The Big Picture

Veg Pot sampling perfectly innocent

innocent never do anything by halves, so when they were planning the 2nd birthday of their fabulous veg pot range, they really went to town.

Investing over £1.3 million overall, innocent are running several pieces of activity to increase brand awareness and trial of the veg pots:

• 30-second TV ad - see below
• Free sampling at your office - request a visit here
• in-store sampling at Sainsbury's and Tesco
• Coupons on pack and through neck collars on the smoothies

Veg Pot TV Ad:

If that wasn't enough, for 1 week only they are opening a 5 for 5 Café in The Tramshed, next to Old Street in Shoreditch. The deal is you'll get (at least) 5 of your 5-a-day all for a Lady Godiva - fiver. The food has been created by the gorgeous Gizzi Erskine and you still have time to enter the draw to enjoy dinner at 5 for 5 on Friday 8th October 2010. Just in case you're too late or your name is not selected, you can read all about 5 for 5 and even download the recipes so you can try them for yourself.

Do sales promotions really TURN YOU ON?

 

Sales Promotion headlines arouse as much excitement as Pornography!

Facile, out of context and sensationalist we know, but a recent IPM study found that consumers get the same level of emotional excitement from seeing a promotional offer during their grocery shopping, as they do from sexual arousal. This delightful premise was based on the emotional response of 50 people who were shown packs that featured promotions and packs that didn't. Their reaction was measured by iMotions technology which uses sophisticated metrics (Eye Tracking, Reading and Emotion) to determine the response to visual stimulus from the sub-conscious through to attention and engagement.

Get your basket love, you've scored

Emotional responses are measured on a scale of 0 to 10 (in the absence of a name we'll call it the eMote scale) where 10 is associated with extreme trauma and 0 is linked to complete indifference (e.g. England footballers during the World Cup). Three promotions in particular registered a score in the range achieved through viewing pornography (5 to 7 eMotes). Marmite was highest with it's Free Horrid Henry audio book offer at 5.8 eMotes. Other campaigns which caused similar arousal were Kingsmill's Wallace and Gromit collectibles and Cravendale's coupon campaign. Before you rush out to your local supermarket, all these promotions are long since expired. However, we can show you one of these hugely erotic promotions here. So, for those of a highly charged disposition, look away now.

Peeling back the layers

Well this is all very titillating for us marketeers, but we find ourselves wondering how many eMotes do other mundane activities register? Crossing a busy road, going down a fast lift, unwrapping a chocolate bar, answering the door to a takeaway delivery, winning a bet, making it onto a departing train - we could go on. Knowing the eMote score for routine chores would help contextualise the findings.

What controls were used in the promotion? People may have been hungry and absolutely love Marmite. Were there non-promotional packs of Marmite used in the study to measure the benchmark eMote score? We just don't know. Surely the increase in eMotes caused by the promotion would be more relevant?

What can we learn?

1. The right promotional headline can be as stimulating as watching porn.
2. Promotions can keep people engaged for longer than the 2 seconds it typically takes consumers to make a buying decision - think of it as a form of promotional viagra!
3. Could further study lead to a definitive formula for which promotions do 'turns people on'?
4. They really need a name for the eMote scale.
5. Look out for anoraked individuals in the supermarket aisles - they maybe enjoying their shopping a little too much.

Marketing gone mad

Yes, we're getting near to silly season (when isn't it?) and this is an unashamedly silly item prompted by a rather strange brief that we received at Mosaic's office this last week.

We'll spare the blushes of those concerned, but it did remind us of one of the strangest promotional ideas we were ever asked to respond to. It was several years ago now so we can now publish it under the terms of the Freedom of Useless Information Act 2001:

You know those toilet block cages that you hang over the rim of your toilet? Well, one particular brand wanted to run... wait for it... an on-pack 2 for 1 dining offer! Not only that, but as a premium brand in the category (!) they wanted to feature fine dining restaurants. Now I'm no restaurateur, but can you imagine Ramsay, Rhodes, Blanc, White, Roux Jnr or Snr wanting to link their precious restaurant brands with a toilet duck? That really would produce some Chef-ey expletives.

Having said that, when we were looking for images for this article we discovered that the concept of toilet themed dining is big in Taiwan:

The Modern Toilet restaurant chain in Taiwan - a whole new meaning to Bowl Food!

What about a WC themed bookshop where you could sit in a toilet while you browse the shelves, now that has potential. I can see it now... queue wibbly wobbly image, swirling harp sound, cross fade to...