Co-op celebrates digital screen milestone
January
February
Co-op’s Point of Sale (POS) Displays
Digital price labels
Betty Crocker
Coca-Cola
Doritos
McCoy’s
Pringles
Since the insights team’s last visit to our local The Cooperative Group and Southern Co-op branches, the retailer has undergone quite a few structural changes alongside many new promotions. With many local Southern Co-op stores closing, the focus in this article will be on The Cooperative Group branch.
The Southern Co-op announced several store closures across their retail network. In addition, some 18 stores have been sold, and 2 stores are to be converted into Southern Co-op’s Welcome franchise.
Simon Eastwood, Chief Operating Officer for Retail at Co-op, states, “The sale of these stores reflects our ongoing efforts to optimise our store portfolio and strengthen our long-term operating model." The retailer has also stated that they had plans to open 2 new Co-op Food stores in late 2025.
Opinion has it that the Co-op closures are due in part to the cyberattacks which occurred in April 2025. The attack had caused several issues with supply and digital payments, but Co-op was able to recover fairly swiftly. However, the biggest hit to Co-op was the aftermath. It was only until mid-July that Co-op admitted and revealed that the data of 6.5 million Co-op members was stolen. Emails, addresses, and phone numbers – but no financial information was able to be accessed.
On 30th January 2026, Co-op announced the opening of 18 new stores in the early months of 2026. With more stores to open soon, the extent to which the cyberattacks have impacted Co-op is called into question, even with the reported “£206m in lost sales".
In November 2025, Co-op Media Network announced the complete rollout of 1,000 front-of-store digital screens across Co-op stores. This took Co-op’s overall digital touchpoints to 15,000 – making it “one of the largest digital advertising screen footprints of any UK grocery retailer.”
Chief Membership & Customer Officer at Co-op, Kenyatte Nelson goes on to say, “[...] The roll out of 1,000 digital screens over the past 12 months has been strategically developed to leverage Co-op’s extensive presence as a media owner, and we have further ambitious expansion plans for our screen network in 2026. Our continued investment in the digital screen network further strengthens the Co-op Media Network’s standing as the UK’s largest and most prominent media owner in the convenience sector.”
Since late 2025, Co-op has been the frequent promoter of many of their own promotions. These promotions have been, so far, exclusive to Co-op members.
There were 6 promotions in both January and February, 12 in total. These promotions are open only to Co-op membership holders (which has a £1 joining fee) and all require a £5 minimum purchase at Co-op. This can be an in-store purchase, where members can scan their member’s card or code at checkout, or online at shop.coop.co.uk logged in to their membership-connected account.
Many of the in-store displays are their own branded materials. From floor decals to aisle fins and shelf barkers, most of them take on the iconic Co-op blue and have a strong focus on promoting their membership and price promotions.
There were a few FSDUs from other brands at the front of the store near the checkout areas, but within the aisles, most POS displays were dedicated to Co-op and their offers. This is fairly routine for Co-op; since the retailer usually has smaller convenience stores, their product offering is not as broad as a large-footprint supermarket, and there’s less space to include POS displays without being visually overwhelming for shoppers, making the limited POS space valuable and potentially more effective when targeting local customers.
Many Co-op stores are now installing small digital screens to display prices of products instead of using paper labels. These digital screens are great for quickly and effortlessly displaying price changes and are less prone to damage or errors than paper labels. For example, printing issues may make a label difficult to read, or they may tear, or the wrong label may be put into the wrong spot.
Although they are less prone to damage, they still can get damaged, and arguably they’re harder to replace or repair than paper labels would be. See the middle image in the photos above. The digital label has been damaged, completely obscuring the non-member price of the product. However, for the most part, these digital price labels are an addition that enhances Co-op’s shopper experience.
In partnership with KitchenAid, Betty Crocker’s promotion is a prize draw, giving away 2 KitchenAid stand mixers every week of the 25-week promotion (29/09/25 – 23/03/26), totalling 50 stand mixers and 50 winners.
This prize draw was an on-pack promotion, featuring a promotional microsite at promoentries.com/bettycrocker-mixer-25 and an easy entry process for participants. With no purchase necessary to enter, there is no proof of purchase mechanic implemented.
This Premier League prize promotion by Coca-Cola uses a prize draw promotional mechanic which occurs on a weekly basis. The start date is 12th January, and the close date is 10th March. In total, there are 9 weekly prize draws; 8 of them remain a part of the main promotional period, whilst 1 is reserved for the mop-up portion of the on-pack promotion.
Celebrating and leveraging the hype of the Premier League as an official partner, this promotion by Coca-Cola is an activation that invites engagement that goes beyond the typical format – inviting participants to “guess the number of Premier League goals in the relevant Premier League game week and submit an entry at any time during that week’s promotional period” in order to win prizes.
Coca-Cola offers various prizes, including Premier League tickets and Premier League-branded merchandise. In total, there are 13,000 prizes available to be won.
The promotion is featured on a promotional page at Coca-Cola’s website, and as a no-purchase-necessary promotion, there is no proof of purchase verification in place. Whilst promotion terms and copy prompt shoppers to “Grab a coke and scan the QR code", there is no mention of participants needing to make a purchase of a product to enter the promotion.
Running until April 2026, this on-pack promotion by Doritos is hosted on the always-on promotional microsite, Joy by PepsiCo at joy-pepsico.eu which is a website that collates promotions from various brands such as Walkers, Quaker’s, Pepsi, etc…
Doritos is an official partner of Formula 1, which opens this promotion to be able to offer a range of F1-related prizes, such as tickets, alongside cash and F1 merchandise. The prizes are set to be given away using a combination of instant win and prize draw mechanics. Unique in the way that participants can choose which mechanic and prize pool they would prefer to enter.
The promotion is available to both residents of the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland, with a shared prize pool featuring a total of 840 instant win prizes and 10 prize draw prizes.
Purchase is necessary to enter this promotion, so a proof of purchase method has been implemented to ensure the legitimacy of entrants. For this promotion, Doritos opts to use unique reference numbers (URNs), which are printed on the packaging. In the terms, participants are advised to “retain all packaging with the unique code, as this may be required for validation and in order for the winner to receive their Prize”.
McCoy’s is offering both retail consumers and retailers the opportunity to win big in this prize draw. This on-pack promotion is available at McCoy’s promotional microsite bankofmccoys.co.uk. The microsite is built with engaging animations and touches of gamification – simulating opening a vault by keying in the barcode of a promotional pack of McCoy’s, which is integrated into the gamification of the promotion.
This promotion has two separate sets of terms & conditions for retail consumers and retailers alongside separate prize pools. There are 1,015 prizes available for consumers and 135 available for retailers to win.
This on-pack promotion by Pringles is hosted on their always-on promotional microsite at poptopia.pringles.com, which is home to many of their other promotions.
Focusing yet again on gaming, Pringles partners with several popular game titles, including World of Warcraft Midnight, Sea of Thieves, Fallout 76, and The Outer Worlds 2, to bring consumers exclusive in-game cosmetics (items that are only for appearance instead of having a functional use in a game) and rewards.
Once an account is made, entry is easy; participants simply have to select the exclusive game reward they’d like and redeem it. There, they’ll receive a code to enter. All four game rewards can be claimed, but participants may only claim one a day.
If you’re interested in getting more insights on prize promotions and shopper activation techniques employed by the UK’s biggest retailers, you can read our previous Promotions Seen articles. You can read our previous editions:
ASDA November - December 2025 | Promotions Seen
Tesco September - October 2025 | Promotions Seen
To find out how your brand can build and host seasonal promotions with an end-to-end platform. Speak to one of our experts at no cost. Consider using the PromoNow platform. Speak with a platform consultant at +44 (0)20 380 555 38 or email hello@promo-now.com to learn more.
