Winning Campaign Leveraged Pandemic-Induced Grocery Shopping Trends, Including the Surge in Toilet Paper Spending, to Support Consumer Packaged Goods Industry

NCSolutions, the leading company for improving advertising effectiveness for the consumer packaged goods (CPG) ecosystem, and Feintuch Communications, a technology-focused public relations firm, won two national recognitions from the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) at the recent 2021 Silver Anvil Awards ceremony. 

Marketing Technology News: MarTech Interview with Tyler Lessard, VP Marketing at Vidyard

The two firms were honored by PRSA for their 2020 campaign entitled “Displaying Leadership in Consumer Packaged Goods Industry by Leveraging Nation’s Toilet Paper Crisis,” with a Silver Anvil (the organization’s highest national recognition) and the Audience Choice Award, both in the Integrated Communications, Business-to-Business category.

Since 1944, the Silver Anvil Awards have recognized outstanding public relations programs that successfully address challenging issues with exemplary professional skill, creativity and resourcefulness. Entries are accepted in 19 categories as well as a number of subcategories. Judges evaluate strategic programs based on sound insights and analysis, planning, execution and evaluation. Audience Choice Awards are voted on by a wide field of PR practitioners and marketers.

The NCSolutions and Feintuch Communications campaign leveraged NCS’s comprehensive consumer purchase  data–previously untapped as a marketing/PR asset–to help marketers make sense of the volatile and unpredictable COVID-19 marketplace. The team employed a variety of tactics to help inform the consumer packaged goods industry about buying surges, stockouts and other changes in consumer shopping behavior largely induced by the pandemic. These included data-centric press releases (and the creation of The National Toilet Paper Index); engaging and “sticky” infographics; an NCS COVID response website to host COVID-19 CPG content; an @Home with NCS video series featuring company executives sharing their expertise in their own words from their home offices; and broad consumer surveys revealing their reaction to the pandemic and the impact on their previously normal shopping habits.       

Marketing Technology News: Bridgeline Receives More than $2.5M in Warrant Exercises

“While the uncertainty was real and the marketplace was in flux, NCS responded as we know best, by using our comprehensive compilation of shopping and purchasing insights to make sense of pandemic consumer behavior. We set out to address one of the most pressing questions on CPG brands’ minds: Should our brand(s) advertise in this volatile and unpredictable market?” said Deirdre McFarland, senior vice president, Marketing, NCSolutions. “With insights at the core, we pivoted our marketing strategies to support the industry. This pivot kicked off a year-long series of integrated marketing and public relations activities that comprised our COVID-19 response marketing campaign that was honored by the PRSA.”

“NCS decided to share insights gleaned from its comprehensive shopper data that was previously untapped for marketing purposes, and only used to fuel NCS products and services. This decision to educate and help marketers plan their next steps was bold and helped to further position the company as a thought leader during an extremely unsettling period in the CPG industry and the world at large,” said Henry Feintuch, president, Feintuch Communications. “The campaign not only burnished NCSolutions’ credentials but helped drive an increase in overall revenue during a time when the advertising industry showed an overall decline. All of the campaigns and program elements were judged by a panel of industry judges comprised of experienced, senior level public relations practitioners, representing a broad range of disciplines.

Marketing Technology News: Campaign and Lead Management Hacks Every Leader Should Know