AWG Brands, the private label brands of Associated Wholesale Grocers Inc., was named a 2023 gold winner in the National Frozen & Refrigerated Foods Association’s (NFRA) Golden Penguin Awards competition for Best Private Brand Campaign.
During the NFRA Convention on Oct. 10 in San Diego, California, AWG Brands was awarded for having the best marketing and merchandising efforts in support of the NFRA’s March Frozen Food Month. The Private Brand Campaign category requires competitors to create a sustained marketing campaign utilizing multiple forms of digital or print communications or in-store execution.
“Frozen food is one of the fastest growing and evolving categories,” said Tye Anthony, vice chairman – frozen for NFRA and SVP of merchandising for AWG. “We are constantly looking for new ways to grow AWG Brands in this category. By supporting the NFRA and March Frozen Food Month, we are showcasing the convenience and benefits of the AWG Brands frozen food products to consumers.”
The winning AWG Brands campaign, Frozen Food Madness, was a digital bracket challenge featuring Best Choice Family of Brands that allowed consumers to fill in their predictions. The bracket matched multiple Best Choice Family of Brands frozen food products against each other. Consumers chose which products would win each matchup, resulting in one product winning the Frozen Food Madness campaign.
The bracket was provided to consumers through the Best Choice Family of Brands bimonthly email and posted on the Best Choice Family of Brands Facebook and Instagram pages.
Voting for a product winner was conducted on the Best Choice Family of Brands Facebook and Instagram pages. A matchup between two of the Best Choice Family of Brands products would be posted every couple of days. Consumers voted for their favorite product by commenting on the post which product they preferred. The product that received the most votes on Facebook and Instagram combined would advance to the next round.
Best Choice Frozen Peach Cobbler, a newer item to the Best Choice Family of Brands product line, won the Frozen Food Madness campaign, which was an organic marketing campaign.
The Best Choice Family of Brands Facebook account had a 2.58 percent increase in post engagement compared with February 2023. The Best Choice Family of Brands Instagram account also had an increase of 1.25 percent in the same timeframe. Large matchups, such as breakfast items, desserts and ice creams, received the most engagement with likes, comments and impressions.
“We saw many spirited interactions between the consumers and increased engagement when they tagged each other in the comments,” said Rachel Corkill, AWG Brands senior marketing specialist. “We look forward to bringing back the Frozen Food Madness campaign in 2024 as we continue to support Frozen Food Month and the NFRA mission.”
About Associated Wholesale Grocers
Kansas City, Kansas-based Associated Wholesale Grocers Inc. is the nation’s largest cooperative food wholesaler to independently owned supermarkets, serving 1,100 member companies and more than 3,400 locations throughout 31 states from 9 wholesale divisions. Consolidated sales for AWG are $12.3 billion. In addition to its cooperative wholesale operations, the company also operates subsidiary companies that provide certain real estate and supermarket development services, health and beauty care, general merchandise, pharmaceutical products, specialty foods, and natural and organic products.
Read more frozen food news at The Shelby Report.
