Creative challenge: How to get drinkers flocking to BWS aisle

One of our 10 Things You Need To Know About… Spirits

The spirits aisles have a lot to offer but, faced with rows upon rows of similar looking bottles, drinkers can easily be left bereft of inspiration. Until now. The Grocer tasked Tribal Worldwide with reinventing the booze aisles to tempt consumers in and encourage them to browse a little longer, while offering retailers the opportunity to upsell at key seasonal events such as Christmas and Father’s Day. Here’s what they came up with…

Magic window

“We always have a helping hand when purchasing alcohol – from sommeliers at dinner to mixologists at the bar. But when it comes to a grocery store, that wealth of knowledge disappears, leaving us overwhelmed by choice,” says Jon Cleave, creative director at Tribal Worldwide. “We reimagined the spirits aisle by connecting customers beyond the products themselves. We used technology to help inspire, educate and expand their horizons.”

The first innovative piece of technology offers premium bottles a way to stand out on shelf, literally blurring out the competition and immersing shoppers in their story.

“The spirits aisle is a busy place. Colours, shapes, promotions, signage are all fighting to grab the shopper’s attention. More often than not it’s the price discount that wins the battle,” explains Cleave, noting the magic window would alleviate some of their woes. All the shopper has to do is move the magic window along the shelf until a premium spirit is roughly framed in the silhouette.

Using image recognition to identify the bottles, the display frosts out adjacent brands, presenting users with an immersive experience of the brand’s content. This can be anything from its ingredients to craft credentials, seasonal promotions to events.

“The magic window provides a new way for premium spirit brands to elevate their products, helping engage and guide shoppers towards a purchase decision, while remaining un-intrusive for those short for time – all the while helping retailers upsell new products,” he adds.

End-of-aisle mixologist

Enter the end-of-aisle mixologist, designed to help shoppers find the perfect refreshment for any occasion or season by asking questions such as ‘are you feeling experimental?’ and ‘how many people do you want to serve?’

“There’s an opportunity to do something different for the spirits aisle,” says Cleave. “By making the end of aisle your personal digital concierge, rather than the equivalent of the bargain bucket at your local corner shop, we use this prime retail estate to inspire, educate and influence shoppers to try something new and add more items to their basket.”

As the recommended drink appears on the display, a receipt is printed, complete with the cocktail recipe, ingredients needed (plus aisle locations) and a barcode offering a discount on an ingredient when bought that day.

“Being connected to the retailer’s network of systems means it’s always dynamic and flexible, its recommendations can be driven by season, current or predicted weather forecasts, and stock levels and promotions – ensuring shoppers leave educated and inspired, and retailers able to sell cross-sell related products,” Cleave adds.

Perfect match tray

The perfect match tray is like Tindr for food and drink. Simply place the bottle on the tray and, using object recognition technology, the display automatically identifies the spirit, searches foodpairings.com and serves up the perfect accompaniment for the tipple.

“If the shopper likes the pairing, they swipe right. After swiping right, the display then helps the shopper find the complementary pairings with ease, telling them where to find it in the store,” explains Cleave. “If the shopper doesn’t like the match, they swipe left and are presented with another option - it’s like a dating app for your palate.”

Bourbon, for example, might be paired with slow-cooked ribs, BBQ crisps and cola as a mixer, but swiping left will bring up a whole host of other pairings.

“The ‘perfect match tray’ is a playful and quick experience that helps cross-sell other products in the store to customers by suggesting fun, new and inspiring ways to enjoy their favourite spirits – encouraging them to explore and to expand their palates,” he concludes.

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Tribal Worldwide combines creativity and technology to make work that moves people and builds businesses.Tribal Worldwide London is a leading innovation-led digital agency. The agency is part of the Tribal Worldwide network, which is held by marketing services giant, Omnicom.