Kraft Foods, winner of SN’s Product Innovation Award, has two products on SymphonyIRI Group’s “Rising Stars” list of the top 10 new food and beverages on their way to becoming the highest new revenue generators: MiO liquid water enhancer and Newton Fruit Thins.
The Campbell Soup Co. is making a splash with its Pepperidge Farm Goldfish Bread Packaging. The Packaging Innovation Award winner’s space-saving vessel is rigid enough to display upright on the shelf, creating a banner effect for bread in its iconic goldfish-shape.
Hershey’s is the winner of the Collaboration Award for its creation of a summertime candy season centered on s’mores. The supplier pairs its chocolate bars with Kraft’s Honey Maid graham crackers and Jet-Puffed marshmallows, and also allows retailers to incorporate store brands in the displays.
General Mills, which has been credited by retailers for reinventing key categories and providing strategies for improving shelf placement, is the winner of SN’s Category Management Award.
Coca-Cola Refreshments, a unit created from the merger of Coca-Cola and bottler Coca-Cola Enterprises, is being recognized with SN’s DSD Logistics Award for improving execution in inventory planning, transportation and delivery of more than 500 sparkling and still brands, and collaborating with individual retailers to identify optimal display size.
Acosta Sales & Marketing is being honored for excellence in Cause Marketing for the launch of its first Believe in Heroes campaign to raise awareness of the Wounded Warrior Project. Working with 50 client brands and 65 retailers, it raised $3.5 million last year and expects to hit $4 million this year.
PepsiCo is the winner of SN’s Support for Small Chains and Independents Award for its financial support of the National Grocers Association’s Executive Leadership Development Program that has trained more than 300 up-and-coming executives from independent retailers.
The winner of SN’s Community Outreach Award is Fresh Express for matching consumer donations that come in from a Text-to-Donate campaign it launched at Harris Teeter. The donations will bring daily access to fresh produce to thousands of schoolchildren.
P&G is being recognized with the Shopper Insights Award for its proactive approach to research that identified a barrier to trial of the Swiffer brand at Wal-Mart. Its subsequent aisle redesign that involved displaying products fully assembled boosted sales, and was rolled out nationwide and to additional chains.
ConAgra Foods’ third annual Meal Maker Challenge culminated at this Cooking Connection demo kitchen at H-E-B in Austin, Texas. ConAgra won the Integrated Marketing Award for its program that has both online and in-store elements and enlists local food bloggers to create recipes with featured ingredients
Enfamil maker Mead Johnson Nutrition is the winner of the Unsaleables Reduction Award. After learning that expired product is a large contributor to unsaleables, it began working with retailers to understand expiration dates, reassessed whether product should be sold in certain outlets and worked to extend the shelf life of its products via reformulation.
General Mills’ Progresso Recipe Starters feature QR codes that link to recipes which consumers can access while they are in the store. The manufacturer has won SN’s New Media Marketing Award for the innovation that’s lead to incremental sales for retailers.
A diversified product portfolio helped Hormel Foods win SN’s Executive Leadership Award. At a time when Center Store sales are slipping the manufacturer reported record earnings led by a 21% increase in dollar sales in the grocery product segment.
Turn Off the Tap is a program Unilever has launched with Wal-Mart to encourage Suave users to take shorter showers. The program that is helping reduce Unilever’s carbon footprint while saving Wal-Mart shoppers money, has earned the manufacturer the Supplier Leadership Sustainability Award.
For its advocacy of the Rapid Recall Exchange, PepsiCo is being recognized with the Food Safety Award. The manufacturer encourages suppliers to get on board with the web-based tool and provides tips and feedback for the benefit of the industry and consumers.
Point-of-sale merchandising programs customized for retailers like H-E-B, and featuring M&M'S newest character Ms. Brown, earned Mars Chocolate North America the POS Marketing Award. The chocolate maker partnered with the Texas-based retailer on excitement-inducing displays and a contest to win Texas-style boots and hats.