Forecourt operators are getting match ready with their own promotions to entice fans watching the upcoming FIFA World Cup.
Goran Raven, who operates a Budgens/Shell site in Abridge, Essex, is launching a Score Big £10 “special bundle” of promoted items.
And Sewell on the go in Hull and East Yorkshire says it is giving fans “even more to cheer about” with an offer on Spanish lager Cruzcampo.
The announcements come days after research from advertising-tech firm The Trade Desk indicates that 60% of UK adults will follow the tournament, which is taking place in the USA, Canada and Mexico from June 11 to July 19, and 57% of those fans will buy food or drink to consume alongside matches.
Raven’s Budgens’ £10 deal includes Doritos 140g bags, an eight-pack of Coke, and four-packs of Amstel or Foster’s beer cans for as long as England is in the competition.
It will be promoted on Facebook and on media screens on its Tokheim Quantium pumps: a platform which Raven finds connects with customers.
An earlier long-term deal on these screens – in which customers spending £30 in the shop get 4p per litre off their next fuel purchase – has gone down well.
With a 14-day limit on buying the fuel, few end up redeeming their vouchers, but conversely many will top up their shops to hit the £30.
Raven hopes to appeal to families with the World Cup deal, and while he does not expect it to be a big profit earner in itself, he hopes that customers attracted by the offer will spend on other items, from the prominent BBQ display at the entrance, for example.
“We are looking at this as a football driver,” says Raven. “We’re not looking at great returns, although a lot of the products are on offer from Booker.
“We wanted to make the promotion family-friendly so that we are not just chasing the traditional beer drinking football customer.”
Sewell on the go’s 12 stores will promote the Cruzcampo 10-packs at £12 – a saving of over 20% off the rrp – from June 8 to July 19. Also, members of its newly-launched digital rewards scheme on the Lynked loyalty app will be given a discount of nearly 40%, with a price of just £10, as long as stocks last.
As with previous major football tournaments, the business encourages its store managers to have fun in store with displays and decorations to “create a real sense of excitement for customers”.
Sewell on the go will also be using its growing number of large external media screens, and till and pump screens to tell in-store customers about the deal, and encouraging increased footfall by using organic and paid social to reach a wider, targeted audience, alongside email marketing to reach over 1,000 active Sewell on the go Rewards new members: a number, it says, which is growing by the day.
With the games taking place in locations which are at least five hours behind UK time, Raven says it remains to be seen how some of the later and irregular-hour kick-offs will affect shop sales. But Sewell on the go expects to benefit from its 24-hour trading.
Its sales director, Katherine Batch says the business is using the event to say thank you to customers signing up to its loyalty card. “The World Cup is all about bringing people together, and we wanted to offer our customers a great-value deal on a fantastic, popular beer to help them make the most of every match,” she says.
