The archive · Product Ideas · Product decision · 2025
Ta-Ta's Rewards Bag turns forgotten totes into discount cards — El Ojo 2025 Grand Prix
Ta-Ta put a QR-coded ID on its reusable bag, so scanning it unlocks personalized discounts — winning two El Ojo 2025 Grands Prix.
Ta-Ta Supermercados (Grupo De Narváez)
What it had to solve
Uruguay's 2018 law banned single-use plastic bags, so reusable bags became the norm — but shoppers kept forgetting them, frustrating the experience and undercutting the environmental goal. Ta-Ta, Uruguay's best-known low-price supermarket chain, noticed a reliable behavior in those same customers: they never forgot to hunt for discounts.
How it works
Uruguay banned single-use plastic bags in 2018, and reusable bags quickly became the norm at the checkout. But shoppers kept forgetting to bring them — a small daily frustration that hurt both the environment and the store's shopping experience, since people often ended up buying a new bag or struggling at the till.
Ta-Ta, Uruguay's best-known low-price supermarket chain, worked with VML Uruguay on an insight: the same customers who forgot their bags never forgot to look for discounts. So they turned the forgotten object itself into the reward — 'The Rewards Bag' links every reusable bag to a unique QR code and the shopper's ID.
Scanning the bag at the entrance surfaces personalized discounts built from the shopper's purchase history; scanning it again at checkout applies them automatically and eliminates paper coupons. Shoppers now carry the bag because it saves them money, and every scan quietly advances the sustainability goal behind the 2018 law.
The idea won two Grand Ojos at El Ojo de Iberoamérica 2025 — Sustainability and Creative Commerce — with additional Golds and Silvers across Experience, Media and Commerce, and it was recognized in the D&AD awards archive, praised by jurors as simple and scalable.
Why it lands
- It attached the reward to the exact object people kept forgetting, so the sustainable behavior stopped requiring memory or willpower.
- Personalized discounts made the bag better than paper coupons — it knew each shopper's habits and removed friction at the till.
- The insight came from observing real customer behavior (always hunting discounts) rather than inventing a motivation for them.
- It aligned the retailer's commercial goals with the country's environmental law, turning compliance into loyalty.
What it did
The bag won two Grand Ojos at El Ojo de Iberoamérica 2025 — Sustainability and Creative Commerce — plus further Golds and Silvers across Experience, Media and Commerce, turning an item people forgot into a reason to return to Ta-Ta and a small everyday win for the planet.
What you can take
Instead of trying to change a habit people can't keep, attach the reward to the object itself — then sustainability stops being a duty and becomes the best deal in the aisle.
Since then
At El Ojo 2025 the bag collected the Gran Ojo Sustentable and the Gran Ojo Creative Commerce, with jurors describing it as a simple, scalable idea; it also appeared in the D&AD awards archive. For Ta-Ta, the bag became working retail infrastructure — a reusable carrier that carries the discount to the checkout — and a template other markets with plastic-bag bans could copy.
Sources
- “The Rewards Bag” coronada por El Ojo Sustentable 2025: Ventas, fidelización y sostenibilidad
- “The Rewards Bag” le da el segundo GP a VML Uruguay, ahora en Creative Commerce
- The Rewards Bag — D&AD Awards Archive
spotted an error? The archive wants to know.
Your turn
You just read one. Describe the brief you are staring at, and see who has been given the same problem.
Free account · 3 free questions · no card