Star-studded Aisles: Hy-Vee scores with celebrity influencers
By Gretchen Teske – Quad City Times, Davenport, Iowa (TNS)
Editor’s note: This story is part of a series that ran in Insight magazine looking at how several Iowa and Illinois companies use influencer marketing.
Hy-Vee advertises that it has a helpful smile in every aisle, but there are familiar faces advertising the products, too.
The Iowa-based grocery store chain is not new to the world of influencer-marketing, where people help promote the products beyond traditional advertising methods.
“We have dabbled with influencers for a long time,” said Sara Canady, a marketing specialist for the company. “We obviously see this as a big growth area, and we have built an internal team dedicated to influencer marketing over this last year because it is such a growing area and we see so much potential within that area.”
The world has taken notice as well. Forbes reported the global affiliate marketing industry is expected to be worth $40 billion by 2030, while the overall creator economy is expected to be worth $480 billion by 2027 — almost double its worth from last year.
Mahomes Magic Crunch
Patrick Mahomes, quarterback for the Kansas City Chiefs, also appeared on a cereal box for Hy-Vee.
“We work with higher-profile influencers like some of our sports partners, Caitlin Clark and Patrick Mahomes. We’ve worked with Andrew Zimmerman in doing some content in the culinary space,” she said. “But we also work with the mid-tier kind of influencers that really do go out and do ‘Shop with me at Hy-Vee’ (content).”
Hy-Vee’s roots with social media marketing stretch back to 2011, when it began featuring celebrity chef Curtis Stone in commercials. In 2019, Hy-Vee expanded its reach further by partnering with Oprah Winfrey for a commercial during the Superbowl.
Caitlin’s Crunch Time
Iowa’s Caitlin Clark graced the cover of Caitlin’s Crunch Time, a limited time cereal offered by Hy-Vee.
Since then, Hy-Vee has not let up on the gas and is increasing its efforts and narrowing its focus on success. When it comes to utilizing influencers, Canady said engagement with the posts is the company’s top priority.
With the help of celebrity influencers, especially those with regional ties, the generated content is virtually a slam-dunk when it comes to getting customers excited about new products.
“Whenever we run collaboration posts with Caitlin Clark, there’s huge numbers that we’re seeing aligning with their brands to get the messages out through their following,” Canady said.
In October 2021, when Clark was a sophomore at the University of Iowa, she signed a three-year NIL deal with Hy-Vee to promote some of her go-to items. One of the campaigns was for HyChi, the brand’s Chinese take-out.
Canady said Hy-Vee knows HyChi is popular among college students, making Clark a natural fit to be featured in that campaign. When it comes to fitting other celebrities into partnerships, she said, it comes down to who they are individually.
Clark
Caitlin Clark, the Iowa standout and women’s basketball phenomenon, poses with her cereal, Caitlin’s Crunch Time, in a partnership with Hy-Vee.
Focusing on the community and supporting nonprofits is a goal for Hy-Vee and the celebrities it works with. Hy-Vee has taken its influencers directly to customers choosing items off the shelves by creating cereals around them.
Travis Kelce’s cereal, Kelce’s Krunch, was available at select stores in the Kansas City area. A percentage of the proceeds from the sale benefitted his nonprofit, the Eighty-Seven and Running Foundation. Mahomes was on the Mahomes Magic Crunch box, with a portion of those proceeds benefitting the 15 and the Mahomies Foundation and Clark was featured on Caitlin’s Crunch Time, with proceeds benefitting the Caitlin Clark Foundation.
Sales are a definite benefit to adding influencers into the mix, Canady said, but measuring success varies depending on the product, and the person promoting it.
Kelce’s Krunch
Kansas City Chiefs’ tight end Travis Kelce poses with a box of his cereal, Kelce’s Krunch.
“I would say each campaign is a little bit different, but we’re looking at impressions, we’re looking at reach, we’re looking at engagements, click-through rates if there’s something we’re trying to drive in particular,” she said. “If there is a sale component where they’re pushing something in particular, we can look and see what the sales look like during that time frame.”
While the high-profile names are sure to bring in big numbers, Hy-Vee also promotes with influencers who have a more moderate, but still strong, follower range on their social media profiles.
“We have influencers that range from 25,000 followers up to one million,” she said. “Our average is around the 300,000 range, so it’s definitely people with a large following and they are within our trade territory.”
Canady said the brand strives to find people authentically shopping in Hy-Vee stores, because consumers are gravitating toward creators who are everyday people and share their experiences.
KC Wolf
KC Wolf performs prior to an NFL Divisional Playoff game against the Jacksonville Jaguars, Saturday, January 21, 2023 in Kansas City.
“The celebrities are great, too, and we love to partner with those individuals, but there’s additional opportunity too with those influencers who are living and shopping with us all the time,” she said. “They just bring different audiences and different following.”
Hy-Vee is looking to grow in the social media realm and has created a new program where members of the public can sign up to become ambassadors for the brand, talking about their experiences and promoting products as well.
Individuals in the program are not branded as influencers, nor do they see themselves as influencers, Canady said. Instead, they’re just regular people who enjoy the products and want to share them.
Kelce’s Krunch
Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs is one of multiple celebrities Hy-Vee has partnered with over the years.
The products or services being promoted vary as well. Most of the time the products are Hy-Vee branded, Canady said, but the promotion has also featured meal packs around the holidays, grab-and-go meals offered in-store and the perks program where customers can earn points for purchasing specific products.
People in the program are given free products every month via their perks card. They then go into Hy-Vee and create related content using their products. Everything from purchasing fall mums to decorating a front porch to picking up Hy-Vee branded products to create a crockpot meal has been done, she said.
“It’s more about scale of message and getting that many more people out there talking about the brand,” she said. “We are really looking to grow that. We have been piloting this over the past few months, but we’re really excited about the potential with that group as well.”
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