Amazon Launches First Advertising Campaign For Own-Label Food Range

Amazon has kicked off its first marketing campaign to promote its own-label grocery range, using the tagline ‘Food too, who knew?’.

The online giant launched its own-label food range when it opened its first bricks & mortar Amazon Fresh store in the UK in 2021. Its first dedicated marketing push for the range includes a media take-over of Angel tube station in London – a two-minute walk from one of its flagship Amazon Fresh stores. This includes cross-track adverts, as well as bespoke tunnel-wraps and escalator panel take-overs. There is also a two-week London-wide digital outdoor and digital display campaign.

Christina Avraam, program manager at Amazon Fresh, commented: “Everyone knows Amazon, but they don’t know we do food.”

The campaign, which will run until the end of this month, features eight different ‘smiles’ formed from different foods, a play on the Amazon logo.

The ‘By Amazon’ own-label range now covers hundreds of products across multiple categories, including milk, bread, fruit & veg, fresh meat, sandwiches, ready meals, and hot food served in its 19 physical stores.

Amazon pressed pause on the rollout of its Fresh grocery stores in the UK last summer due to lacklustre sales amid the weakening economic environment. However, it resumed its opening programme at the start of 2023 as part of its ambition to challenge the established players in the grocery sector.

Earlier this week, it was reported that Waitrose was in talks to sell its grocery range via Amazon in a third-party deal similar to the one recently struck by Iceland. The online giant also has agreements with Co-op and Morrisons, selling their groceries on its website and delivering them from local branches.

Commenting on the advertising move, Dean McElwee, eCommerce leader and author of eCommerce for CEOs, said: “It seems the insight behind Amazon’s new campaign in the UK is that shoppers don’t know that Amazon does fresh food. The campaign focuses on the byline ‘Food too, who knew?’ It’s presumably a prompt to encourage you to shop online for items such as fruit, vegetables, meat, fish etc.

“If you look at the site in the UK this morning, interestingly enough the campaign doesn’t flow through to the landing page. The carousel doesn’t cover the offer, and groceries are relatively hard to find. It’s clear that Amazon wants more of this business with the partnerships with Morrisons amongst others. But are you choosing Amazon for fresh, perishable items?”