In the never-ending supermarket wars the challenge is simple. Get and keep customers coming through the door. But for many, groceries are groceries, and with little separating the two supermarket giants in Australia – Coles and Woolworths, it’s not surprising cross-shopping is high, and customer loyalty is low.

And for the brands caught in the middle, deep discounting just isn’t the solution to drive meaningful sales.

So how did one supermarket win the love of customers and produce an average sales up-lift of 19% for the brands involved?

Simple. They hired 5 new kids.

When the 360,000 One Direction Australian tour tickets sold out in less than five minutes, leaving tens of thousands of fans heartbroken, we created the opportunity of a lifetime for Coles to win the love of its customers.

A brand partnership with One Direction was struck that included unprecedented access to the band, use of its IP and the creation of an exclusive One Direction concert experience for 10,000 lucky Coles customers.

In one of the most seamlessly integrated content and advertising promotions ever created in Australia the campaign was launched through a comprehensive suite of paid, owned and earned media and amplified in a way only a partnership of this scale could enable.

Clever social media leverage, extensive TV content integration, in store Point of Sale, Catalogue marketing activity, an extensive PR strategy combined with a series of TV commercials and a broader print and digital campaign saw One Direction inviting Australia to take their chance, get in to Coles, buy selected brands and win tickets!

In the words of One Direction themselves:

“You can’t buy the tickets, but you can win them. Only at Coles.”

The impact of the promotion was immediate, with shoppers visiting and revisiting stores in droves to buy promotional products for a chance to see One Direction.

- A massive 19% average sales uplift for participating brands

- 1,517,029 unique website visits

- Media & publicity exposure worth over $15,000,000

Over 60 life-size POS items stolen from stores!

And an absolutely memorable afternoon for 10,000 fans that experienced the exclusive One Direction concert thanks to Coles.

This partnership truly generated the type of brand love that will linger in the hearts of today’s and tomorrow’s Coles’ customers for a lifetime.