We are officially in the swing of holiday season and what better way to celebrate the spirit of it than to give back? Giving Tuesday, a campaign started in 2012 by the 92nd Street YMCA in New York City to donate to charitable organizations after the frenzied spending of Black Friday and Cyber Monday, took place this year on November 29. The campaign, which lasts for only a 24-hour period, has seen tremendous growth since its inception, with this year’s record breaking tally being $168 million (up from the $117 million raised last year) with donations pouring in from almost 100 countries. It’s so great to see the generosity of those around the world ignited. However, if you missed this year’s Giving Tuesday, don’t fret – there are plenty of ways to give back, not just during the holiday season but also year-round. And don’t forget that it’s not just about money or material things – time volunteering is always a wonderful way to donate as well. Sometimes all we need is a little reminder.
Keeping in the spirit of giving, Safeway Eastern is running an in-store campaign to support local food bank partners with the goal of providing holiday dinners and staple foods to local families in need. The “Holiday Bucks” promotion, which runs October 26 through December 24, invites Safeway customers to support the cause at the register by donating $1, $5, $10, or rounding up their change. The campaign is promoted by store cashiers, point-of-sale signage and in-store announcements in order to maximize the number of donations so that as many families as possible can be helped. When donations are made, bells at each checkout counter are rung to thank the customers for their generosity. Giant/Landover, always the philanthropic organization, showed their generosity as well in the holiday season by kicking off the Salvation Army’s Red Kettle campaign with a $5,000 donation last month. The fundraiser, which goes until December 24 and features 250 red kettles and their ringers at Giant stores and other local businesses throughout the region, hopes to raise more than $1.4 million for those in need. The National Capital Area Command of The Salvation Army serves anyone in crisis in the District, Suburban Maryland and Northern Virginia with assistance varying from a hot meal to paying a bill to longer-term solutions of critical problems. Kudos to both Safeway Eastern and Giant/Landover for their big hearts during this festive season!
As Amazon continues its bid to take over the entire universe (or at least the world of shopping), the online retailer recently announced that it will be opening a brick and mortar storefront in Seattle called Amazon Go in early 2017. The store, which is slated to have a 1,800 square foot footprint, is reported to be the first of at least three physical store formats that Amazon will be piloting. This one will be register-free, instead using a phone app to keep track of shoppers’ baskets. Once shoppers leave, their total bill is calculated and their Amazon account is charged. The store will also feature prepared foods by on-site chefs and pre-packaged meal kits similar to those marketed by Blue Apron and HelloFresh. All eyes will certainly be on this test store, which if successful will certainly start a copycat wave in other physical retailers looking to save on labor costs.
In-the-moment media measurement technology pioneer iQ Media recently launched a platform that allows brands to monitor logo appearances and track spoken brand name and keyword mentions on earned and paid TV in real time. The platform utilizes proprietary logo recognition and spoken word detection technology to track these appearances and mentions. Marketers enter the keywords or logos they want to track into the system and the iQ Media platform begins reporting occurrences of brand mentions and logo appearances as they happen. It also allows the brand to track multiple competitors’ logos and mentions in real-time and historically and gives their marketers the opportunity to plot their own campaigns against the competition to see how their plans measure up against relevant brands. “Marketers have traditionally had to wait several weeks—even months—to get data about their TV campaigns and sponsorship investments. This wait-time is incompatible with the dynamic and responsive nature of today’s consumers, however,” stated Kye Strance, CEO and president of iQ Media. “Because our platform is fully automated and is scanning TV and media content around the clock, it doesn’t miss important brand events, such as a logo appearing on an athlete’s shirt or hat for a split second on live TV.” Energizer, Red Bull and Domino’s Pizza are just a few of the brands that will be using this new technology, with more expected to follow as their current designated marketing areas continue to expand. “Most folks that we deal with in our client base know where their own ads are, because they’re buying them, but they have very little insight into where their competitors are,” said John Derham, iQ Media’s chief technology officer. “It gives you an incredible amount of insight into being able to make local buys that can be in markets that are resonating, and do it in a much more timely, efficient and certain matter.”
Nielsen (the leading global, independent measurement and data company for fast-moving consumer goods, consumer behavior, and media) has partnered up with Label Insight, a cloud-based data refinery platform, to help bring about label transparency to the CPG and retail industry. Label Insight collects, aggregates and analyzes food label data to allow the government, retailers, manufacturers and app developers a comprehensive view of food labels. Together, according to a press release from Nielsen, the two companies “will develop and maintain a CPG industry retail and consumer measurement capability incorporating food, beverage, and non-food ingredients, nutrients and U.S. regulated product attributes.” The alliance will help CPG brands and retailers discover what the performance drivers and emerging trends among the consumers. Additionally, they will be able to forecast their relevance five years out, identify trending ingredients, understand competitive product formulations, and evaluate the impact of government regulations. According to Ronak Sheth, chief customer officer of Label Insight, “Consumers are becoming increasingly sophisticated with their food-purchasing decisions as their definitions of healthy become more varied—from gluten-free to low-sugar to sustainably sourced. This has created unprecedented pressure for brands and retailers to provide increased product transparency.” Sheth continues, “Our alliance will enable brands and retailers to better respond to this heightened demand for transparency, by not just understanding what is being purchased, but why consumers are motivated to buy a certain product. Unlocking insights and trends around formulations, claims, nutrients and other rich content will allow brands to innovate faster and will allow retailers to have personalized conversations with their shoppers.”
This new service offering from Nielsen and Label Insight (built from ingredient and nutrition panel intelligence across food and beverage categories, including alcoholic beverages) will be available in the first quarter of 2017. This will be followed by non-food categories (personal care, beauty care, household care, vitamins/supplements and pet food) in the second quarter of 2017.
Warmest congratulations go out to Steve Coomes of Safeway on his retirement last month. Steve, who started with the company in 1970 as a grocery night stocker, worked his way through many ascending positions (mostly in produce), including category manager, produce director, division operations manager, and most recently, produce procurement manager. Steve has also been a valued board member for the Children’s Cancer Foundation for the past three years. Always with a ready smile on his face, Steve’s friendly demeanor could always brighten a room. Good luck, Steve – I hope to cross paths with you again very soon!
Before I sign off for 2016, I would like to wish each and every one of you a very Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, and a Joyous Kwanzaa! Happy holidays!
Until next year…
