2012 Bronze Retail

Client Waitrose

How did the campaign make a difference? The challenge for Waitrose.com was to profitably acquire loyal, high-value customers. This work took a complex offer and made it easy to understand, as well as impossible to resist. The number of customers reaching their fifth shop increased by 49%, while average order value increased by £3.55.

What details of the strategy make this a winning entry? Waitrose.com faced three key challenges: firstly, growth in new customer acquisition remained low. Then retention rates were also low, with 7.6% placing their fifth shop in 30 days (once a customer places their fifth shop, they’re less likely to lapse). And finally 16% of in-branch shoppers believe that Ocado is the only place to order Waitrose groceries online. This inspired a multi-shop incentive of £75 off each customer’s first five shops, staggering the incentives to increase with each shop. Insight showed that customers living between 20 and 60 minutes’ drive from a branch were more likely to shop with Waitrose, shop more frequently and spend more. A combination of mapping systems, demographic profiling and mosaic data targeted the best-profiling postal sectors in 10 regions across the country. This high-impact, multichannel campaign needed both a bottom-up and top-down approach, including tightly targeted direct response media: door drops, press inserts, field marketing at key transport hubs, geo-targeted pay per click (PPC) and digital display, and activity with selected affiliates. Local drive-time radio was used to boost direct response.

How did creativity bring the strategy to life? Part of the John Lewis Partnership, Waitrose is known for its market-leading quality, value and service. Featuring Waitrose Partners throughout the creative reinforced these values, while overcoming the main creative challenge: to present a potentially complicated five-shop offer quickly and clearly. With the mechanic succinctly explained, there was room to include the additional benefits of service, value and convenience. Real Waitrose Partners were photographed to add warmth and authenticity, and highlight a key point of difference: your shop is picked, packed and delivered by Partners who genuinely care about what they do.

Results During the campaign period, weekly orders grew at three times the rate of the rest of the online grocery market. The weekly volume of new customers increased by 134%. The campaign drove the second, third and fourth best weeks ever for sales, outside of Christmas. In the 10 targeted regions, average order value increased by £3.55 and 57% of shoppers acquired went on to place their fifth shop: an increase of 49% compared to usual retention rates.

Team Nick Burbidge, Ben Golik, Rachael Webb, David Yates, Tim Pearson, Sarah Jones, Marisa Ambersley, Harriet Nash