Over the past few days, shoppers may have noticed digital signage in their local Woolies or out on the side of the road celebrating Aussie medal winners at the Olympics.
It’s a heart-warming activation and reminds customers of Woolies’ investment in the Olympics and connection to sport. But activations like this take time. Or at least they used to.
To find out how the grocer is turning around images of the medal winners so quickly and across so many different formats, B&T caught up with Andrew Hicks, Woolies’ chief marketing officer and CMO Power List inductee.
“Through a close collaborative partnership between media, creative, publishers, platform partners and our retail media business Cartology, we are able to swiftly and efficiently update creative daily to over 2,400 OOH sites and 1,000 Front of Store Screens plus adapt creative to suit over 150 build size variations,” he explained.
There has certainly been plenty of success for Woolies to shout about so far during the Games. At the time of writing, Australia has won seven golds — the fourth most — as well as six silver and three bronze.
The nation has been glued to Nine’s coverage, too. Its shows have dominated the TV ratings — taking all but two spots of the top 10 most-watched shows over the last two days — despite the eight-hour time difference with Paris. Despite the time difference, however, Woolies has been planning its activations months ago, sizing up the chances of winning medals in different events and being ready to pounce on any opportunities.
“Our team ahead of time looked at our medal-winning chances and key moments we would like to celebrate as a nation and with our customers and team. With this we were able to create content ahead of time in the event that a medal was won,” said Hicks.
“With agility we have organised our teams to be ready to meet each morning to identify moments from the team we want to celebrate, allowing us to turn around the responsive content quickly with the support of our agency partners.”
The teams at M&C Saatchi and Dentsu, which respectively handle the creative and media responsibilities for Woolies, will likely have been working around the clock to ensure the grocer stays at the top of the pile in consumers’ minds during the games.
However, while these digital and OOH ads have a remarkably celebratory and positive tone, Woolies’ hero TV spot for the game “Fresh Fuels the Best in All of Us” is a decidedly more emotional affair, though with a triumphal ending.
Here at B&T, we’ll be running some detailed analyses and reactions from the industry’s leading creatives in the days and weeks to come. For now, all we’ll say on the Woolies spot is that it’s a darn sight better than Google or Microsoft’s recent efforts.
Hicks, however, said that he had been “pleased” with the reaction from customers and Woolies in-house team to its Olympics efforts both in and out of the store.
“We’ve also noted many customers — young and old — taking advantage of the mini running track as they enter the store to create their own mini Olympics moment,” said Hicks.
“The team will continue to engage with a responsive approach as the Olympics continue and also for the Paralympics. Here’s hoping for more memorable Olympic moments and for us to all celebrate.”
Keep your eyes glued to B&T for more of the best Olympics coverage.
