Commercial TV marketing group ThinkTV this month released a special report to help better equip brands wanting to build FMCG sales.
The report, branded At the Check-Out, details how growth can be sustained after the pandemic.
While much of the FMCG sector grew in retail during the pandemic, some did very well and others not so much. “There are a couple of different reasons for that,” ThinkTV chief executive Kim Portrate told Mediaweek.
“One is because the supermarket is a pretty busy place. If a shopper goes in with a couple of brands in mind for a particular product, there is sometimes a third that is not quite so familiar.”
Portrate gave us an example of a user of a particular toothpaste. “For the past 10 years I have been buying a tube of toothpaste. During the pandemic my usual brand may not have always been available due to crazy buying behaviours in some categories.
“What we saw was many people trialling other products in supermarket aisles. That means if you are a challenger brand there is an opportunity for you to make some people who trialled your brand to stick with it. They can do that by keeping their product top of mind with the consumers who tried them.”
The research points out the pandemic is not yet over. “This means purchase behaviours remain unstable.”
ThinkTV is using this latest research in a pitch to challenger brands who have marketing budgets of around $7m annually. “And there is an awful lot of them,” said Portrate.
While some of these brands are already using television, ThinkTV notes there could be more of them using the channel.
“The research simply shows how if you are a challenger brand in FMCG you are going to sell more stuff by being on television than on other video mediums.”
Selling FMCG in the supermarket is a volume game and so having people choose your brand all the time is critical. With three major distribution channels in the supermarket universe in Australia, Portrate said, “There aren’t too many levers you can play with to get ahead of the competition. Media selection is one of them.”
While many campaigns split money across different media sectors, ThinkTV notes the data points to tipping most of the budget into TV is best. “If you want to sell more stuff you should be on TV,” said Portrate.
Sell more stuff to more people too by having a broad reach, targeting beyond existing customers. Is TV the best channel for FMCG? You guessed it. Data quoted from February 2021 shows how TV delivers five times the volume of the next best channel (which was digital video) in the FMCG sector.
For marketers wanting to get a quick summary of the FMCG message head straight to the final slide in the ThinkTV deck: Advertise now to build the brand using emotion to deliver your message. Target broad using total TV (FTA and on-demand) and remember the proportion of TV spend should increase as the budget does.
The most important time to advertise for FMCG? “Always on is the best strategy,” said Portrate.
Watch: Meaty marketing insights to make your next campaign sizzle
Read more: At the checkout: FMCG brands in 2021
See also: How TV is helping the finance sector grow in 2021
