Albertsons highlights Own Brands via Pinterest

Albertsons Cos. has enlisted a new tool from social media platform Pinterest to highlight its roster of private-label products.

For seasonal promotions of its Own Brands offerings, Albertsons leveraged Pinterest Trends, a beta tool that provides of view of the top U.S. search terms on Pinterest in the previous 12 months. The ability to see when the top search terms peak gives the retailer a better idea of how content will perform, according to Pinterest.

To glean more insight on holiday food and beverage trends, Boise, Idaho-based Alberts developed a Pinterest campaign to spur in-store sales for relevant Own Brand products, which include more than 150 seasonal items and ultra-premium offerings. The initiative included 10 standard and three video Pins each for Halloween, Thanksgiving and Holiday to offer fun, holiday-themed food and drink ideas to party planners and cooks. The campaign ran from October to the end of the year.

"Albertsons shoppers want to stay ahead of the curve when it comes to new and exciting trends. We believe Pinterest is the perfect platform to inspire shoppers with a new take on holiday classics as they plan for the season,” Chad Coester, senior vice president of Own Brands at Albertsons Cos., said in a statement.

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The grocer partnered with Pinterest and Atrium from the Pin Collective, a network of expert content creators, to devise seasonal content reflecting the top food and beverage trends for Halloween, Thanksgiving and Holiday.

Albertsons created standard and video Pins for Halloween, Thanksgiving and Holiday with ideas for using its Own Brand products in seasonal celebrations. (Photo courtesy of Pinterest)

Adding a twist to traditional foods, the series of standard and video Pins spotlighted products such as Lucerne Eggnog, Open Nature Pecans, Primo Tagio Cheese and others, combining them in new ways for creative side dishes, cocktails, desserts and snacks, Pinterest said. All of the Pins featured the Pinterest trend badge, a small graphic that helps Pinners see that they’re onto the next big thing.

To gauge the campaign’s impact, Albertsons conducted an in-store sales lift study for the various Pins created, Pinterest noted. They included “Terrifying Treats” (yielding a sales lift of 65%), “Spiderweb Brownies” ( 65%), “Pumpkin & Eggnog Alcohol Drinks” ( 154%), “Christmas Desserts” ( 229%), “Friendsgiving Party Ideas” ( 475%) and “Holiday Grazing Tables” ( 500%).

Pinterest added that because of the strong results, Albertsons already has started a similar campaign for 2020 that aligns with the updated crop of this year’s holiday trends.

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“Using Pinterest Trends online and in-store enables Own Brands to be top-of-mind in a truly innovative way,” according to Coester.

Albertsons also plans a sharper-than-usual focus on its private labels in January, which is Own Brands Month at the retailer. The company said that since many consumers turn to healthier fare coming out of the holiday season, it aims to heighten awareness of its O Organics and Open Nature, including such products as gluten-free Open Nature baking mixes, high-protein Open Nature Scandal-less ice cream, and grass-fed O Organics beef jerky, among other items.

Albertsons’ Own Brands portfolio now encompasses about 11,000 items and has 10 primary brands, with four — Lucerne, O Organics, Signature and Signature Café — topping $1 billion in annual sales. In fiscal 2019, more than 800 new Own Brands products are slated to be added.

Overall, the retailer operates 2,262 food and drug stores across 34 states and the District of Columbia under banners such as Albertsons, Safeway, Vons, Pavilions, Randalls, Tom Thumb, Carrs, Sav-On, Jewel-Osco, Acme, Shaw's, Star Market, United Supermarkets, Market Street, Amigos, Haggen and United Express.