Client: Boxer Super Shopper Show 2014 Case Study
Challenge
With 25 supermarket chains in South Africa, the grocery stores are fighting to get their message out there and drive the shoppers into their store.
And the most popular advertising tool is the printed catalogue. But with over 70 printed catalogues advertising over 1,350 grocery specials every week in South Africa, how do we grab the shoppers’ attention?
Objective
Boxer Superstores, a grocery store servicing the low to mid income shoppers from urban to rural areas across South Africa, created the Boxer Super Shopper Show to do just that.
The predominant objectives of the Boxer Super Shopper Show campaign were brand awareness and sales.
We needed to keep Boxer top of mind as the price fighting champion of the people, providing shoppers with “must have” groceries at lower prices during these economically difficult months at the start of the year, and drive real sales for our suppliers on selected product lines.
To do this Boxer needed to grab their consumer target market’s attention on mass-market media like TV, print and radio but with a measurable call to action accessible to the masses to drive them in-store to purchase.
Boxer Superstores wanted to start off 2014 trading with a bang!
Solution
The Boxer Super Shopper Show was a promotional competition or sweepstakes campaign that launched in January 2014, themed around a Game Show. Its key success factor was adding a mobile call to action on all traditional above the line advertising, especially the most popular with their target consumer, the shoppers’ catalogue.
For the target market, being lower income, the mobile phone is not a luxury but a necessity: with approximately 72% of Boxer’s target consumers having a cellphone. But of those 70% of those phones are not smartphones, but more basic phones without necessarily being able to browse the Internet and having to rely solely on text messaging, voice and USSD.
USSD is a powerful marketing tool the local target market is very familiar with it. It is cheaper for them than SMS, and it works across all phones and network carriers, even in rural areas not covered by 3G. It is like SMS, in that it uses text, but it is a call that communicates in data or text rather than voice, and without imaging… it allowed Boxer to have a conversation with their shoppers and validate their purchase.
Our mobile solution allowed for real-time validation of entries and sales transactions, that were measurable and flexible, allowing us to change the products in the spotlight twice a month and promote them around pay-day.
How did it work?
- See the 3 products on special for the week
- Go in-store to purchase all 3 products and if so, get a special till slip message inviting you to enter
- Dial the *120*BOXER# to identify yourself and validate your till slip
- Stand a chance to win R10,000 shopping vouchers and a new car every month!
How it was promoted?
It ran as a bi-monthly Competition (Sweepstakes) campaign with Show Promos and a Grand Prize Winner Show being flighted each month, over 3 months.
The Boxer Super Shopper Show promoted the winners on TV each month via a pre-recorded Boxer TV advert on popular TV stations (SABC 1, SABC 2 & eTV) to ensure reach into the targeted consumer market.
This campaign was part of the theme for the first 3 months of 2014 on all leaflets, run of print adverts, digital and public relations driving great campaign awareness, but it was the mobile phone that allowed entry of the Boxer till slip generated in store that prompted the customer to let them know that their purchase has qualified for a valid entry.
Results
The results were magical:
- We received about 320,000 entries from close to 170,000 unique people – reaching an estimated 0.7% of the population in the targeted market!
- We surpassed the original objective of doubling entries from last year. In fact the number of entries grew by 452%, that’s close to 5 times greater in comparison to the 2013 performance.
- The number of unique entrants it engaged increased by an exemplary 824%, over 8 times!
We saw a measurable increase in the sales of the products included in the promotion: Large Eggs by 1329%, Sunflower Oil by 299% and Mixed Chicken Portions by 326%
This is Boxer’s most successful campaign on USSD to date:
Suppliers saw real sales growth and have asked for Boxer to repeat the campaign.
Consumers’ brand awareness and entries increased dramatically and customers were rushing into their closest Boxer store and buying the required products to enter this rewarding competition. The winner of the first R5,000 Boxer gift card was from Durban and said “I am super excited and don’t really know what to say but Boxer has changed my life. I love this store”
While the store staff spoke positively about new customers walking through the doors to enter the now famous Boxer Super Shopper Show which turned the mobile phone into a “SELL” phone!
