Want to immerse yourself in the captivating interplay of food, culture, and innovative commerce? We've got your playlist right here. Today, we're unraveling the sensation caused by supermarket chain Albertsons and YouTuber Mr Beast. The duo's remarkable feat of cohabitation with a Safeway store for 45 rip-roaring days gave birth to an unprecedented charity drive, gaining over 90 million YouTube views and donating a whopping $450,000 worth of goods. But that's not all! Albertsons decided to break new ground, embarking on a journey into the metaverse, making them the first grocer to sell and deliver real-life products in this digital wonderland. We also glance at other retail giants like Kroger, Publix, and Walmart, who are also marking their territory in this virtual realm.
We discuss Jeff Bezos and his Future Earth Fund's endeavor to tackle the food and climate crisis. We also steer the #FoodNotPhones conversation towards a pressing issue - binge eating and its ties with childhood experiences, stressing the urgent need for more data and awareness. Finally, we journey back in time to the iconic Heinz Ketchup campaign and its enchanting use of Carly Simon's "Anticipation". And yes, we critique the company's new "Slowmaster 57" campaign too. So gear up for a rollercoaster ride through the food industry's latest trends and traverses. It's more than just a podcast; it's an expedition through the ever evolving world of food, philanthropy, and marketing.
Want to immerse yourself in the captivating interplay of food, culture, and innovative commerce? We've got your playlist right here. Today, we're unraveling the sensation caused by supermarket chain Albertsons and YouTuber Mr Beast. The duo's remarkable feat of cohabitation with a Safeway store for 45 rip-roaring days gave birth to an unprecedented charity drive, gaining over 90 million YouTube views and donating a whopping $450,000 worth of goods. But that's not all! Albertsons decided to break new ground, embarking on a journey into the metaverse, making them the first grocer to sell and deliver real-life products in this digital wonderland. We also glance at other retail giants like Kroger, Publix, and Walmart, who are also marking their territory in this virtual realm.
We discuss Jeff Bezos and his Future Earth Fund's endeavor to tackle the food and climate crisis. We also steer the #FoodNotPhones conversation towards a pressing issue - binge eating and its ties with childhood experiences, stressing the urgent need for more data and awareness. Finally, we journey back in time to the iconic Heinz Ketchup campaign and its enchanting use of Carly Simon's "Anticipation". And yes, we critique the company's new "Slowmaster 57" campaign too. So gear up for a rollercoaster ride through the food industry's latest trends and traverses. It's more than just a podcast; it's an expedition through the ever evolving world of food, philanthropy, and marketing.
Welcome to the Lempert Report LIVE. Albertsons' bold moves, and this time it's not about Kroger. Amazon's new delivery fee could be the beginning of the end of delivery, maybe? Jeff Bezos directs the Future of Food. On Food not Phones,
Phil:it happens to all be about our childhood. And on the bullseye, Heinz yearns for the days of Carly Simon. Let's get started. So, sally.
Phil:When we take a look at what's going on at Albertsons these days, lots of excitement is happening. First up, what they've done, which is really kind of cool, Mr Beast, Jimmy Donaldson. What they did is a joint promotion where they took a contestant who received $10,000 for every day. He was able to live alone inside a fully stocked Safeway grocery store and what he had to do as part of this is come up with $10,000 worth of stuff in the supermarket to give each day to a charity. So he got $10,000, and then he takes the stuff from the shelves and the aisles, gives it away to charity. I would love this job. What he did is he set up living quarters, created a makeshift shower, operated a forklift, built a swimming pool, drove a go-kart through a wall of cheese balls. And the great news for Safeway and Albertsons, they have over 90 million views on YouTube for it. They gave $450,000 of groceries, electronics and other goods to charity. I absolutely love this and in fact, this past Friday, on Bill Maher's show on HBO, Maher talked about Jimmy Donaldson and the great stuff that he's doing.
Phil:There's been some controversy, some fools, if you would, that are out there on the internet blaming Mr Beast for giving away money to different charities. We should celebrate him, regal in his largeness, for charity, with everything that he's doing. He is terrific, a terrific role model. We need more of people like him and I just think that this is so cool that he and Albertsons are doing this promotion. Forget about all the great PR Albertsons is getting. I just think it's a fun thing and I just wish they would have called me to do it. Yeah, to be the person not to be Mr Beast, but to be the person who lives in a supermarket for 30 days.
Sally:Well, I'll take either Phil, but yes, and you know Alex, who is the young man who stayed in the store. He stayed for 45 days, which is really, really amazing. It's a wonderful campaign. For me, this is right on track with lots of brands that are embracing joy as a concept, and spreading joy is something that people are receiving really well, so this is a very happy campaign and it also raises money for a much needed cause, Absolutely.
Phil:So good for him. Another story about Albertsons. Albertsons hey, Albertsons is copying what we did 16 years ago. 16 years ago, you know, on Second Life we created Phil's Supermarket, as you know, the first virtual metaverse supermarket ever. Very proud of what we did. It was very cool. Obviously, you know, as you see, the animatics here wasn't as cool as it is today, 16 years later, the AI and the IT has really progressed meaningfully. But kudos to Albertsons because now what they've done, starting on Cyber Monday back then, they started selling and delivering real products in the metaverse to customers. Now they're the first grocer to actually do that and they offered signature select pretzels, peanut butter cups and a six pack of mini Cokes for a buck, with free delivery. They showcased the deal throughout the metaverse to get more people to do it, and all you had to do is take your time in real life, not in Second Life, and click a QR code on the billboards and then that you could have these products delivered to you within 45 minutes. And you know, I love the fact that Albertsons is doing it.
Phil:We know that Kroger, in one of our previous webcasts with the folks at Kroger, talked about getting involved in the metaverse. I don't know what involvement Kroger's had in this, but clearly we're moving forward. We're seeing Publix, we're seeing Walmart also experimenting in the metaverse and what I wanted to quote, William White, who's Walmart's chief marketing officer, was interviewed on CNBC about the metaverse and I love the questions that he posed that they're asking themselves. Number one how are we driving relevance in cultural conversation and keep in mind, this is Walmart. Number two how are we developing community and engagement? Number three how are we moving the needle from brand favorability with younger audiences? And he wrapped it up by saying that's what we're trying to accomplish here. It's a huge step forward. We haven't heard a lot about the metaverse, probably for the past year, year and a half, but we clearly have a lot of people working on it behind the scenes.
Phil:According to McKinsey and Company, by 2030, metaverse could generate $5 trillion in impact, 2.6 trillion affecting e-commerce. So what do you think? Would you shop on Safeways or Kroger's metaverse?
Sally:100%, and I am not a tech driven personality at all I'm pretty old school in almost every way but this sounds really cool to me because what they're doing is bridging the gap between a shopping experience in person and a digital experience at the convenience of that. So I really like what they're doing here. Some of the things I've read recently about tech and social media trends for 2024, they're telling us that we're not quite there yet, with the metaverse being huge and widespread, but we are still inching our way towards it, and so it will be great to see Albertson's results getting into the metaverse and being the first supermarket to try this.
Phil:And going back to our webcast now, probably year and a half, two years ago, on the metaverse, we had Bill Gillespie from Microsoft on it. We had Wesley Rhodes, who's the chief innovation officer from Kroger on it, and what Rhodes had done is he really talked about what he wanted to do is have an experience where a shopper could identify the attributes that they want. So I want to eat healthy, I want to eat Italian, I have one or two food allergies, I want to save money, I want to cook at home, whatever those attributes are. And then when I go into the metaverse, all that I'm going to see are products that meet that criteria. So, unlike a traditional supermarket, traditional Kroger, that might have already 50,000 SKUs in it, I'm just going to see the ones that meet my criteria. And yes, some people might say, well, you're getting rid of the impulse shopping, but something, if I've got a shopping list of 25 products and I walk up and down the aisles and I have to pass by 40,000 products, I'm not getting any impulse buys there. But really to be able to immerse myself into that kind of experience would be fabulous. I agree with you. So, as we talk about technology, we'd be remiss to not talk about Amazon.
Phil:Amazon announced just last week what I think is going to be the death of grocery delivery. Amazon has announced that in Denver, Colorado, and Sacramento, California, and Columbus, Ohio, what they're doing for Amazon Prime members. These are those of us that are spending $139 a year to be a member of Amazon Prime. I never use my books or my music that they send me, but I do get pre-delivery For $9.99 a month on top of the $139 a year. They're now going to offer free grocery delivery. This, to me, is the stupidest thing I've ever seen Amazon do. So you can get unlimited grocery delivery on orders over $35 from Whole Foods or Amazon Fresh, or you could get a limited 30-minute grocery pickup. I mean, grocery pickup is free anyway. I mean, what's the big deal there? And I just think that Amazon is blowing it, because what it's doing is it's going to get people more upset about it.
Phil:And grocery delivery nobody makes money on grocery delivery. No retailer makes money on grocery delivery. I'm not sure Instacart or Shipt makes any money on it either, when we look at Instacart's IPO filings and everything else that we hear from them. They're making money on advertising. They're making money on their services. Two retailers are not making any money on grocery delivery. What this points out to me is that these companies are saying we don't want to do grocery delivery, and I'm not sure that the average person yes, they're people who can't leave their homes that must have delivery because of health reasons or whatever else yes, and they should get it free. You shouldn't have to pay for it. But you know, this just to me is a boondoggle. What do you think?
Sally:Yes, it is concerning and I take issue mostly with the fact, Phil, that I'm very unclear of what Amazon is going to charge me if I order groceries from them. Take, for example I'm not a regular. I am an Amazon user, not Amazon Fresh. So this morning I ordered some things from Amazon Fresh and you know what we thought was okay, you have to spend $150 to get free delivery, and then there was an announcement that they moved that to $100. Well, today, when I went on to buy mine, that minimum was $50 to get free delivery, but on top of that there was a $7 service fee in there, and then there was also my gratuity, because I always want to, you know, take care of the delivery workers. So what's unclear to me is you know, if I have an Amazon Prime membership for $139 a year. You know what am I getting with that and what are these fees going to be? Because it's not clear.
Phil:Yeah, it's not clear. I think that you know. Let's just wipe our hands of this whole thing, get rid of grocery delivery. We don't need it. You know, when I was growing up, my parents went to the supermarket and if there were a lot of things, you know, somebody would deliver it an hour later. Whatever else, you gave the guy a tip, that was it. Let's go back to that. This is getting absurd. And you look at the probably hundreds of millions of dollars that have been wasted in grocery delivery or 15-minute fast delivery. Enough. We hereby decreeing that grocery delivery is dead. In the US at least.
Phil:Jeff Bezos is doing some really cool things. It's really the Bezos Earth Fund that he has funded. It's not necessarily him. Dr Andrew Steer, who is the president and CEO of the Bezos Earth Fund, has announced $57 million in food-related grants to tackle threats of climate change and biodiversity loss. They've committed actually $1 billion to tackling the food system's impact on climate and nature. What Steer has said, and I quote "we cannot afford for food to be on the sidelines of climate and nature conversations any longer. Food is a victim problem, a solution in the climate and nature crisis, and we must raise its profile in the discussion and for the Bezos Earth Fund. I think that more efforts like this certainly Bill Gates and the Gates Foundation has been working on food for over a decade. At this point, they've done some great work, bezos doing great work. This is what we need if we're really going to solve the food and climate crisis.
Sally:Yes, this is really good news to see what the Bezos Earth Fund is doing and how they are looking to reduce methane emissions through livestock by feeding them a better diet that will reduce those emissions. They're looking at soil health. They're looking at limiting deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon, which is one of our most important ecosystems in the world. This is very good news to see all of this happening. What I think is important to point out is that when we see the Bezos Earth Fund coming from Jeff Bezos, a fund that he started, being that he is a billionaire, a big business owner. His company is responsible for a lot of shipping and production and things that affect our climate, it is the ethical thing to do, I think, for these companies to get involved in some way to help raise awareness, raise money and help fix our planet.
Phil:I agree with you. I think that Bezos, I think that Gates have really done a great job. I think that Warren Buffett has. There's also a whole bunch of other billionaires out there who are wasting money on buying social media platforms and then destroying them. Maybe give yo our food supply some of that money, instead of wasting $44 billion on Twitter to see it, whatever. Okay, let's move on to #FoodNotPhones.
Phil:There's a new study out that talks about how our childhood experiences are affecting binge eating. What's important about this, and important on everything that we do with #FoodN ot Phones, is to bring it back to what are the causes of, in this case, binge eating. What the study is finding is a lot of those instances where people have positive childhood experiences, or what they call PCEs, affect us later in life. One of those that they talk about, or a couple of them that they talk about, are positive interactions with parents and caregivers, feelings of relational and internal safety, enjoyment of pleasurable and predictable quality of life. Hey, this is about meal times. It's about eating together. It's about enjoying each other and putting down those phones, don't you think?
Sally:Absolutely. This is very important research. There are so many other things we've discussed that support this. We've talked about Dan Buetner and how he talks about people who live the longest, share their food with their friends and their families and have this community experience. It's not surprising to see research like this. We also have to think about children that are raised in food insecure homes and what types of struggles and challenges come with that, what types of depression come with that all things that can lead to unhealthy eating patterns.
Phil:Absolutely. We really need to have more of this data in the hands of our food companies, in our retailers hands than ever before. Again, don't forget, for more information, go to www. FoodNotPhones. com. We'll post this survey, this study, on FoodNotPhones. com as well and always be looking for updates there about our campaign and what we're doing to help getting rid of those phones. Thanks, Sally.
Phil:On the Bullseye, the Heinz Ketchup campaign featuring Carly Simon's song Anticipation is a classic example of a perfect harmony between product marketing and popular culture. Reached in the 1970s, this campaign used the hit song to underline the thick, rich texture of Heinz Ketchup, emphasizing that good things like Heinz Ketchup pouring out of the bottle are worth waiting for. The choice of Carly Simon's anticipation was inspired, as the song was already popular and its lyric resonated well with the message that Heinz wanted to convey. Now the results of the campaign were phenomenal. It's not only cemented Heinz's brand identity as a premium product, but it also showcased the power of combining popular music with advertising. The slow pour of the ketchup accompanied by the song created a memorable and enduring image in the minds of viewers and consumers. Now. This campaign was so successful that it ran for years and is still thought of as one of the most iconic ad campaigns ever, especially for food.
Phil:The Heinz Ketchup anticipation campaign is a case study in marketing excellence, which is why I guess that the folks at Heinz is trying to recreate that success by launching its new campaign, the Slowmaster 57. Now it's hard to believe, but it's, according to the company, the first ketchup racetrack. Adam Driver and the rest of the cast of Ferrari have nothing to worry about, I'm afraid the Slowmaster is inspired by, again according to the company, a machine that's in every Heinz Ketchup factory across the world that evaluates the thickness and consistency of every batch of their ketchup. Machines like this, by the way, as this one is described, are used in just about every food manufacturing facility to verify its product's quality control. So for this Heinz faux grand prix, they've developed a miniature model of the 'quantifier' machine, that's what it's called, where consumers can run their own slowness test. It's like a game, Heinz says, with a ramp that's built at a gradient of 45 degrees over a 20 centimeter track. Now, 20 centimeters, that's just a little over 7 inches and measures the speed of the ketchup, which, by the way, according to the company, cannot exceed 0.028 miles per hour. Now, that's the maximum speed allowed to qualify to be Heinz Ketchup. I guess in the factories there's like slow signs or stop signs that are there. Limited editions of the Speedway are available on e-commerce sites and gaming cafes.
Phil:Now to me it looks like a slide from a Barbie set. It's just red instead of pink and it seems to me it's an instance of yet another brand manager or PR person who just doesn't get it. Yes, they're going to get some publicity after all, we're talking about it here but the difference between this campaign and anticipation is about emotion and having a mouth-watering image on screen. Watching the TV spot made me and millions others yearn for the Heinz Ketchup this campaign. It has no emotion.
Phil:There's nothing like the original campaign and the idea of pouring ketchup down a plastic slide, well, that's just silly. It's unappetizing and, by the way, it makes a mess for somebody to clean up. Oh wait, remember the spike you had from a random shot of Times Woman of the Year combining ketchup and ranch dressing in a football game? That was emotion, humanity, taste. That's still ketchup, not a plastic ramp. Throw away the slow master and bring back Carly Simon if you really want to increase sales and desire in what's a rather boring category. Thanks for joining us and we'll see you back here next week.
Sally:Be sure to visit SupermarketG uru. com for the latest marketing analysis, issues and trends, and don't forget to join us back here next Tuesday at 2:30 pm Eastern for more.