BLOCK WISH

Short List
TitleBLOCK WISH
BrandHOK-ELANTO
Product/ServiceALEPA
Category B01. Local Brand
Entrant HOK-ELANTO Helsinki, FINLAND
Idea Creation SOK MEDIA Helsinki, FINLAND
Idea Creation 2 HOK-ELANTO Helsinki, FINLAND
Media Placement CARAT Helsinki, FINLAND
PR NETPROFILE FINLAND Helsinki, FINLAND
Production ACCENTURE Helsinki, FINLAND
Production 2 WÖRKS Helsinki, FINLAND
Production 3 BOUTIQUE Helsinki, FINLAND
Production 4 AVIDLY Helsinki, FINLAND
Additional Company TBWA\HELSINKI, FINLAND
Additional Company 2 S-GROUP Helsinki, FINLAND
Credits
Name Company Position
Janne Lehtinen SOK Media Head of Marketing Strategy
Annikki Rosander SOK Media Marketing Planner
Krista Pihlhjerta SOK Media Marketing Strategist
Teemu Äijälä SOK Media Design Principle
Tuomas Ahola HOK-Elanto Director, Communication and Marketing
Merja Mustonen HOK-Elanto Director of Alepa Chain
Jussi Lehtiniemi Accenture Technical Architect
Pinja Kuosmanen Accenture AI/ML Development
Tomas Linberg Accenture Head of Design
Arttu Laaksonen Accenture Sr. Technical Architect
Samu Teittinen Accenture Designer
Jaakko Veijola Wörks Senior Art Director
Minna Kommeri Wörks Creative
Paul Nyman Wörks Creative
Tuukka Sinisalo Wörks Creative
Mikko Airas Wörks Creative
Misha Lagerstedt Boutique CEO
Juha Halmesvaara Carat Finland Media Innovations Director
Kaisa Rissanen Carat Finland Account Manager
Kirsi Riipinen Carat Finland Operations Director
Juha Frey Netprofile CEO
Sallamaari Muhonen Netprofile Consultant
Jyrki Poutiainen TBWA\Helsinki Chief Creative Director
Joni Furstenborg TBWA\Helsinki Associate Creative Director
Erno Reinikainen TBWA\Helsinki Creative
Tuomas Perälä TBWA\Helsinki Creative

Summary

Alepa, a local convenience store owned by S-Group's local co-op HOK-Elanto, had dropped in its selection image from its main local competitor, K-Market. Alepa is chain operated and K- Market’s are owned by individual entrepreneurs, who have been receiving wishes for decades from their customers. It was imperative to make sure that decline would be stopped and every Alepa would mirror better its local needs in its selection. The race was not to make a wide selection of products possible, but the best fitted selection for just that area. Alepa had been doing this based on sales data previously, but no-one knew that. In 2016 Alepa started receiving wishes from local customers, but they were indefinite and the process was slow, and a bit old-fashioned. There was need for a speedier and more precise solution. We built a chatbot that was connected to realtime stock data of the whole S Groups wide selection and let people to wish these products to their local block stores. Chatbot was built to Facebook Messenger: it was an app already in use in every urban shoppers phones, so the Block Wish came a superhit with 150 000 separate wishes that were turned around to the store in 48-72 hours from the original wish. We were able to beat tour toughest competition in what they prized most: in personal service and selection image and Alepa sales increased continuously without lowering or discounting prices in heavily discount lead Finnish grocery market.

Please tell us about the brand in relation to the locality or market where the product / service is distributed

Finland is TV and Print heavy market with mobile oriented citizens with almost everybody using internet of the 5,5 million inhabitants. Trust in companies and government is high in Finland. Finnish grocery and convenience store market is divided between S-group (which Alepa is part of), Kesko and Lidl. S-group has 46% market share, Kesko 36% and Lidl 10%. The grocery market is 18 Billion Euro business yearly. Finnish market has been very price oriented ever since Lidl entered the market in 2002. Alepa as a local convenience store competes mainly against K-Market (part of Kesko), which is 4 times bigger in terms of market share. K-market has 11% market share and Alepa, operating only in the metropolitan area of Helsinki, a bit below 3%.