The South Asian community represents a large and growing part of the ShopRite grocery trading area. Research showed a large opportunity gap when it came to reaching the South Asian customer, which we felt uniquely positioned to address and correct. We set out to develop a campaign to show this community how ShopRite appreciates the South Asian culture and preferences. Our objective was to create awareness of and affinity for ShopRite as a more diverse shopping destination, highlighting our products that were designed/procured for this audience. And drive an incremental penetration of 1% among the Asian community
To reach our goal, ShopRite embarked upon a partnership with Renascent Media to create a ShopRite branded Cooking Show to air across Indian television networks, Aapka Colors and Rishtey. Season one of ShopRite Cooking Star was then born! Our reality tv show featured contestants developing recipes with ingredients shopped at ShopRite, battling it out to be named the ShopRite Cooking Star Champion! Once episodes premiered on the network television stations, they then premiered online via the ShopRite YouTube channel, reaching an even wider audience.
ShopRite first examined procurement offerings to ensure that we had the right mix of products to serve the South Asian community as well as the Indian grocery stores we compete against for that customer’s business. Then, we reached out to our relevant vendor partners to offer them opportunities to sponsor episodes of ShopRite Cooking Star and be given prime product placement within that week’s cooking challenge. This way, we were able to secure funding for the show production and also ensure that ShopRite had the right mix of featured products to make the traditional Asian meals featured on the show.
Next, we found an innovative partner with Renascent Media, our partner agency that ensured our messaging was on brand and that our show would reach the target customer in an authentic and meaningful way. We worked together each step of the way to select the right talent and messaging for each episode, collaborating to ensure we created a final product that was culturally relevant and inherently watchable and fun!
Our internal Wakefern Grocery, Advertising, Media Buying, Social Media and Content Creation teams all came together flawlessly to rally around this project and make it a success across all key metrics and objectives.
ShopRite saw an immense and immediate impact of this campaign and its success. ShopRite Cooking Star was the third top rated show in its time slot, as compared to other shows on similar South Asian networks.
ShopRite Cooking Star Content on the ShopRite YouTube Channel saw 6.9MM+ Impressions, 2.5k Watch Hours and 186k Views, pushing our channel top of mind for a new audience and garnering thousands of new subscribers. In the 6 months after the ShopRite Cooking Star campaign wrapped, ShopRite basket size among Asian American shoppers increased by +4%. In the top-indexing South Asian stores, we saw +173% more sales YoY and +29.5% more trips YoY.
Above all our penetration among the Asian audience increased by 3.6%, well above our target of 1%
Our team felt the positive impact of a campaign that highlighted our commitment to diversity and inclusion of all of the different cultures that we serve. A neighborhood grocery store is meant to support and nourish its community, and we were glad to spread that message among the South Asian customer.
