Kroger Packages a NASCAR Extravaganza

Kroger activated its annual tentpole marketing campaign in February around NASCAR's season-opening Daytona 500 race, gaining strong support from numerous product manufacturers. (See "Kroger Field Report: Feb. 23, 2010" in Related Articles.)The company-wide program was anchored by a "Double Your Savings" incentive providing $3 off instantly and an additional $3 off a future receipt to store loyalty cardholders who bought 10 products from a pool of 60-plus participating brands from such manufacturers as Coca-Cola Co., PepsiCo/Frito-Lay, Procter & Gamble, Reynolds Consumer Products, General Mills, Unilever, Nestlé, Kraft Foods, Novartis Consumer Health and ConAgra Foods. The promotion ran roughly from Feb. 6-26, with some variation based on chain and region.The eligible products were identified through stanchion signs, display headers, take-ones and shelf tags carrying the Daytona 500's official logo. Many (if not all) participating brands provided customized packaging that prominently featured the logo and other themed graphics. Kroger's NASCAR sponsorship gives it promotional rights around the race, which this year was held on Feb. 20.Stores dedicated numerous endcaps and spectaculars upfront and elsewhere to the campaign. Many participating brands also supplied either customized P-O-P materials or their own NASCAR-themed collateral. Among them were Anheuser-Busch's Budweiser, MillerCoors' Coors Light and Miller Lite, Coca-Cola, Kraft's Nabisco and Oreo, Novartis' Excedrin and Diageo's Crown Royal. Circular features, Facebook posts and banner ads on chain websites supported.Online, the retailer hosted a "Race Fans Daytona 500" website (operated by San Francisco-based You Technology) that contained a "You Pick the Winner" instant-win game along with recipes, race-related activities and links to digital coupons for participating brands. Leaderboard ads on chain home pages directed consumers to the site.Loyalty cardholders entered the game from Feb. 6-26 by registering on the site or on a chain home page. The prize pool consisted of 10,000 digital coupons for free product from participating brands including Campbell Soup Co.'s Campbell's, ConAgra's Crunch 'n Munch, Henkel Group's Dial, Kraft's Planters, General Mills' Yoplait and roughly 40 others. The coupons were automatically loaded onto the winners' cards.In a significant brand-supplied overlay, General Mills' Totino's staged an exclusive promotion that turned boxes from its frozen pizza products into steering wheels for a "Get Behind the Wheel" online video game. The promotional packages are being sold exclusively at Kroger chains from Feb. 13 through May 31.The augmented-reality racing game lets players "drive" the car of Clint Bowyer, who is sponsored by General Mills. Players visit a Mills-operated website to use an on-pack "marker" to launch the game via computer webcam. (The game can, however, be played without the box.) Players accumulate points by filling up the car with boxes of Totino's at various pit stops; Bowyer provides a voice-over.The game's website also hosts a sweepstakes awarding two grand-prize trips to the 2012 Daytona 500 complete with tours of the pit and garage. A corresponding instant-win game doles out 324 secondary prizes of store gift cards in denominations of $15, $35 and $50. Roswell, GA-based Leader Enterprises handles for General Mills.The Totino's website was promoted through banner ads on Kroger's racing site and on one side of in-store take-ones that also carried a list of the "Double Your Savings" participants. The handouts also carried NASCAR's 2011 race schedule.Elsewhere, TV spots running in Denver and Atlanta featured NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt, Jr. in his Hellmann's-branded racing uniform to pitch, respectively, King Soopers and Kroger as the best place for savings on race-day needs. (Later, in late February, Unilever's Hellmann's ran radio spots in Atlanta directing consumers to Kroger for racing-themed recipes.)Kroger's promotional efforts around the race began in December 2010 with a month-long "Ultimate Daytona Fan Experience" sweeps, which awarded a grand-prize trip for four to the Daytona 500 qualifying races on Feb. 12-13 and an opportunity to wave the green flag for a favorite driver. Kroger serves as presenting sponsor of the qualifying races. Loyalty cardholders registered online. A related instant-win game awarded $15 store cards to 50 entrants who correctly answered trivia questions.In related cause marketing activity, Kroger launched a year-long fundraising initiative for the nonprofit USO (United Service Organizations) on Feb. 20 to benefit members of the armed forces and their families. The initiative encompasses in-store and online promotions, including a mechanism for consumers to submit pledges via text message.To kick off the effort, the chain presented a $400,000 donation, collected in 2010 through shopper and employee contributions. Kroger and the USO co-sponsored JTG Daugherty Racing's No. 47 car and driver Bobby Labonte in the Daytona 500. The car's paint scheme included the names of Kroger employees who are active-duty or reserve members of the U.S. military.Large-scale promotions delivering retail entertainment are a significant component of Kroger's "Customer 1st" strategy. The idea is to give shoppers the products they want "plus a little," marketing honcho Evan Anthony said last fall during his keynote speech at the Shopper Marketing Expo. (See "Expo Keynote ..." in Related Articles.)

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