What subject matter could be common to a kids’ weekend birthday party and discussion among pointy-headed financial analysts or grandparents at the bridge club?
It is the Ooshie effect – the latest Woolworths collectables campaign. These kinda creepy little plastic figures based on pop culture and movie characters and gifted to shoppers after a minimum spend, have been forecast to add up to 4 percentage points to Woolworths’ outperformance of supermarket arch-rival Coles during July and August.
In absolute dollar terms the Woolworths sales boost over the six weeks could run to $100 million, according to some experts.
Exactly how much this campaign will translate into sales dollars for Woolworths will be revealed next week when it provides an update on July and August sales alongside its annual result.
But it represents a juicy sugar hit for Woolworths sales for the six-week duration.
There is a storied history of our supermarket giants using collectable promotions to pull in shoppers, including a 2020 Ooshie campaign, and the Stikeez suction sticking fruit and vegetables with legs that Coles promoted after its enormous success in 2018 with its Little Shop collectables (which were plastic replicas of supermarket items).
During its Little Shop campaign Coles reported a quarterly sales rise of 5.1 per cent – a huge spike on the 1.8 per cent, 0.9 per cent, 1.3 per cent and 0.3 per cent growth in the previous four quarters.
The latest Ooshies promo appears wildly successful and the industry feedback also suggests there has been a marked change in supermarket sales performance between Woolworths and Coles since the commencement of the Ooshies campaign in mid-July, according to Citi retail analyst Adrian Lemme.
Woolworths has also said it will run out of Ooshies by the end of this week, and the analysts noted a recent surge in Google searches for the collectables.
Not all supermarket collectable campaigns go viral or trigger the equivalent of prepubescent Hunger Games.
But Ooshies tap into some particular marketing wizardry.
Firstly, the campaign leverages the phenomenal pull of kid pester power. Even in a cost of living crisis, parents will succumb to a persistently begging child to shop at a particular supermarket.
The second piece of genius is allowing eligibility to be tied to a minimum spend (in the case of the latest Ooshie campaign it’s $30).
Thus, the shopper basket sizes will be boosted to qualify for the plastic figurines.
And then there is the fact that the actual Ooshie is hidden behind wrapping, so the child gets the additional sugar hit of anticipation – and the potential letdown of receiving an Ooshie already in their collection.
Another psychological factor is the introduction of competition between kids over who has scored a limited-edition character (like the Flocked Bullseye or the Platinum Buzz Lightyear) or who is first to complete the set.
But the real marketing beauty is that kids will push their parents to shop at Woolworths to complete the collection. So, Woolworths get the bonus of larger basket size and greater shopping frequency.
And then there is the multiplier effect of kids pestering their grandparents to shop at Woolworths.
Woolworths has even set up swap days in supermarkets, so kids can get rid of duplicates and move closer to set completion. Outside the supermarket, online swap forums abound, with some enterprising Ooshie sellers putting price tags of hundreds or even thousands of dollars on the figures. (That said, there is no evidence of someone paying those dollars.)
And of course, this involves an additional trip to Woolworths for mum or dad.
But what about the post-Ooshie hangover, or the prospect that the Woolworths July and August rush is unsustainable?
History shows that supermarket shoppers are not particularly sticky. So when pushy Ooshie kids disappear, supermarkets’ marketing departments will need to go back to their drawing boards.
The Business Briefing newsletter delivers major stories, exclusive coverage and expert opinion. Sign up to get it every weekday morning.
From our partners
About the Author
