• by Sarah Mahoney  @mahoney_sarah, March 14, 2018

Shopper marketing may not be the most glamorous discipline in the ad world, but major brands are finding all kinds of new ways to shake up those end-caps. In the annual North American Shopper Marketing Effie Awards, awarded at the Path to Purchase Institute's Shopper Marketing Celebration, Mondelez emerged as the biggest winner, with four Shopper Marketing Effies. And both Kimberly-Clark and Unilever each earned three.

Unilever won the Gold award for multibrand/manufacturer solutions, with its "AHOLD Feeding America Program — Hidden Camera on Hunger." The campaign focused on the surprising statistic that one in five children goes hungry each year in America, using an in-store sampling campaign turned viral video, aimed at demonstrating the effects of hunger.

Kimberly-Clark took Gold in the omnichannel shopper experience, for Depend’s "Family Caregiving Club," an effort that tripled Depend distribution in a custom-built test for Sam's Club. Called “The Family Caregiving Club,” it simplified “care shopping” by providing members with helpful cross-category solutions, savings, samples and exclusive content, attracting shoppers who had not previously considered Sam’s as a source for adult diapers.

And Mondelez International was awarded for its "Oreo Walmart World Record Dunk," working with Guinness World Records, earning Walmart the Longest Cookie Dunking Relay title while boosting sales not just for Oreo, but for Walmart’s entire cookie category.

Judges pick the winners in two rounds of examining case studies.

“The marketing and media landscape is evolving quickly, and this year’s Shopper Marketing Effie winners highlight the very best of what marketing teams can achieve when brands and retailers work closely to redefine what success looks like along the path to purchase,” says Effie Worldwide president and chief executive officer Traci Alford, in its announcement of winners. “Shopper Marketing Effie winners have achieved effectiveness in a complex, competitive marketing category and, in turn, have given other marketers an opportunity to learn from the best.”