Campaign objectives
In the run-up to Christmas Asda wanted to shake off their tag of being just a food store and establish themselves as a place for a variety of Christmas shopping. They produced their Christmas Gift Guide to catalogue what's on offer, aiming to change consumer attitudes and shopping habits to attract more customers and increase trial of shopping at Asda.
The campaign
Asda teamed-up with the Mirror Group to include their Gift Guide in the Daily Mirror and Daily Record newspaper. They also delivered the Gift Guide door-to-door - which makes for an excellent comparison.
Campaign impact
The insert was published and distributed in October and respondents from both door-to-door recipients and regular Mirror and Record readers were interviewed and then re-interviewed four weeks after the publication.
The research was undertaken in association with Carat Media Services. At the outset over 1,000 door-to-door interviews were conducted with over 600 Mirror and Record readers interviewed in the street. Four weeks later 170 door-to-door and 123 Mirror Group readers were re-interviewed by phone.
Asda's work with the Mirror Group showed that newspapers have a significant advantage over door-to-door advertising, in terms of communication effectiveness. Newspapers arrive in a consumers' household directly, through their choice and thereby with less clutter. The aspect of consumer choice in their newspaper meant the messages were more likely to be absorbed.
The insert in the Mirror and Record also raised awareness with key shopping age groups, as compared to the direct advertising:
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With 18-44 year olds awareness was 78% with Mirror Group readers versus 35% from door drops
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With 45-64 year olds awareness was 78% with Mirror Group readers versus 40% from door drops
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With 65+ year olds awareness was 83% with Mirror Group readers versus 50% from door drops
The research four weeks on also demonstrated the greater effectiveness of the newspaper insert:
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50% of Mirror Group readers surveyed had kept the Gift Guide compared to 37% from door drops
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72% of Gift Guides inserted in newspapers had been read compared to 68% from door drops
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As a result of seeing the Gift Guide 42% of Mirror Group reader respondents were "more likely to visit Asda" against 21% of door drop respondents
And, importantly for Asda:
A pleasing bonus was that Mirror Group insert recipients were also more positive about Asda as a brand:
Source: 1236 door-to-door interviews were conducted week commencing 15 October 2001 amongst recipients who received the Gift Guide via free local papers. 635 regular readers of the Mirror and Record were interviewed (in the street) in the Granada, HTV and STV regions where the Gift Guide had been inserted on 15 October in England and 18 October in Scotland. Four weeks later (week commencing 12 November) respondents were re-contacted by phone. 170 door-t0-door recipients and 123 Mirror Group readers were interviewed from the original sample group. In both interviews only those who were main shoppers or joint main shoppers were interviewed.
