Asda to add social media recommendations to packaging
Asda is looking to make its Chosen By You own-brand food range more “emotional” by adding real social media posts from customers about its products to packaging and point of sale where the items sit.
The supermarket has invited customers to tweet and write Facebook posts about the range using a #ChosenByMe hashtag. The best posts are being curated into a hub page on the Asda.com website, from which some will be selected to appear on in-store POS barkers and on-pack stickers – with the customer’s permission.
Asda kicked off the pre-launch phase of the #ChosenByMe project over the weekend and the hashtag has already amassed more than 2,000 mentions across Facebook and Twitter. It has also added call to action #ChosenByMe stickers and POS material across selected products in-store.
Dom Burch, Asda head of social media, told Marketing Week the idea behind the campaign is to aggregate the existing goodwill about the range on social media and to humanise the Chosen By You brand.
He adds: “We’ve had Chosen By You for the last four years and it’s helped customers re-evaluate Asda food and that unloved bit in the middle [between Smart Price and Extra Special]. We are trying to take that to the next level and be more overt about the best parts of it. We are hoping it will be more emotional as the [blind taste testing and market research that goes into selecting Chosen By You products] can seem quite clinical.
“Pam from Peterborough talking about how our key lime pie is #todiefor, says it far more credibly than if we said that ourselves.”
The social media-curated POS will appear in stores in the coming weeks.
Asda’s Chosen by You range now offers more than 1,000 lines. The gradual expansion of the range forms part of Asda’s strategy to differentiate from other supermarkets beyond price by increasing its provision and marketing of accessible quality lines.
The supermarket currently is in the process of making a decision on appointing a new ad agency, having dropped the incumbent Saatchi and Saatchi from the pitch for its estimated £100m account. VCCP and JWT London are the final two agencies left pitching for the business.