BWG Foods win the Marketing Innovation Award at the recent MII All Ireland Marketing Awards, which took place in The Clayton Hotel on Burlington Road, pictured; Gillian Rigley, Londis Marketing Manager BWG Foods and Michael Nolan, Co-Founder and CEO of SocioLocal
BWG Foods has won gold in the innovation category at this year’s MII All Ireland Marketing Awards, with recognition for transforming local digital marketing across its nationwide network of independent retailers The Marketing Innovation award was won at the annual gala ceremony hosted by Marketing Institute Ireland at the Clayton Hotel in Dublin. The award recognised a strategic partnership between BWG Food’s and SocioLocal, which fundamentally changed how social media is executed across a selection of its brands including SPAR, EUROSPAR and Londis. The initiative addressed long‑standing challenges in local digital delivery, including variable content quality, inconsistent posting, and limited retailer time or resources.
BWG Foods introduced a centrally controlled model that delivers pre‑approved, professional content directly to local store pages at scale. Automated posting via a mobile‑first platform removed the regular burden from retailers, while maintaining brand consistency and allowing for local tailoring where appropriate. Paid media, engagement and reporting were also integrated into a single system. This helped to position social media not just as an optional task, but as a measurable commercial driver along with being an effective customer and community engagement tool.
Results showed strong adoption and sustained behaviour change, with 91% of retailers opting into consistent, automated posting from SPAR, EUROSPAR and Londis marketing teams. This resulted in average time savings of six hours per month per retailer, while retailer satisfaction reached 92%. Marketing performance improved significantly at store level, with posting frequency increasing by 175%, engagement up 109% per store per month and reach growing by 63%. Each participating store now receives more than 20 professional posts per month, with some campaigns delivering up to ten times the typical engagement.
A controlled Londis case study demonstrated clear commercial impact. Stores with no social media activity experienced a 5% sales decline, while stores receiving organic content through SocioLocal delivered a 27% sales uplift. Stores supported by paid local promotion recorded a 54% increase in sales, validating the programme’s ability to directly influence in‑store performance.
Commenting on the award, Suzanne Weldon, Chief Marketing and Communications Officer at BWG Foods said: “This programme and partnership with SocioLocal proves that the performance of local digital content can be enhanced with innovative and simplified system-based initiatives. The positive response and results clearly show how retailers can be enabled to benefit from high‑quality and consistent social media without increasing workload. It’s been really encouraging to see the scale of marketing execution and commercial impact delivered within communities across the country.”
The MII AIM Awards celebrate excellence in marketing teams, campaigns and sponsorships around Ireland.
