Top 5 Promotional Campaigns for the Food & Beverage Industry

In the world of a thousand flavours, food and beverage companies must compete in the arena for the largest market share and, of course, the adoration of customers. It’s a given that your product needs to be the best, but your tools for success are now in the realm of the Internet. As such, we rounded up 5 distinct campaign strategies geared to elevate your flavours to the top of the food chain!

We open this list with a tried-and-tested method to steer customers your way, especially when you are operating in a highly competitive industry. Put your promotion on your label in bold and bright colours – keep all eyes on your packaging.

On-pack promotions advertise special offers on the product’s official packaging, though in some cases, a promotional leaflet is issued with your purchase (think Burger King’s coupon sheet available with every order).

Everyone is familiar with Coca-Cola’s classic formula; open your bottle of Coca Cola, look under the cap and see if you’ve won a prize. It’s a model that has been replicated all over the world and it works, because it rewards customers for their loyalty. Of course, you can use on-pack promotions to grow a loyal customer base. Canada’s famous coffee shop chain, Tim Horton’s, did this with its highly successful ‘Roll Up The Rim’ campaign. Buying a cup of coffee could win you a car!

Rise to the level of Coca-Cola with a bespoke on-pack campaign. Sales-Promotions takes the lead in running code-based promotions engineered to reflect your brand’s voice and philosophy. We can provide ample management of your campaign; from issuing promotional codes to your customers, to validating claims and allocating the rewards.

We’ve yet to meet the person who doesn’t smile at a present. Gift giving has strong traditions all over the world, and a little generosity goes a long way if you’re in it to dominate your market. BUT forget about discounts! To win your customers’ hearts, give them something they value and can make use of.

Every bite tastes sweeter when you’ve won it fair and square. Contests have been generous to all brands in the food industry, even before the rise of the Internet era, but now, you have the tools to rally thousands of people in your favour.

Contest campaigns are time-specific events that promise an on-brand reward to a limited number of participants in exchange for required consumer behaviour. Contests are run for several purposes; 1) boost sales, 2) gain sales leads and customer information, 3) boost brand visibility across social media platforms, and 4) fostering brand loyalty in customers.

Contests follow a familiar template. You set goals for your contest, choose campaign duration and select the winners’ rewards. The key is to know how to best engage your customers to participate; are you going to ask them to submit proof of purchase for a specific product? Do they complete a quiz? Do they send you thematic pictures in a popularity contest?

It all depends on your brand. For cultural staple in American breakfast and snack foods, Eggo, the contest came in ‘The Great Eggo Waffle Off’, a recipe-sharing and voting contest that rewarded its winner with a $5,000 cash prize. The cash sum guaranteed customer engagement in the thousands, which generated brand awareness on Facebook, priceless user-generated content and encouraged customers to purchase waffles to try out the shared recipes.

Engineer a contest or a sweepstake campaign that’s always on brand with Benamic. You are supported through high-level strategic planning and set-up, which covers everything from full legal checks to ensure compliance with local country laws, to drafting entry terms and conditions. Our team takes over the day-to-day activities in running your contest, all while meticulously gathering data and performing comprehensive analysis upon campaign completion.

Food and movies have had a long, shared history from the moment the first confectionery stand sold the first carton of hot, buttered popcorn. Moviegoers have long since learned that the best way to enjoy a film on the big screen is with a snack, and that thinking has migrated beyond the cinema. Today, food and beverage brands are using new movie releases to boost sales via cross-selling.

Cross-selling has been the bread and butter of marketing for as long as marketing exists. It’s the practice of using one product to drive sales of another related product by turning the whole process into a game for consumers.

In practice, customers are encouraged to buy a specific number of snacks or beverages that have been marked as part of the promotion (or make purchases worth a specific amount) and then submit the proof of purchase to receive a ticket for a specific movie release. You win because you’ve driven sales for the quarter, blockbusters win because you’ve increased overall box office sales, and customers win free movie tickets. It’s a triple win! Otherwise known as the best kind of win.

Blue Almond has made great winnings with a cross-sale promotion for Nut Job 2 – the strongest thematic example of cross-selling. There’s also Subway’s kid’s menu campaign tied to the release of The Boss Baby that got a lot of attention and enforced their kid’s menu as a staple for the chain.

If there’s anything brands have learned about longevity, it’s that you always need to keep your eye on the new generation. Adopt their language. Insert yourself into their spaces. For Millennials, the playing field has moved to mobile gadgets and social media, so you #betterkeepupwiththetimes!

What is a social media campaign? It’s an opportunity to start a conversation. Millennials value humanity above all else. Don’t believe us? Wendy’s is currently enjoying a second lease of life – all because a smart, sharp-witted Millennial got their hands on the chain’s official Twitter account. With the right voice on social media, your brand awareness builds itself, and any product you have lined up for promotion flies off the shelves.

Social media campaigns don’t follow a rigid script – their flexibility is their greatest asset, after all – but there’s one unifying aspect: #TheHashtag. Create a hashtag that easily identifies your brand and incentivises participation from your customers with a reward. Launch and watch as you gain a spike in customer interaction and increase your social reach without paying anything! It’s the best of both worlds; little investment beyond the creative engineering and maintenance with a quick return on said investment.

When done correctly you have the success of Dunkin’ Donuts (their #MyDunkin campaign did all sorts of wonders to reinvigorate interest in the chain, and turn loyal customers into brand ambassadors), but BEWARE! If you don’t think things through, you might get the result McDonalds did when they launched their #McDStories campaign, which turned from an invitation to share your best memories of the Golden Arches to a way for customers to air their grievances.