H-E-B
Getting Audiences to Scream for Ice Cream
If anyone knows how refreshing ice cream is on a hot day, it’s San Antonio-based grocer, H-E-B. The chain developed a new ice cream product Swoon by H-E-B, and was looking to drive product awareness across hundreds of stores across Texas and create customer excitement and engagement.
Services
100
Million impressions
83%
Social engagement rate
75%
of map engagements drove to store
Challenge
H-E-B looked to PMG to develop and execute a launch campaign behind Swoon ice cream across key Texas markets. The campaign would support not only an entirely new product for the grocery chain but do so in a way that stood out in a very competitive field. The opportunity was to leverage Texans’ affinity for the grocer and translate that to the product level.
Strategy & Approach
PMG and the client chose to leverage National Ice Cream Day to saturate target markets with the product launch announcement. Our plan was to deliver massive reach and consumer engagement while still being focused on targeting through social media, as well as running rich media units on mobile, based on the insight that people on the go — and thus subjected to the heat — would be browsing on their phones.
We worked closely with H-E-B to develop a creative strategy that incorporated assets designed for Facebook and Instagram feeds, a filter on Snapchat, and various rich media unit types that would capture users’ attention and invite engagement with H-E-B’s brand.
While creative was tailored to the distribution platform and refreshed throughout the course of the campaign, and a broad audience was desired, PMG layered in specific geofencing to maximize ad effectiveness. Additionally, PMG worked with a rich media partner to optimize towards key performing mobile apps and websites to deliver maximum reach for Swoon. Creative ad units also included video, Facebook Canvas, and Instagram Stories.
Results
The product launch was hugely successful in meeting H-E-B’s goals of reach and engagement. Between social and rich media, the Swoon campaign totaled nearly 100 million impressions. Paid social was particularly cost-effective in gaining reach, as PMG delivered cost per reach at only $0.11 with an 83% engagement rate.
Rich media was strong as well. Certain ad units saw engagement levels as high as 18%. With the map units, H-E-B saw that 75% of engagements were to locate nearby stores, a strong indicator of customer intent to purchase. Beyond reach and engagement, H-E-B also saw lifts in awareness and ad recall, as measured by a brand study.
