Social Media Ads

Sixty-three percent of U.S. millennials use ad blockers when browsing and shopping online—and for good reason. Display and pop-up ads are intrusive and obnoxious to many, especially those who spend a lot of their free time online. In-app video ads on Facebook and Instagram stories (and streaming platforms like YouTube) tend to appear less annoying, as do in-feed image-based ads. By choosing wisely and investing in retargeting, you can use social media ads without alienating your audience. 

Influencer Marketing

Seventy-four percent of millennials report that their shopping is influenced by social media, and this could be attributed to the diligent work of influencers. Retailers have a lot to gain from partnering with micro-influencers, in particular in 2020, to deliver targeted content to their most valuable customers. Smaller content creators are most likely to appreciate the support from a large brand, and to agree to publish sponsored content on a regular basis. Building out a wide base of many micro-influencers will often perform better than one star contract.

Adding Value

In general, most millennials don’t follow brands on social media—unless, of course, they’re looking for deals. Instead of bolstering your proprietary social media accounts with a steady flow of content for sale, try adding value in other ways. Reward followers for opting into your messaging. Your social media fans are the perfect audience for an occasional holiday promo code or flash sale. They’ll be the most likely to develop into brand advocates who will share your content far and wide. By making your page more than a catalog, you’ll make a bigger impact. 

Shopkick is an innovative rewards app that turns everyday errands into rewarding scavenger hunts. Users are rewarded by viewing in-app content (including video ads), entering retail locations, and even picking up items and scanning their barcodes. It’s quite a simple premise, really. When your best bottom-of-the-funnel customer is standing in front of your display with your product in hand, watching a compelling video ad to completion, they’re far more likely to place that item in their cart. 

Brands like Kraft, Kellogg’s, Purina, and Rimmel-London have partnered with Shopkick to reward customer loyalty and drive sales in retail locations like Target, Sam’s Club, and Walmart across the United States. If you’re looking for a powerful new way to leverage millennial buying power, this could be your chance. 

Paid Social

CPG brands will find that paid video ads on social media platforms like Instagram, Snapchat, and Facebook (and the newest craze platform, TikTok) are likely to bring in far more revenue than your internally-run social media campaigns themselves. The “stories” feature on each of these platforms is the perfect place for video ads to gain traction in 2020 and beyond. 

Video Streaming

Streaming platforms like Hulu, YouTube, and now Facebook Watch offer a unique opportunity for CPG brands to place full-length video advertisements that must be watched to completion. It’s like broadcast advertising on steroids—because of the sheer volume of users consuming content on these platforms on a daily basis, this is one category not to miss out on.

Amazon Ads

Amazon is already the #3 digital ad seller in the United States, and eMarketer forecasts that by the end of 2021 one out of every ten digital advertising dollars will be spent for placements on this platform. CPG brands should be capitalizing on the sponsored products and sponsored display categories—the second of which is still in beta and therefore has a lot of room for growth in the coming years.

Here’s how a few major CPG brands are already using in-app advertising to reach their goals: 

Kraft

Leading up to the 2018 holiday season, Kraft leveraged Shopkick to deliver targeted advertising content to customers. Through in-app videos, holiday-themed content, and recipes, Kraft managed to increase their pre-shop consideration metrics and drive over 18 million total campaign impressions. Fifty-five percent of purchasing customers report they weren’t intending to buy the Kraft products before interacting with them within the Shopkick app.

Rimmel-London

In order to cut through the noise of the cosmetics aisle, Rimmel-London used in-app advertising through Shopkick to increase their reputation as a top beauty brand. Customers were reached and rewarded through proximity messaging and an innovative “trial in aisle” program that resulted in a 5:1 ROI. Thirty-eight percent of those new customers had never used Rimmel products before—which resulted in 14% market share stolen from their closest competitors.

Tyson

Tyson also increased their brand and product awareness through a partnership with Shopkick. They launched exclusive Superbowl-related content in the app to inspire customers pre-shop, and drove a significant increase in foot traffic and in-aisle engagement through targeted video advertising. This particular campaign resulted in an overall 85% video completion rate with a sales impact of over $195K in Sam’s Club stores.

Streamline Store Layouts

It’s time to rethink the classic milk-and-eggs strategy, where retailers put the most crucial items at the back corners of the store. Innovative store locations are putting must-have items (like the BOPIS station) right up front so customers can find what they need quickly and easily. Surprisingly, customers still end up making plenty of add-on purchases before they find their way out the door—so it pays to make things quick and efficient.

Introduce Frictionless Checkout

Checkout lines are some of the most annoying staples of CPG stores—so certain players are starting to innovate without cash registers at all. Amazon Go store locations utilize machine learning and computer vision to make convenience stores 100% more convenient. If frictionless checkout isn’t in your immediate future, consider increasing staffing at checkout to relieve pressure and improve wait times. 

Optimize the BOPIS Experience

According to the same report from NTT DATA Services, 50% of surveyed stores couldn’t fulfill a same-day BOPIS order, and only 33% could fulfill an order within one hour. These are immediate opportunities to reduce friction and improve customer experience. By investing in automation and improving stocking logistics, stores can ensure that the items being ordered are in stock and ready to pick up in a timeframe that meets (or exceeds) customer expectations.

Increase Automated Tools

Well-equipped retail apps offer customers the opportunity to carry a store associate in their pocket. From in-store mobile navigation to digital store maps and mobile price checks, these automated tools can make a customer’s path to purchase much quicker and easier. Try implementing some of these automated tools in your stores, or experiment with beacon technology and digital store map kiosks to help customers get what they need. 

Experiment With Mobile Registers

In lieu of frictionless checkout, many major retailers are launching teams of mobile registers—staff members who roam the aisles and can complete purchases directly from the shelves. This is a particularly timely solution for the months leading up to the holiday season, where frantic shoppers are looking for any way to avoid lines. Advertise your new mobile register offering, and you’ll likely snag a few desperate time-conscious shoppers.

Prioritize Conflict Resolution

Conflict resolution training materials are ever-evolving for staff members at retail stores—but they’re even more important now in the age of instant gratification. Customers expect conflicts to be resolved swiftly and courteously, and to be offered some form of compensation in return for their trouble. By offering plenty of staff members and training those employees on proper conflict resolution techniques, you’ll go a long way toward ameliorating and pleasing disgruntled customers.

Launch Experiential Concepts

Experiential retail stores are becoming increasingly popular, and for good reason. They’re exciting, new, and perfectly Instagrammable. Experiential concepts like the House of Vans in London or the Nike House of Innovation in New York offer customers exactly what they’re looking for: an attraction, and not just a retail store. Try launching a pop-up experiential concept to see how much buzz your brand can generate. 

Personalize Your Marketing

Go beyond birthday coupon emails and offer your customers a personalized marketing experience backed by the latest mobile technology. One study found that personalized customer loyalty programs brought a 71% satisfaction rate and brought in 2.7 times more members than those that weren’t highly personalized. These strategies allow you to connect directly with your most loyal customers—those who opt-in because they want more from your brand.

Offer Truly Unique Rewards

A powerful rewards program can help beef up your marketing strategy and offer customers high-value rewards that don’t rely on slashing prices. With a third party app like Shopkick, you can reward customers for going on adventures in your stores and opting into targeted advertising experiences. Shopkick rewards program partnerships often see impressive ROI’s and a significant 

Utilizing All of the Available Tools

According to a recent report, 84% of companies use location-based marketing to target ads or promotions, and 94% plan to do so in the future. To get the most bang for your buck, make sure you’re balancing your efforts between all the potential strategies available—including geofencing, geotargeting, and geoconquesting—and utilizing tools across all available channels.  

Seeing the Power of Greetings

Walmart may be phasing out its staff of blue-vested greeters, but that doesn’t mean at-the-door greetings aren’t valuable. Location-based marketing takes that concept into the future by sending shoppers personalized greetings when they enter retail stores. Customers get a personalized marketing experience, and brands get their products top-of-mind.

Getting Customers to Opt-In

The biggest challenge of location-based marketing is getting customers to turn on their notifications. Proximity messaging only reaches customers who opt-in, and a significant number of people restrict all notifications on principle. Shopkick offers one innovative solution—as a third party rewards app that offers rewards for store visits, we reward shoppers for opting in, in the ways that matter most to them.

• Situate your BOPIS station at the front of the store. Customers are already going to make additional purchases while they’re inside—so don’t make it harder for them! Keep all of your BOPIS activity close to the door and minimize queuing to create a smoother customer experience. 
• Optimize logistics for faster pick-up speeds. Work to streamline your notification system so customers are notified that their purchase is ready within three hours or less. And ensure that their orders are ready when you say they’re ready. The faster your pick-up speed, the greater your sales revenue.
• Incentivize customers with future deals. BOPIS hasn’t yet reached full saturation in the marketplace, and certain customers may require a bit of coaxing to give the system a try. Forty-six percent said they’d be more likely to use BOPIS if they were offered future deals as a bonus.

Kraft

Leading up to the holiday season, Kraft partnered with Shopkick to inspire consumers with in-app recipes and winter-themed content. This drove customers to Walmart stores. They were rewarded for physically interacting with the products and purchasing all three of the featured baking items. This campaign raked in 18M+ impressions and increased sales from 55% unplanned purchases.

Purina

Purina used Shopkick to deliver aspirational ad content to app users. Using proximity messaging and branded greetings, Shopkick reminded users of the product as they got closer to the store. With small incentives, Purina managed to stay top-of-mind during habitual shopping trips and inspired shoppers to try their new product—with 85% of shoppers indicating that their choice was motivated by Shopkick.

Rimmel London

Targeted ads in the Shopkick app helped paint Rimmel London as a top beauty brand to their most valuable customers. Proximity messaging reminded shoppers of their product line and incentivized customers to see past the clutter of the cosmetics aisle and choose Rimmel London for their next purchase. Thirty-eight percent of those shoppers had never used Rimmel London products before.