Loblaw Companies Limited - No Frills
#HAULERS

The Challenge

Everyone knows No Frills has low prices. But as a result of their bare bones image, going to No Frills was seen to be a compromise, particularly in the minds of young consumers with no connection to the heritage of the brand’s 40 year-old origins. Further, in recent years No Frills has seen their market share eroded by other low price competitors. With fierce competition in discount grocery driving prices down as low as they can profitably go, the agency had to answer this question: why choose No Frills over Walmart or Food Basics? The challenge was to give shopping at No Frills a meaning beyond simply getting “the best deals.” It was a classic positioning challenge – how does one differentiate a commodity category?

The Insight

The low-price grocery game is one where shoppers tend to get a bad and unfair rap. Bare bones grocery stores evoke impressions of coupon-clutching, penny pinchers that need to, rather than choose to, shop there. The reality is that you’re just as likely to see a BMW in the No Frills parking lot as you are a 90s-era Corolla. The brand realized that there's a huge but unsung group of shoppers who don’t shop at No Frills out of financial need, but because they’re smart. They get a sense of self-satisfaction out of finding a great deal, and feel like they’ve beaten the system when they make a smart shopping decision. Which led to this insight: Let’s not re-brand the store. Let’s re-brand the customer.

The One-line Idea

At No Frills you don’t shop. You HAUL. And when you haul at No Frills, you’re not a customer. You’re a &%$*ing HAULER.

The Plan

To drum up excitement for this new brand of shopper, the agency created a collection of limited-edition t-shirts, hoodies and tote bags, and featured them on a new Instagram account (@haulhard) which didn’t explicitly state its connection to No Frills. For weeks, the account posted cryptic pictures and videos resembling pre-launch campaigns for streetwear collection ‘drops’ from brands like Supreme, Adidas or Hypebeast. The launch was also teased with posters around Toronto and through printed ads in local newspapers, with designs inspired by concert tours or album drops.

The Hauler line launched on May 1, supported by the release of a 90 second music video celebrating Haulers shopping in No Frills. The spot aired during a variety of high-impact media events like “The Billboard Music Awards” and the Toronto Raptors second round playoff series. The track, that was the foundation for the video, was also written into a full-length version that was released on iTunes and Spotify. The video was supported by a robust social presence on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, where newly self-identified Haulers enthusiastically joined the conversation around the brand.

The Results

No Frills shoppers loved that the NF was celebrating their frugality. The responses to the campaign exceeded all recall benchmarks and every business KPI No Frills had for the campaign. The 10 sec Hauler videos delivered 1.96M video views (Facebook Brand Study Report). Ad recall lifted 19 points, with a 23 point lift among 25-34 year olds vs a benchmark average of 8.1 points (Facebook Brand Study Report). Campaign awareness saw a 16.7 point left vs the benchmark of 4.6 points (Facebook Brand Study Report). Further, the brand received a 52.8% lift in ad recall according to a Google Brand Lift Study. In the weeks that followed the campaign No Frills achieved a 2.7% lift in total sales and a 13.4% increase in foot traffic

These results were achieved with no price discounts, no new products, and no new service model offering. Further, local franchisee endorsement and support of the campaign was unanimous with almost 100% pickup and promotion of Haulers on each franchisees’ Facebook page and in each of their store locations.