Tag Archives: hy-vee

Iowa-Based Grocer Hy-Vee Almost Hits a Mobile Home Run

QR Code Hit or Miss

← Back to Directory

 

Hy-Vee Curtis Stone Print Ad

Hy-Vee Curtis Stone Newspaper Insert

Hy-Vee grocery stores, one of the top 20 grocers in the United States with 232 stores in the Midwest, have recently launched a marketing campaign featuring Australian celebrity chef Curtis Stone. After a few weeks of preparatory TV ads, they launched the “Curtis Stone for Hy-Vee” campaign this week. The integrated campaign hit TV (see the TV spot here), web, print and — what concerns us here — mobile.

The mobile campaign was integrated with a newspaper print supplement that was found in the Des Moines Register on June 7th. Stone’s Grilled T-Bone Steak with Chimchurri Sauce recipe included a QR code. Scanning the code brought you to a mobile-optimized Hy-Vee website. Stone’s steak recipe was then available for review.

QR Code as Part of Newspaper Insert

Hits
What we liked about the mobile aspects of this campaign was how Hy-Vee hit the main points on the mobile site and used the QR code to full advantage. We’ve recently seen many QR code implementations that took the mobile user to a non-mobile site, which represents a complete failure to understand the mode of use and what the consumer will do with a QR code.

Misses
While we applaud Hy-Vee for at least bringing mobile users to a mobile-optimized site, the site itself didn’t take full advantage of the situation. Looking at the landing page (below left), the most prominent item is a request for feedback – not a marketing message tied in with Stone and his steak recipe. Also, the link to the recipe itself is the 4th item down the list.

There is also a “My Hy-Vee” page, which is apparently some type of log-in, but the mobile page itself provides no information whatsoever as to what the feature is and why I might want to use it.

Good mobile-optimized content.

Not so good home page call to action.

The Change Up
Our advice for the next round of Curtis Stone recipes is as follows:

  1. QR Code: Take the consumer directly to the Stone recipe featured
  2. Home Page: Don’t ask for feedback – sell something or ask for the consumer to sign up for something
  3. Add in a link to the associated Stone recipe commercial on the Hy-Vee YouTube account
  4. Put the Stone Recipe button at the Top
  5. Explain and promote “My Hy-Vee”
  6. Store Finder – upgrade to use HTML5 GeoLocation to suggest to the consumer where the closest store is located

These tweaks are just that – small changes to improve the already good mobile experience and make it great. As Jason Speros of Google says, with mobile you must “Iterate, Iterate, Iterate.” And we can hardly wait for the next recipe, Curtis…