Tuesdata: Woolworths wins the engagement battle as Coles returns to the red hand

BY Tim Burrowes

September 19, 2023 12:04

Welcome to Tuesdata, our weekly analysis for Unmade’s paying members.

Today, we examine the supermarket shopping battleground using data from Nielsen’s Ad Intel, Ipsos’s Iris onine audience measurement service and Canda Media Intelligence.

Further down, Southern Cross Austereo outperforms the rest of the Unmade Index.

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How Woolworths is leading the engagement battle

Woolworths is outspending its biggest rival Coles and continuing to attract the greatest digital engagement in the supermarket sector, our analysis of the latest data suggests.

Over the last six months, data on digital engagement from the monthly Ipsos survey has shown Woolworths’ digital reach move past 12m consumers per month. That includes via the brand website and the Woolworths Everyday Rewards app where consumers can find discounts and respond to points promotions.

Woolworths had 12.3 million visitors in July, followed by Coles with 9.6 million. Aldi was some way back on 2.9 million.

Meanwhile, Nielsen Ad Intel’s monitoring of the wider retail sector shows Woolworths as the top spending supermarket brand and third overall in the sector during the first six months of this year. Coles was ninth.

Woolworths and Coles made it into the rankings for H1 2023’s top advertisers | Source: Nielsen Ad Intel

Coles has since unleashed a burst of activity, with the return of its iconic red hand.

Coles, via its in-house Omnicom-led agency Smith St, returned to the ‘Hands Down’ messaging last month as it shifted emphasis to messages around competitive pricing.

Media monitoring by Canda Media Intelligence suggests that Coles had a bigger TV buy than Woolworths in the major metro markets of Sydney and Melbourne.

February was Woolworths’ big TV month with Canda estimating it spent just over $600,000 in Sydney and a similar amount in Melbourne.

Canda’s data suggests that Woolworths has outspend Coles in radio in both markets.

In print advertising, Canda estimates Coles spent $1.4m in Sydney and Melbourne over the last six months while it says Woolworths spent around $600,000.

According to Canda, the single ad with the biggest budget behind it was Woolworths’ ‘get your Woolies worth’ spot that sung the praises of Woolworths’ low price home brands and winter favourites. Airing since May, it’s the single supermarket ad with the most spend behind it since January 2020.

https://youtu.be/LuEL4pg_Lmk

Unmade Index ticks upwards

The Unmade Index rose by 0.33% yesterday, taking it back up to 625.9 points yesterday.

Southern Cross Austereo had a much better day, rising 5.56%, while Nine scored a 1% lift in share price. ARN Media rose 0.62%.

Enero Group had the worst day, falling 2.67% while printing and marketing firm IVE Group dropped 2.06%. Seven West Media dropped 1.54% while out of home minnow Motio fell 6.25%.