Strong industrial design principles were the standout at the Shop! ANZ 2020 Retail Marketing Awards, with this year’s winners combining ingenuity, design flair, and solid insights to win the hearts, minds and wallets of shoppers in what has inarguably been the toughest environment in living memory.
By Shop! ANZ General Manager Carla Bridge.
While many FMCG and other retail brands have had tremendous success fuelled by panic buying (toilet paper and baking ingredients, we’re looking at you!), the in-store marketing discipline was turned upside down by a number of factors, including even more stringent clean aisle policies, no merchandisers in field staff, difficulty with display production and manufacture and the cancellation of sampling and experiential marketing.
Despite the challenges, Australian and New Zealand retail marketers used this as fuel to work harder and smarter in 2020, producing some of the best work seen for years.
Judged as the Best Display of 2020 overall was Allen’s Modular Snakes Unit by Indica Worldwide and id8 Studio for Nestlé, which took the simple idea of the Allen’s Snakes character to the next level to create a versatile and fun and point of sale display that stands out in stores.
Factors determining the success of retail marketing include how effective a display or overall campaign has been at converting shoppers into purchasers. Effective in-store displays are a balance of eye-catching aesthetics, innovation, and call to action.
While for the majority of 2020 shoppers were forced to become homebodies, FMCG brands took this opportunity to make displays sleek, shiny and larger than life. Standing out was paramount to engaging shoppers, making the recreation of real-life experiences in-store a big drawcard.
Outside of the FMCG environment, big retail marketing winners relied heavily on digital elements to provide shoppers with the next best thing to whatever activity they were pursuing.
The most contested category of the Shop! Awards for 2020 was once again Grocery Store (Food), Temporary, and was won by The Mix Agency and Opal Specialty Packaging for their Ferrero Australia Nutella x SMEG Winter campaign, which recreated an oversized SMEG toaster. Silver was won by Opal Specialty Packaging and The Mix Agency for the Ferrero Rocher Unwrap Christmas display, while Bronze went to Tag with TMS for Mondelez’s Cadbury Easter House.
When it came to Grocery (Food) Permanent Display, Allen’s Modular Snake Unit by Indicia Worldwide and id8Studio took home Gold, followed by Organic & Raw Trading Co’s MOJO Gut Shot Trays with Silver and HH Global’s Extra Expandable Gum Display for Mars Wrigley.
For Non-Food displays in Grocery stores, Tag scooped both Gold and Silver for Gillette Skinguard Mega Displays and Oral-B Anti-Sweep Push Permanent with UFO Display Solutions respectively, both for Procter & Gamble. Energizer Australia won Bronze for its Xmas 2020 Display by POP This.
In the Health & Beauty categories, in Temporary, Gold was awarded to Spark & Ainbow for Nude by Nature Little Wonders, Silver went to POP This for Nude by Nature’s Satin Liquid Lips FSDU, and Bronze to ABBE Corrugated for the Australis Mini Mania Display.
For Health & Beauty Permanent, POP This’ Revlon Carousel & Virtual Mirror won Gold, Point Retail’s Australis Big W Cosmetics Destination got Silver for Heritage Brands, and BRANDED won Bronze for Church & Dwight Australia.
Petrol, Convenience & Route was won by Red Bull & Boo Group for the Red Bull Music Hotel, Silver to Chupa Chups Novelty Totem by ID POP for Stuart Alexander & Co & Perfetti Van Melle, and Bronze to Make Lunch Simple & Different for George Weston Food’s Tip Top brand.
More than ever, environmentally sound displays were top of mind for brands and retailers, where again, FMCG brands were leader of the pack with a clean sweep of all three Awards. Chep took top honours in Environmental Stewardship for its 1/6th Pallet with Nestlé Australia, while Billy & Margot Petbarn Pallet Display by IVE Group for Real Pet Food came in second and ABBE Corrugated and Indicia Worldwide’s Milky Bar Whirl Dress Up Kit for Nestlé won Bronze.
Three new categories were also launched for the 2020 Awards: the Centrum Printing Produced in ANZ Award aims to foster local home-grown design and manufacture; and in acknowledgement of the upheaval caused by the Covid-19 pandemic – the Covid-Safe Retail Continuity Product and Campaign Response to a Covid-19 Changing Customer categories.
XPO Brands earned the Gold for Campaign Response to a Covid-19 Changing Customer; Red Bull and Boo Group, Silver, for Red Bull Music Hotel.
XPO Brands and Nestlé also performed strongly when it came to Experiential, winning in the category for Nescafe Gold and Milo Winter.
Introducing the ‘Point’ trophy – Retail Marketing’s new Symbol of Excellence
In 2020 Shop! ANZ took the decision to say goodbye to the Cigar Shop Indian trophy that has served as the symbol of retail marketing excellence for the past 21 Awards programs.
Contemporary and culturally sensitive, The Point trophy is visually inspired by the exclamation point used in the Shop! logo and links the exclamation point of Shop!’s name and the Retail Marketing Award’s foundations in the ‘Point’ of Purchase industry.
The internal shape of the new trophy is a cut out to form the Shop! exclamation point, and creates a space to hold its sleek proportions, while the ‘spine’ prominently showcases winner category and details.
See the upcoming Retail World April issue for the full coverage of winners.
About Carla Bridge
Carla Bridge is General Manager of not-for-profit retail marketing association Shop! ANZ (formerly POPAI). Shop! provides a range of membership services for retailer marketers in addition to the annual Marketing at Retail Awards. Carla has more than 15 years’ experience in the Australian retail and FMCG industries. Before joining Shop! ANZ, she was head of media and communications at the Australian Retailers Association.
About Shop! ANZ
Formerly known as POPAI, Shop! is the only global, not for profit industry association exclusively advocating for excellence in shopper marketing and retail experience. With 20 offices covering 45 countries and more than 1700 member companies worldwide, Shop! brings global best practice intelligence, resources, recognition and networks and to our members. For more information, visit popai.com.au