Since its inception in 1996, Box Tops for Education has given families an easy way to earn cash for their schools with products they already buy. Supporting education has been a core value of both General Mills, and the program has evolved to make it easier than ever to support local schools.

In the 2021 school year Americans wanted to go back to post-pandemic normalcy, but 2020 had left many with a clearer sense of what normal looked like for students and teachers of color. They saw more diverse student bodies disproportionately affected by the challenges of COVID, leaving many asking whether they could do better to support them.

General Mills sought to use the success of its Box Tops for Education to better support communities affected by COVID, through using sales volume to drive donations through the program.

Our idea: Give shoppers the ability to impact educational equity by supporting teachers, schools and students who need it most, simply by purchasing family-favorite foods.

We communicated to shoppers that when they purchased General Mills’ products they could give to any at-need school in America. It was important to deliver on the education mission while also supporting all Walmart back-to-school seasonal shoppers looking for meal and snack solutions. This included messaging around broad awareness of BTFE and a Walmart-exclusive giving offer, but also the joint equity mission, leveraging LeBron James to highlight the importance of education equity. Box Tops for Education was able to award teachers loan forgiveness and support schools in specific markets in need to make not only a local impact but a scaled impact through broad awareness driving tactics.

At Walmart, there is a unique target audience for the General Mills’ Box Tops for Education program. Walmart Back-to-School seasonal shoppers are younger parents, with kids in school from K – 12th grade. They all knew Box Tops and may have supported their own schools as children, but as they became parents they became concerned about the inequity in the education system. Yet they weren’t sure what action they could take.

About 64% of American teachers and administrators in schools with a large number of low-income students said their students faced resource limitations, compared to only 21% of students in schools with a small number of low-income students.

Our insight: We’ve reached a pivotal moment in our educational system and Box Tops for Education realized their role should be modified to have a larger effect.

We joined forces with LeBron James to prompt the conversation that anyone can make a positive impact on the education system, inspiring Walmart shoppers to take action through a campaign that built enthusiasm and loyalty for Walmart and GMI by addressing equity goals.

A video series featuring LeBron appeared on Walmart’s social accounts and drove to our Walmart.com brand page, highlighting how to use the Box Tops App to donate to schools in need.

Onsite merchandising increased presence on Walmart.com, and eCommerce drove conversion with keyword search and banners. Product detail pages connected items to the BTFE message.

Additionally, we amplified stories from Minneapolis-based organization Black Men Teach, leveraged on POS and TV wall ads in key markets. Self-checkout screen ads encouraged downloading the BTFE app.

Finally, we utilized Walmart’s print-on-demand capability to create custom boxes for delivery orders, and leverage influencers to receive branded sample boxes to inspire trial.

The partnership reinvigorated the season at Walmart, driving exceptional awareness, showing 144 million shoppers how to support education in their communities, including more than 206K views for the video content. This awareness translated to shopper engagement, swelling GMI’s household penetration by +2.7% compared to the year before, and up +3.6% compared to the period before the activation.

The campaign was well-equipped to turn that interest into concrete sales performance, lifting sales by +7.5% across the General Mills portfolio and increasing basket size by +2.9% vs the prior year’s season. Walmart Connect media performed beyond the wildest expectations, returning a RoAS of $111.