Humans are simple creatures. We love free things. We love tiny things. We love to collect things. So, put them all together, as New World and its retail agency .99 have done for the Little Shop Collectables campaign, and watch the minds get blown.
New World has just launched the latest phase of its Fresh Every Day campaign with some infomercial-style ads by Colenso BBDO that have turned its people into products. But over the past eight months it has also been working with .99 to transform Little Shop Collectables from a concept to a reality.
“We’re confident that New Zealand’s going to get excited about this promotion,” says Steve Bayliss, general manager of marketing for Foodstuffs New Zealand. “We’re hoping that trading of these cute little grocery items will sweep both the country and social media sites alike.”
Judging by the Facebook page set up to trade the mini groceries, the talk on the Trade Me forums and the chatter on New World’s Facebook page, that wish has come true.
With every $40 spent in store shoppers receive a free mini grocery item. There are 44 in the range, which includes brands such as Marmite, Weet-bix, Milo, Tip-Top, Anchor, Wattie’s, Vogel’s and many more. And accessories like the Little Shop play house, a trolley, a cash register, scales and a shopping basket are also available to purchase, a nice additional revenue stream for the chain.
Ben Goodale, managing director of .99, says the New World team and the agency have worked closely with all of the brands featured in the promotion. And it’s fair to assume those brands will all be pretty happy with the fact that they get some additional exposure. Some cynics might even suggest it was all a dastardly ploy to get them in front of the kids and try to turn them into good little New World customers, but Goodale says the promotion is for young and old alike.
“We’re particularly proud of this one,” he says. “It has been one of the biggest and most fun retail promotions that .99 has been involved with. My ten-year-old is already nagging me to visit New World more often as she has her eye on certain collectables”.
Much like the recent Warehouse Stationery campaign, .99 took care of everything, from the concept and design of dozens of elements, including the playhouse and the TVC, which was directed, shot, edited, graded and finished completely inhouse.
“It was an ambitious shoot to take on with 44 unique ‘talent’ to look after,” says chief creative officer Craig Whitehead. “The stop-motion spot involved almost 50,000 ‘moves’ over just a three day shoot. We’re stoked with how it’s turned out and reckon this big little idea is going to go off.”
