How McCain Owned the Freezer Aisle At Christmas
McCain launched a high-impact retail takeover at Woolworths to capture early holiday shoppers, resulting in over 40% new and reactivated customers nationwide.
New and reactivated customers
Of loyalty customers across the 100 stores were new or reactivated
New and reactivated customers across New Zealand
Campaign Background and Objectives
With customers planning their holiday celebrations as early as November, McCain aimed to capture early festive demand and own the frozen food category during the 2025 Christmas season through an unmissable retail media activation at Woolworths.
Drive Brand Ownership
Claim authority over the freezer aisle during the key festive shopping period.
Acquire & Reactivate Shoppers
Attract new customers to the McCain brand and re-engage lapsed buyers across both high-profile flagship locations and the wider store network.
Maximise Media ROI
Utilise high-impact, full-store and aisle-level touchpoints to drive measurable conversion at the point of purchase.
The Opportunity
Early Festive Intent: Shoppers are well into planning their Christmas celebrations in early December, opening a key window to capture mindshare before peak holiday traffic.
High-Impact Retail Experience: The complete store takeover at Woolworths Auckland Greenlane—featuring store wraps, a reindeer treasure hunt, and Christmas cheer—created the ideal environment to activate freezer aisle media and dominate the category.
The Solution
McCain launched a multi-tiered retail activation strategy centered around the Greenlane flagship store takeover and scaled nationwide:
Flagship Freezer Takeover (Auckland Greenlane): Dominating the aisle with an end-cap full wrap, high-visibility headers, floor decals, a custom extra-large runway floor decal, and freezer door media.
Nationwide Scale: Extending the high-impact crown end displays across 100 Woolworths stores.
The Results
The Greenlane store activation brought in nearly 55% new and reactivated customers to the advertised products, demonstrating the power of the immersive media footprint.
100-Store Crown End Reach: Almost 44% of loyalty customers engaged across the expanded store network were either new or reactivated.
Nationwide Success: Overall, the activation successfully delivered over 40% new and reactivated customers across New Zealand.
