Redirecting resources to trigger impulse buys

Unilever's "impulse trigger" campaign applied a low budget but high target audience reach marketing programme to promote sales and publicise the brand value of Wall's ice-cream in China's major cities. McCann-Erickson Guangming implemented a media campaign which focused on the use of outdoor, radio and newspapers to trigger sales and raise brand awareness. This was a major initiative for a marketer like Unilever, which had historically used primarily television and believed firmly in the medium's effectiveness. McCann's media team suggested that the budget reserved for the production of TVCs should be reallocated to above-the-line media such as bus and bus shelter advertising, to promote Wall's new logo, products, brand values and prices. As ice-cream consumption tends to be impulsive, an effective media plan should work to trigger impulse purchases at street level. Television is not able to effectively drive impulse sales for individual ice-cream products such as Wall's, as few households keep ice-cream in the freezer. Research also found that Wall's young, active target consumers watched less television during summer, but rather listened to the radio and read newspapers more often in order to plan leisure activities. Outdoor media was also an effective communication channel to reach these target consumers, who went out more often for leisure activities during the summer months. Thus, full painted ads on buses, a bus shelter campaign, newspaper banner ads and radio commercials were run in China's major cities without any support from television. Wall's is the leading ice-cream brand in China, with more than 50 per cent market share, but China's ice-cream market is highly fractured, and crowded in certain areas by low-cost and low-quality products. The main objectives of the impulse trigger campaign were to communicate Wall's new logo, communicate the brand value and good citizenship image, to promote new pricing and to launch new products with limited above-the-line resources. The campaign successfully achieved these objectives, with brand awareness rising 15 per cent and sales rising 67 per cent in Beijing, 35 per cent in Guangzhou and 33 per cent in Wuhan. * This ongoing National Geographic Showcase series features selected material from winners and other entries in the Best Use of Media category in MEDIA's Agency of the Year Awards 1999.

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