How One Simple Question Led to Prisma’s Most Successful Price Campaign to date

“Cheap potatoes from this store, discounted meat from another, and reduced-price cheese from a third.”… Sounds familiar?

Due to the most prolonged economic recession in Estonia’s history, people are more focused on saving money. At the same time, retailers try to keep every customer by trumping each other with various discounts and yellow price tags. The result? It often seems like every store always has a campaign and is claiming to offer the best price.

Problem: oversaturation of price promotions and dispersion of value offers

The problem: over-saturation of price promotions and dispersion of value propositions. With retailers competing to offer the most significant discounts, it becomes increasingly difficult for people to distinguish between retail chains and their value propositions. Furthermore, due to austerity pressures, around 25-40% of people have started shopping at a different store from their main one. 67% of people are willing to spend more time, their most valuable resource, to get a bargain (Norstat, 2024).

It is difficult to stand out in this maze. Even harder to be remembered.

Instead of Bombarding People with Info, We Simply Asked

Prisma stood out in the fiercely competitive retail marketing landscape with a clever message: “Why don’t we just shop at Prisma?”, coupled with inclusive audience engagement. Rather than amplifying societal concerns, we used PR to get people to notice their own behaviours and offer solutions.

We launched a price-voting campaign, giving people the opportunity for the first time to directly choose which products should be included in Prisma’s special offers. The online voting took place across Prisma’s channels as well as Postimees and Delfi.

We partnered with long-term influencers who shared personal saving tips and brought in experts from various fields to help people adjust their consumption habits. For instance, Karmo Nigula and his family committed to visiting only Prisma for 100 days, documenting their observations, wins, and challenges.

“Why don’t we just shop at Prisma?”,

Substantive activities provided an opportunity to get the media coverage they deserved. The campaign slogan “Why don’t we just go to Prisma?” was also launched. The most viral and highly engaging marketing conversation of 2024, connecting competitors and consumers alike. It was a way to remind customers that Prisma is one of the few retail chains that offers consistently low prices.

The Results in Numbers

Getting people to think, engage, and offer solutions during a difficult time was successful, resulting in Prisma’s most successful price campaign to date, which was awarded a bronze medal in the 2025 Golden Egg competition in the corporate communications category. On social media, the campaign became the most viral phenomenon of the year.

• Investment efficiency: 3.7× lower investment than the competitor who spent the most during the same period.
• Cost per awareness point: 2.2× less than the highest-spending competitor.

Lessons Learned

• Simplicity resonates: In an overwhelming market, it pays to try simple approaches—even when tempted to go with the flow.
• Repeats-repeats-repeats. Take the time to find influencers and partners who resonate with your target audience and engage with them over a longer period. This will create a sense of identification and help your messages take root.
• You can’t plan virality, But you can create content and context where it’s possible.

Meta team

Stina Pley Senior consultant

Anett Veske Consultant