Hubbards’ direct-to-consumer paid social campaign powered an ‘amazingly’ successful Australian launch

The Challenge

A key marketing problem for all FMCG brands is the ‘retail divide’ – the fact that the supermarket holds the customer relationship, so communicating with them often involves more expensive ‘broadcast’ media such as TV or outdoor.

But what if you have a small budget – and what if your initial distribution footprint is limited to a number of supermarkets in a number of cites? That was the challenge faced when Hubbards needed to launch their new ‘Amazing Muesli™’ granola and muesli range in a specific group of Woolworths supermarkets on the eastern seaboard of Australia.

The imperative? To make the launch a success right out of the blocks to ensure continued supermarket support.

The Solution

We went direct to consumer via paid social with two key campaigns:

1. An ‘Imagine your most amazing breakfast and WIN’ competition built huge awareness and a data pool of warm prospects for later social retargeting. This got consumers creative juices flowing as they submitted flavour combinations they’d love to try – with the winner having their recipe created and winning a year’s supply of Amazing Muesli.

2. Paid social then targeted that warm audience, and consumers in a 7km radius of each supporting store, with direct $3.50 taste-test discount offers that clicked through directly to a pre-populated Woolworths home-shopping page. Whilst the offer was also available in-store, the e-commerce channel gave us a decent sample size for ROI tracking and estimation. Serving suggestions and appetite -appeal social content was also targeted at our audiences to remind and drive further uptake.

The moral of the story? With a little bit of thinking, modern social and digital tools place the power firmly in FMCG brands to curate and nurture their own direct-to-consumer relationships – and not just bridge the retail divide - but secure loyalty to the brand irrespective of where it is stocked.