Your Step-by-Step Guide to Shopper Savings with the National Digital Ad

Aug 6, 2019

Automated national savings. Digital coupons. Print-on-receipt rewards. IGA’s newest programs are creating plenty of ways to save. But with so many new developments, there’s bound to be some confusion about what steps you need to take to pass these basket-building savings on to your shoppers.

So today, we're spending a minute breaking down IGA’s simplest and most effective savings initiative—the IGA National Digital Ad. 

What is the National Digital Ad?

Simply put, the National Digital Ad is a digital circular of savings available to all IGA customers and for all IGA stores. It contains a minimum of six offers running for two weeks at a time, promoted to IGA shoppers on www.IGA.com and the Flipp app.

Where do the offers come from?

Heidi Huff, senior director of Red Oval partnerships, secures the offers from IGA Red Oval Family, a powerful and growing group of manufacturing partners—representing the country’s top brands—who see the value in partnering with IGA to better connect with a generally difficult to reach segment in grocery. And nowhere does this partnership work better than when it comes to the National Digital Ad, said IGA CEO John Ross in a recent video interview with Huff. 

“When I first came into this job, I looked at Red Oval and I could understand why a brand would be hesitant to get involved,” Ross says of the partnership with manufacturers. "It's ironic, big brands really want to to grow their business with independents, but it's been incredibly challenging because we've been so difficult and complex to work. But that all changed for IGA when we launched the National Digital Ad last October. These new digital tools provide an easy way for us to work with our Red Oval partners on performance driven marketing, just like the big national retailers like Target. Now we’re up to 13 million shopper impressions and growing, which means we’re reaching really sizable audiences, and our partners recognize that we can really drive business. And as a consequence, have many more excited about working with IGA than they have been in many years." 

What’s unique about these offers, says Huff, is that they function as an overlay to what is already happening in stores. “We don’t actually negotiate any purchases, and certainly don’t touch trade dollars. National Digital Ad offers are coming out of brands’ national investment in shopper digital shopper marketing, and that’s a different bucket entirely, which means we’re providing offers our retailers probably wouldn’t otherwise have access to.” 

Hear Ross and Huff discuss how the National Digital Ad is breathing new life into Red Oval relationships, and  creating new opportunities for IGA retailers. 

 

How do the offers work?

The offer construct is pretty simple:

  • A minimum of six promotional offers are sourced by IGA for each two-week ad window.
  • The same ad will be published for all IGA store locations (along with the disclaimer “Offers available at participating stores while supplies last”).
  • A new ad with new items will launch every other Sunday.

The most important thing to remember, says Ross, is that the offers themselves are not coupons, but a scan back handled the same way as any other offer in their weekly ad.  

“From a consumer standpoint, when they go in the store these offers look just like another sale item—they don’t have to clip anything, there’s no rebate forms, they just save money. From a retailer standpoint, they just have to set the offer up in their POS system just like any offer featured in their weekly ad. That means retailers have six to eight new offers every two weeks to program, but it also means they will bring in more sales.”

Hear Huff and Ross explain the National Digital Ad experience for retailers and shoppers. 


 

Promoting the offers to shoppers

IGA is investing in media to get the word out to shoppers for you, from sharing offers on Flipp, to posting them on IGA.com and the IGA Facebook page, all designed to push traffic back to the IGA stores. So what do you need to do to promote the offer to your shoppers on your end?

Printable Shelf Tags for Every Ad Item

Printable Shelf Tags are available for each offer in the National Digital Ad


The key to a truly successful ad promotion, Huff says, all comes down to putting signs in stores. “Retailers can put the offers in their weekly ad, they can post them to their own Facebook page, but the single most important thing they can do beyond programming the offers in their POS system is to use the IGA-provided signage in stores,” Huff says.

Hear Ross and Huff discuss how IGA.com and Flipp work together to drive more—and new—shoppers to your store, and how in-store signage helps you take advantage of it. 

 

Need a recap?

Check out this simple overview explaining to National Digital Ad experience for both you and your shoppers!

Your National Digital Ad Experience

  1. Familiarize your team with the offers. IGA sources six to eight offers for Red Oval partners for each two-week time period. ScannerApps automatically sends an email to each store in advance of the ad with information about promoted items and how to submit a report to request reimbursement. The full listing of as offers and participating SKUs is also published on IGA.com/nationalad.
  2. Work with your wholesaler/distributors to make sure the products are in stock. Keep in mind that many of the products featured in your National Digital Ad will be store staples, but Red Oval partners will also use IGA’s National Digital Ad to release new, innovative items that make for great promotions.
  3. Program the available offers into your POS system prior to each offer’s start date.
  4. Promote the ad to shoppers using shelf tags, a sell sheet, and social media graphics available on IGA.com/nationalad a week in advance of each ad launch. 
  5. Get your reimbursement once the ad window is over by sending in a reimbursement report following the provided instructions from ScannerApps.

Your Shoppers’ National Digital Ad Experience

  1. Learning about the offers. The shopper finds out about the National Digital Ad offers online when visiting IGA.com, the IGA Facebook page (or your Facebook page if you’re promoting the offers), or the Flipp app; or in store when they see your National Digital Ad display/shelf tags.
  2. Getting the savings. When a shopper meets the savings requirement, the discount will automatically be taken off at the register. He/she does not need to scan a coupon or have a loyalty account—these offers act just like your regular print ad.

How IGA Shopper Rewards Can Simplify the Process for your Store

So now that you have the National Digital Ad down, what should you explore next in the IGA savings lineup?

IGA Shopper Rewards is the next piece of the puzzle, offering not just expanded savings for shoppers, but also an even simpler process for National Digital Ad activation. When you sign on to the IGA Shopper Rewards program for $25 a week, IGA works with Inmar—the nation’s leading promotion solutions provider and IGA’s partner for Shopper Rewards—to embed a piece of code into your POS system that funnels data up into the cloud. That data enables a whole host of benefits, including:

  • Making hundreds of digital coupons available for your shoppers to redeem at your store.
  • Weekly distribution of a personalized email to shoppers reminding them of the ways they can save on products they purchase at your store.
  • Printing exciting discounts at the bottom of each receipt to build loyalty and encourage return visits.

But the single most important element of IGA Shopper Rewards' digital program is the automation of the National Digital Ad.

“The effort to the retailer for the National Digital Ad is to set up the offer, and put up the signs, file the claim, but we have a new digital program that can make that even easier,” Ross says.

Hear Huff and Ross discuss how you can automate your National Digital Ad with participation in the Shopper Rewards program. 

 

As Ross explains, when you participate in the Shopper Rewards program, Inmar automatically sets up each National Digital Ad offer in your POS system and when the ad cycle has come to an end, they will also be able to retrieve your reimbursement report—meaning all that’s left for you to do is promote the products.

To get started with Shopper Rewards, check out this story, watch the informational webinar, and/or schedule your one-on-one consultation so IGA and Inmar can learn more about your store's needs. After that, Inmar will act as the project manager for the platform implementation.

Have questions about any of IGA’s savings initiatives?  Contact Sarah Rivers, IGA’s Manager, Digital Marketing, at srivers@igainc.com.

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