#MarketingExcellenceAwards highlight: FairPrice freshens up reputation and role amidst pandemic

Taking home three golds for Excellence in Advertising, Excellence in Pivot Marketing and Excellence in Shopper Marketing for Marketing Excellence Awards is FairPrice and its newly appointed creative agency iris Singapore. While a surface level look at the world of groceries would presume that supermarkets were one of the few sectors of commerce to benefit from COVID-19, a further dissection would show that supermarkets also faced its own share of issues.

Challenge

Fairprice had its own share of challenge. For one, the pandemic saw a high demand and even higher expectations from consumers. When the government announced an impending lockdown, demand for groceries surged  and in a country like Singapore, which imports over 90% of its food, inevitably some inventory could not keep pace with demand. However customer expectations did not dip. Catalysed by a wave of panic buying and fear of missing out, there were outpourings of anger from consumers.

As the nation moved into Circuit Breaker, the weekly routine of grocery shopping went from chore to ‘activity.’ People became more willing to experiment with new stores, with different types of produce, just to try something new. As the market leader, FairPrice had the most to lose from this dispersion. Moreover, there was another section of the audience, who wanted to avoid stores all together which saw the spike of grocery eCommerce and usage of brands such as Redmart and Amazon Prime. COVID-19 may have started as a healthcare crisis but it was clear by April it would also create a full blown economic crisis. The economic uncertainty had increased people’s price consciousness, which favoured discount retailers such as Sheng Siong and Giant.

It was with this triple threat in mind that Iris and FairPrice began to formulate our objectives for our June campaign.

Strategy

In a low margin, high volume game such as grocery retail, the mindset that drives success is to be like a squirrel harvesting nuts for hibernation. This was even more imperative in the face of an economic downturn and the grocery category welcoming some major new players.

The brand wanted to keep consumers predominantly cooking and eating at home and staying healthy. In light of intensified competition,FairPrice needed to ensure that it was the brand customers looked to for their grocery needs. So the marketing objective was to maintain and increase people’s level of engagement with FairPrice.

In the face of increased competition and price conscious buying behaviour, FairPrice wanted to demonstrate to Singaporeans that the brand was there for them through thick and thin. So it looked to deepen the emotional connection between FairPrice and customers.

It goes without saying, the Circuit Breaker period was an emotionally turbulent time for many. Boredom, burnout, alienation, uncertainty, anxiety, aimlessness were states of mind that everyone came to share. To elevate their boredom, consumers were turning to food in a trend called “Eatertainment” where consumers were cooking up a storm, trying out new recipes as a way to keep themselves busy and hone some new skills. Not only were they then sharing their creations on social media, heart-warmingly, they were giving to neighbours or sending to friends and family across the island who they couldn’t see.

The people of Singapore also generously rallied around essential workers during Circuit Breaker, hailing the contributions of our doctors, nurses, delivery drivers, supermarket cashiers amongst others.

While FairPrice’s competitors centered their marketing around price promotions and savings in the hope of attracting newly price conscious consumers, FairPrice sought to pivot into a different approach, by standing for both value and values. Elevating the conversation above price, and onto a marriage of product quality, culinary inspiration and societal leadership.

FairPrice wanted to start a new movement:

• To champion age old societal values.
• To celebrate valuable new domestic skills.
• To cement new home habits.
• To feed the imagination and fuel culinary experimentation.
• To avoid old pernicious patterns.

Execution

Phase 1: The team wanted to get into hearts and minds and reframe the role of FairPrice in society. Team FairPrice knew that video viewing and streaming had seen a large increase during the circuit breaker, across both traditional and digital channels. With this in mind, it launched an anthem-like film that would kick off its movement.

For maximum impact, it launched the campaign on the eve of Circuit Breaker being lifted. Media buys through SPH and Mediacorp Networks allowed the video to hit mass audiences staying in touch with COVID updates. Social channels such as Facebook and Instagram were also used to reach as large a pool of consumers as possible. The launch on Youtube was also performed programmatically to ensure high audience quality.

In addition, programmatic network buys and high-impact map buys were leveraged to drive branding messages and most importantly to help users locate their nearest FairPrice to drive in-store visits.

Phase 2: To ensure the in store communications had maximum impact, the team strategically deconstructed the store’s different touchpoints, to speak to the different mindsets consumers find themselves in during their shop. In what was termed as ambient touchpoints such as pillar wraps or hanging mobiles, FairPrice placed creatives which celebrated the values behind Fresh Start.

The intention of the placements was to inspire fresh motivation by highlighting new culinary possibilities. In what it saw as contextual touchpoints, namely shelf strips or placements nearer checkout, the team focused communication around value, and the savings FairPrice was offering to make it easier for Singaporeans from all walks of life to Make a Fresh Start.

Phase 3: The intention for Fresh Start was always to be more than a one off campaign, and to be a lasting platform to execute against for the rest of the year.

A month after Circuit Breaker was lifted, the team extended its campaign deeper into the fabric of Singaporean culture, and re-affirmed FairPrice’s bond with the Singaporean people. During the country’s first socially distant National Day, FairPrice saw an opportunity to galvanise Singaporeans around another point of national pride from the safety of their homes through food!

FairPrice and iris created a campaign that called on Singaporeans to share the recipes and cooking skills they had honed during the Circuit Breaker and create dishes that were an homage to the “Singapore Spirit.” These were then curated via social channels to form the first ever Singapore National Food Parade.

Result

The campaign had delivered 12.37 million duplicated reach, and drove two million views. Of these views, half completed the video to full. In comparison to past festive and branding campaigns by FairPrice, cost-per-completed view was achieved at 61% lower cost on biddable digital media, and 85% lower cost on premium sites such as SPH and Mediacorp. The campaign saw FairPrice’s advertising recall rise by 3%.

At a time when supermarkets as a whole were under scrutiny and pressure like never before, FairPrice was the only brand to emerge with its reputation enhanced, seeing rises of 1% and 2% in metrics around “Preferred Supermarket” and “Positive Impression” while some of its competitors faced reductions in brand love in the area.

There was also a 6.2% increase in FairPrice loyalty club membership post-circuit breaker. One might presume that the increase in members was a direct consequence of people shopping more frequently during the circuit breaker, but actually member count began to rise only after circuit and after the campaign began to run.