In 2018, Ireland’s most loved fuel brand, ‘Topaz’, rebranded as Circle K after being acquired by Canadian group ‘Couche-Tard’. Topaz had earned its place in local communities, funding initiatives and fuelling local clubs. It was #1 in terms of market share and enjoyed a loyal base; 26% of customers “only choose to fill up in Topaz”.

Suddenly, Topaz was gone and in its place was a brand which local communities had no affinity with. To address this disconnection and the perception that Circle K was a foreign brand in local communities, Circle K invested in sponsoring the Irish Olympic and Paralympic Teams. Irish people are notoriously devout to their Irish sporting heroes, providing an opportunity for connection.

The objective was to create a meaningful connection with Circle K and retain the loyalty and transaction value of Topaz, driving brand scores and customer activity in the process.

In Ireland, athletes who dream of competing at the Olympics have more than athleticism and qualification to contend with. With funding at a minimum but training taking up the majority of their time, many struggle to stay afloat financially.

Irish people are passionate sport supporters and proven in the 'Good Country' Index to be the most generous nation in the world. Circle K saw an opportunity to leverage this generosity, support athletes and drive in-store loyalty and transactions.

‘The Local Currency’ is a loyalty programme that gives communities around Ireland a role to play in supporting Team Ireland, leveraging data, technology and community spirit.

It is a currency generated by the community to help fuel their local athletes. Utilizing Circle K’s app, it enables customers to collect points for themselves while generating unique ‘coins’ for their local athletes to spend on fuel, food and drink in-store.

In 2018, oil prices faced a steep decline, igniting a rapid race to the bottom. Legacy behaviour and insight tells us that the majority of Irish consumers “either know the exact price of fuel or have a good idea of the price” and 36% claimed to choose their stations solely based on the cheapest price.

To fight against price, Circle K needed to find something else to attract customers.

An OECD Better Life Index showed that Ireland ranks highest in terms of quality of social support. To Irish people, showing community support is everything - 95% of people believe that ‘they know someone they could rely on in time of need’.

To give customers a reason to shop in Circle K, it offered a new and meaningful way to show their community support – by fuelling the road to Tokyo for their local Olympians who are famously underfunded.

Using the already existing Circle K App, we launched The Local Currency within the interface. It enables customers to collect points for themselves with the added functionality of generating unique ‘coins’ for their local Olympic and Paralympic athletes to spend on fuel, food and drink in-store.

The app allows users to track their points, coins generated and follow the journeys of their local Olympians via an interactive map where users can ‘Meet the Athletes’ – allowing them to feel close to their local sporting heroes. On social media, ambassadors documented their daily journeys.

The campaign came to life in store across the retail footprint, inviting users to cash in for coins across a suite of engaging POS. The campaign was also supported through PR, Radio and national OOH as well as on the athlete’s channels where Olympian hopefuls called on the public to show their support.

There has been 218 million digital coins generated, worth €750,000, used daily by 172 athletes, a massive result despite Covid-19's impact.

80,000 new consumers have signed up to the Circle K app, a 61% increase in users. App transactions went up 9.7% and sales to app members went up 10.3%.

The activation cushioned the impact of Covid-19, more than halving the negative impact felt nationally - while Irish retail footfall fell by an average of 40%, Circle K only dropped by 17%.

+12% increase in agreement that they prefer to visit Circle K ahead of the competition, proving that we are moving the dial of affinity amongst Irish consumers, now at 35%.

+100% increase in agreement ‘Circle K supports the local community’, now at 24%.

+44% increase in agreement that ‘Circle K has a loyalty program with personalised/good offers’, now at 33%.