The Coconut Collab – free from dairy, not temptation

Key Points

• The Coconut Collab wanted to increase awareness and purchase intent to drive volume growth and recruit new shoppers
• Using a three-tier strategy, they utilised linear, VOD and addressable TV to deliver both mass reach and data-driven targeting
• The brand grew its sales and customer numbers by more than twice the category average

The Challenge

Selling a range of plant-based yoghurts and puddings, The Coconut Collab needed to grow share in an increasingly competitive market featuring some well-known competitors and a raft of new brands.

Having built sales primarily through shopper marketing and promotions, they knew it was time to invest in brand building. In doing so, they could shift from being a niche brand to being more broadly recognised and positioned as offering delicious treats that are better for you, and for the planet.

The campaign objectives were:

• Increase both brand awareness and purchase intent by 25%
• Grow sales volumes ahead of the category average rate
• Recruit 100,000 new shoppers, thereby providing a foundation for future growth

The TV Solution

January is a key sales period for plant-based products, with supermarkets getting behind ‘Veganuary’ and shoppers being primed for plant alternatives. Rather than just focusing on existing dairy-free buyers, Yonder Media knew that attracting new, ‘plant-curious’ customers was key to long-term brand growth, and therefore opted for a mixed-targeting approach that would also reach both dairy-free shoppers and the millions of flexitarians who give Veganuary a go. Their full funnel strategy had three layers:

• Increase awareness and start building long-term brand growth – using linear TV to introduce the brand to a new audience, and with a creative canvas that could effectively communicate the ‘free from dairy, but not temptation’ positioning
• Drive purchase intent amongst potential buyers – using Nectar purchasing data and addressable TV to reach existing dairy-free category buyers, as well as those that were already buying plant-based alternatives
• Increase penetration, by capitalising on immediate prospects – investing in sponsored product listings on Tesco.com and Sainsburys.com to leverage increased brand awareness from upper funnel AV activities and take advantage of the significant impact TV has on search

The Plan

With a limited budget and ambitions to reach a large TV audience, Yonder Media chose to allocate all of their investment with Sky Media who could offer both mass reach and data-driven targeting across linear TV, VOD, and AdSmart.

For linear TV, they planned a campaign with precise channel planning, upweighting stations featuring entertainment, food, movies, and high-quality dramas to reach the targeted audiences in the right high attention environments.

This was supplemented with a BVOD campaign, with a combination of Mosaic targeting to focus in on the most likely households, together with a channel select strategy which concentrated on the environments that chimed with the health- and planet-conscious audience.

Finally, using Nectar data, a sophisticated custom audience was built based on category purchasers (excluding The Coconut Collab buyers) and those who had bought into the vegan category the previous January. This was then activated using Sky AdSmart.

Results

• Double digit growth in awareness against all adults
• Awareness growth amongst core target was twice that of the all adults figure
• Purchase intent also saw double digit growth
• Sales growth more than double that of the overall category
• Growth in shopper number 65% higher than the category average

Databank

Sector:  FMCG

Brand: The Coconut Collab

Campaign objectives: To raise awareness and purchase intent in order to drive volume growth and recruit new shoppers

Target Audience: ABC1 Adults

Budget: Approx. £330k overall