration videos, mom bloggers, in-store demos and the only kid-curated Top Toys list on the market to break through the holiday clutter, help moms feel confident about their Christmas toy purchases. The result was topline sales and year-over-year sales increase in toys.

Unilever and Team Unilever Shopper Multiple won a Bronze SME for “Publix The Best Meals Happen At Home,” which included Hellmann’s, Green Giant, Campbell’s and Hunt’s. Contributing agencies included Lunchbox and Weber Shandwick.  Best Meals Happen at Home for Publix: solved an issue for moms in a rut, balancing work and home, relying too much on the convenience of fast food and simply wanted to make meals her family would love. Enter Best Meals Happen at Home for Publix: a program that provided easy recipes, offers and inspiration at multiple touch points, like Facebook, where recipe how-to videos where played over 21,600 times. Over 92 percent targeted for the effort used coupons regularly and 65 percent utilized recipes as inspiration.    

In the Multi-Retailer Rollout category:

OREO, Mondelez International and Geometry Global won a Gold SME for “Play with OREO,” along with contributing agencies HelloWorld, Inc., Triad Retail Media and MOjO Marketing, Inc. The effort included custom retailer programs such as exclusive recipes that showed shoppers how much fun OREO Cookies could be. As a result of this program, shoppers picked up more OREO Cookies, used them in creative ways, shared recipe ideas with their social networks and lifted sales of the entire cookie category by 24.6% and buy rate by 12.9%.

In the Awareness/Trial category:

Procter & Gamble, Pampers UnderJams, and Saatchi & Saatchi X won a Bronze SME for “Underjams at Walmart Overcomes Bedwetting,” focused on the insight of when a child struggles with bedwetting, it impacts more than just the child, as Mom feels she has failed as a mother. Pampers UnderJams offered expert counsel and a unique solution for mothers of children who struggle with the sensitive topic of bedwetting. Mom’s responded by finding UnderJams at Walmart, leading to business growth.    

Cottonelle, Kimberly-Clark Corp. and Geometry Global won a Bronze SME for “Go Commando,” along with contributing agencies VML, Ketchum, Mindshare and Trisect, The #5 toilet paper brand need to claim the category’s raison d’être: getting you clean? The Cottonelle brand’s unique texture “removes more,” but shoppers thought their current toilet paper got them clean enough.  Cottonelle challenged people’s confidence in clean by asking, “Are you clean enough to go commando?” By changing how shoppers choose their toilet paper, Cottonelle surpassed its full-year brand equity goal in six months, boosted share by 7.3%, and leapfrogged a competitor to become the #4 brand.
                                             
In the Category/Aisle Reinvention category:

Procter & Gamble and Saatchi & Saatchi X won a Bronze SME for “Olay Shelf Reinvention at Walmart” for Olay, for its mission to ignite the Olay business at Walmart, which meant focusing on the core: the shelf. The shopper was overwhelmed and frustrated in the Walmart skin care aisle.  By simplifying the shopping experience and providing the inspiration and confidence to close in-aisle, the effort exceeded program objectives by driving new, top sellers and regimen at the shelf.

In the Seasonal/Event category:

Walmart and Starcom MediaVest Group won a Gold SME for “Chosen by Kids,” with contributing agencies Shopper Events, The Martin Agency, OneKreate and Quick Test.  (See description in the Multi-Brand Shopper Solution category above).

Walmart also won a Silver SME for “Fight Hunger. Spark Change.” with lead agency Saatchi & Saatchi and contributing agencies The Mars Agency, Brand Networks, Starcom MediaVest Group and Tiny Horse. The initiative created a genuine 3-way partnership between the retailer, its brand partners and its customers to make a huge local impact on the fight against hunger. Walmart’s Millennial target participated, securing 78.8 million meals and resulting in Feeding America’s largest campaign to date.

Milk-Bone, Pup-Peroni, Milo's Kitchen, Big Heart Pet Brands and FCB/RED won a Silver SME for “Big Heart Pet Brands Seasonal Platform Activation,” was based on the understanding that pet parents see their pets as part of the family and Big Heart Pet Brands and wanted to make sure its portfolio of treats was a part of that relationship, too. By investigating family treating occasions, they discovered a massive disconnect at cultural holidays. Families were treating themselves, and including pets in the celebration via gifts and toys – but not giving them special treats. This $350MM opportunity led to an insight about pet gift-giving behavior that inspired the cause of pets receiving the gifts they really want at the holidays – treats.

“Given the highly organized and intense rigor by which all entries are judged, 
the Effie Awards program is one of the most prestigious in the world,”  Peter Hoyt, CEO and Executive Director, Path to Purchase Institute.  “This years' winners are astounding examples of effective shopper marketing and we are proud to play a role in identifying and recognizing the teams behind the work.”

The summation of total points earned by both the evening’s winners & 2016 Effie Finalists will be factored into the Effie Effectiveness Index which ranks the most effective advertisers, brands, holding companies and agencies in the world. North American Effie Effectiveness rankings will be announced at the Effie Awards Gala in New York on June 2.

The complete listing of 2016 North American Shopper Marketing Effie winners is available for download on www.effie.org, as well as the short list of Shopper Marketing Effie finalists.

DOWNLOAD THE COMPLETE LIST OF 2016 SHOPPER MARKETING EFFIE AWARD WINNERS

About Effie Worldwide

Effie Worldwide is a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit organization that stands for effectiveness in marketing communications, spotlighting marketing ideas that work and encouraging thoughtful dialogue about the drivers of marketing effectiveness.  The Effie network works with some of the top research and media organizations worldwide to bring its audience relevant and first-class insights into effective marketing strategy.  The Effie Awards are known by advertisers and agencies globally as the pre-eminent award in the industry, and recognize any and all forms of marketing communication that contribute to a brand's success.  Since 1968, winning an Effie has become a global symbol of achievement. Today, Effie celebrates effectiveness worldwide with the Global Effie, the Euro Effie, the Middle East / North Africa Effie and more than 40 national Effie programs. For more details, visit www.effie.org.  Follow @effieawards on Twitter for updates on Effie information, programs and news.  The Effie Effectiveness Index identifies and ranks the marketing communications industry’s most effective agencies, advertisers, and brands by analyzing finalist and winner data from Effie Worldwide competitions.

Contact:
Rebecca Sullivan
for Effie Worldwide
rebecca@rsullivanpr.com 
617-501-4010/781-326-1996