Apple TV’s “Pluribus” recently became the streaming platform’s most viewed drama of all time as viewers flocked to the mysterious sci-fi offering from Vince Gilligan. And while an ad for “Pluribus” didn’t actually spur a schizophrenic episode, as a viral Reddit post claimed, the show does have a connection to the world of marketing.
Sprouts Farmers Market — a growing grocery chain that is working to connect with consumers around culture — appears in two episodes of “Pluribus,” including a major scene that provides more color about the show’s strange new world, where an alien virus has transformed most of humanity into a peaceful hive mind. Yet this wasn’t an example of brand integration or product placement: it was the result of a yearslong process that began when Gilligan wrote Sprouts into his scripts for the show.
While TV and film productions often ask to film in the chain’s stores, it’s not always a great fit for the brand, explained Sprouts CMO Alisa Gmelich. However, Apple’s request to film in a specific Sprouts store in Albuquerque, New Mexico, represented a unique opportunity, especially since the show was from Gilligan, the TV mastermind behind “Breaking Bad” and “Better Call Saul.”
“I have a great respect for his storytelling and what he puts into these shows,” Gmelich said. “But really what came through [from Apple] was ‘We have a great story.’ Of course, they could only tell us so much about the script, but … it was very clear to me that the role that Sprouts was going to play in the storyline was going to be more than just a location.”
Instead of simply being a location, Sprouts is at the center of a five-minute scene where main character Carol Sturka, played by actor Rhea Seehorn, enters a location that has been completely stripped bare of groceries. She speaks with another character over the phone and says, "I just want my Sprouts back." Soon, a fleet of semitrucks pulls up and a crew of random people unloads the groceries and returns the store to its former glory.
In that way, Sprouts served as an anchor to reality in a sci-fi show that has more in common with “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” than “Breaking Bad.” The fact that the show’s main character asks for her store to be replaced by name demonstrates the connection Sprouts’ real-life customers have with their local stores, Gmelich explained.
“As the CMO, this meant that we weren't just a location that we were going to help them film at. Sprouts plays a role in this very important character's life, and she is one of our customers,” Gmelich said. “I'll be honest, it's hard for me to deny my customers.”
Amplifying an opportunity
Due to factors including the 2023 Writers Guild of America strike, there was a year between inception and production of the “Pluribus” scene. In the meantime, Gmelich worked to ensure that the production could close an actual location for two days — including moving groceries off shelves — something that doesn’t even happen when Sprouts films its own commercials in its stores.
“From a marketing standpoint, I had to pull some pretty big favors from my operations friends and the organization at large,” she said. “I was like a dog with a bone, being very emphatic that there are just some moments where you can show up as a brand… and you just need to know when to say ‘yes’ as a marketer.”
In the end, “Pluribus” showcased the brand in interior and exterior shots, including Carol’s use of Sprouts-branded grocery bags, and the collaboration proved to be a great brand awareness play for a chain that operates more than 400 stores in 23 states. To amplify the effort, Sprouts took to social media to tease the appearance and roll out a sweepstakes that offered customers a chance to win a $5,000 gift card and a yearlong subscription to Apple TV.
Sprouts also added “Carol’s collection” to its e-commerce site, treating the character as its customer of the month and filling a digital basket with foods that nod to moments on the show. Additionally, the chain used the cultural moment to ask customers on social media what items it couldn’t live without.
“It's valuable from a research perspective. It's also valuable because it's a great marketing tool for other customers that are reading through those posts to be able to see what our other Sprouts shoppers are buying,” Gmelich said about the social listening effort. “Being able to cross over and get customers to think about the store differently is a fun way to to encourage some new behaviors.”
Connecting with customers
While its appearance in “Pluribus” was an organic opportunity, Sprouts has worked to connect with customers around culture in other ways. The grocer in 2021 became the back-of-jersey sponsor for Angel City Football Club, a team in the National Women's Soccer League, and quickly found women’s sports to be an apt pairing for a chain where more than 60% of customers are women.
Women’s sports is also a focus of Sprouts’ marketing work as the official healthy grocer of the SEC and Big 12 conferences. The chain has done more than 150 name, image and likeness deals with female athletes as part of its wellness-centered PowHERed by Sprouts platform, which draws connections between on- and off-the-field activities and the needs of its customer base.
“It has given us a pretty phenomenal platform to build off of, and a great opportunity to connect with some amazing female athletes that have connections back to our stores,” Gmelich said.
Additionally, Sprouts has moved into the loyalty space with the nationwide rollout of Sprouts Rewards, which began in Q3. While Gmelich admits it took the brand “a little bit longer” to launch a loyalty program, the time has allowed Sprouts to determine how to deliver personalized value, including information and early access to the 7,000 new SKUs that come to its stores annually.
“Yes, there is a savings component, because that is always incredibly important to our customers, but really leaning into the personalization, that's how we're continuing to build the features and the benefits,” the executive said.
Along with loyalty, Sprouts is working to develop an in-house retail media network that is separate and distinct from its partnership with Instacart, Gmelich told Marketing Dive via email. That function will be under the CMO’s purview along with functions like brand building to loyalty.
“I look at everything through the lens of the customer to ensure that as we're developing our go-to-market plan… we are doing a great job focusing on the customer and the experience that we want to create for them,” Gmelich said.
