Coca-Cola - Christmas

Coca-Cola and Albert Heijn play an indispensable role in the Christmas spirit of the Netherlands. The starting point of the cooperation around Christmas 2024 was therefore ambitious: To realize a partnership in which the Christmas campaigns of both brands come together. This partnership had to build a bridge between both brands. The intended result was an impactful creative campaign theme, resulting in a positive effect on both brands and a sales uplift in the most challenging period of the year.

The campaign had 3 guiding principles:

1. The retail media campaign brought together the Christmas campaigns of Coca-Cola and Albert Heijn. Maximum synergy between the two campaigns was driven. This had never been attempted before from either brand.

2. For consumers, the campaign had to feel like a sympathetic collaboration between two brands that color the Dutch Christmas experience.

3. The retail media campaign had to lean on an emotionally charged concept, creating a distinctive message on the store floor. In a medium where much communication is transactional in nature, this case should prove that brand building and emotional tone through retail media tools can achieve growth on brand effects as well as sales.

At the core of the innovative campaign was the triangle of Coca-Cola, Albert Heijn and EssenceMediacom. From a shared ambition emerged the vision to use retail media more impactful and more integrated than ever before.

Both parties' creative agencies, Studio M and Boomerang, developed a creative link between the Christmas campaigns and the retail media campaign. This link arose from the insight “There's a Santa Claus in everyone,” the theme from Coca-Cola's campaign.

From that theme came the central activation: An exclusive Coca-Cola Christmas ornament offered to shoppers at Albert Heijn. The creative twist: This ornament is not for your own tree, but to give to a loved one with a heartwarming message. After all, giving is more fun than getting! The ornament also fit seamlessly with the Albert Heijn Christmas ornament collection on sale in the store.

In the storyline of a joint video campaign on social media, the activation came to life. The Albert Heijn delivery driver took center stage giving the Coca-Cola ornament to a customer as a gift. The video brought together the brand worlds of Coca-Cola and Albert Heijn. Én very unique: The social video campaign was visually a natural part of the Albert Heijn Christmas campaign.

The campaign then used virtually every possible retail media format to make the activation come to life 360 degrees: In-store digital screens, handheld scanners, product displays, shelf cards, and the Allerhande were deployed. Online shoppers at Albert Heijn also saw expressions in the App and with a display card in the delivery crate. The icing on the cake were the 25 Albert Heijn delivery vans that were converted into Coca-Cola Christmas trucks for the campaign. Combined with attention in the app and crate sampling, the campaign was extended to the customer's home.

The campaign showed that with a good strategy, intensive cooperation and a creative concept, a retail media campaign can be used in an innovative way.

The results of the campaign came from a campaign effect measurement by Memo2 and from sales and bonus card data from Albert Heijn's SIS platform.

The campaign deployment led to a sales uplift for the different Coca-Cola flavors in the campaign period of no less than 8% (compared to control stores), a unique result for this category in the busiest period of the year. 77% of the sales uplift was arguably due to retail media engagement.

Additional unique success: The campaign contributed to 17% penetration growth by attracting new customers to the category.

The campaign contributed to an overall sales increase for Coca-Cola at Albert Heijn of 14.8% in Q4 2024 (MAT) vs. Q4 2023 (MAT). (Source: transaction data) 47% of consumers surveyed said they found the link between the two brands positive, i.e. the partnership was seen and appreciated. On 'Brand Fit', the social spot scored as much as 31% above the Albert Heijn benchmark. (Source: Memo2)

The choice of emotional storytelling in a retail campaign was innovative and proved a success. All expressions scored (far) above the Albert Heijn benchmark, with the social ad as the standout that showed very high scores on the emotional parameters 'Likeable' (+27% above benchmark), 'Appealing' (+23%) and Eye Catching (+26%) and 'Brand Fit' (+31%) scores. (Source: Memo2)