Barilla
Barilla boosts the conversion rates of Gocciole with LiveRamp retail media solutions
Barilla, the Italian pasta giant, partnered with LiveRamp retail media solutions to maximise the performance of Gocciole, its popular brand of cookies, with the objective of increasing the brand’s sales and conversion rates.
+6.2
%
In customer spending on Gocciole
+7.1
%
In global brand revenue
7.8
x
Return on investment
Client
Company Size
5,000 – 10,000 employees
Industry
Consumer Packaged Goods
Collaborators
Carrefour
+6.2
%
In customer spending on Gocciole
+7.1
%
In global brand revenue
7.8
x
Return on investment
Challenge
Gocciole is a very popular brand of cookies in Italy, a market where the Barilla brand holds a significant market share.
Following the launch of their new ‘Gocciole Caramel’ cookies, the Italian family business wanted their campaign to achieve three things:
- Generate buzz around the new ‘special edition’ product
- Increase the average basket price of existing buyers
- Increase global market share by generating incremental sales across the entire product range
Solution
In order to respond to the challenge faced by Barilla, LiveRamp proposed a campaign focusing on all product references within the Gocciole range. This will enable the generated turnover to be measured in a very granular, product by product manner. The impact of the activation campaign on sales can then be evaluated, not only across the product range as a whole, but also for the new cookie product specifically.
To this end, a control group was created, grouping together a selection of existing buyers that can be targeted specifically. At the end of the campaign, the test group – having been exposed to the advertising – is compared with the control group who have not been exposed to the advertising. This “shielding” of a portion of the target audience was set to reveal the actual impact of the activation campaign, by isolating the incremental sales generated by those buyers who have viewed the advertisement.
The activation campaign ran over 4 weeks on Meta platforms Facebook and Instagram. Audiences were built based on purchase behaviour data for Carrefour customers, sourced from loyalty cards. The data related to actual transactions, realised online and in-store.
Three audience segments were created:
- Gocciole purchasers (last 12 months);
- Purchasers of “indulgence products” with caramel, chocolate, dulce de leche etc. (last 24 months);
- Purchasers within the biscuits category (last 24 months) who have never before purchased products from the Gocciole brand.
With regard to the latter two audiences, the challenge for LiveRamp was to have them discover the new product, and also to recruit them to the brand. While this may seem like a brand with a strong market presence, there is still a portion of the market to be reached.
Although the campaign is digital, the objective here is also drive-to-store, that is, to direct online traffic towards the physical store. This poses another challenge: that of targeting the right people, in the right way, and at the right frequency, so that, when they do visit the store, they think about the product and purchase it. In terms of the campaign, we know who visited the store, who purchased the product, and who did not. We have a comprehensive overview of the purchase journey: before and during, but also after. Once the campaign is complete, we wait for two weeks, since, after having seen the advertisement online, purchasers may take several days prior to visiting the store. This post-campaign period allows us to monitor the full impact of the implemented actions.
Results
Barilla wanted LiveRamp to prove the added value of its solutions via this test campaign. Having viewed the results, the Italian agro-industrial company immediately signed up for several additional campaigns, focusing on sauces, pastas, etc. The campaign enabled the development of partnerships with other countries in which the Gocciole brand is present, such as Spain.
In total, the campaign generated 2.9 million impressions of Facebook and Instagram. The publications consist of visuals (static), but also videos (dynamic). They invite buyers to try out the new caramel biscuit. Each content element is adapted to the target audience. The targeted purchasers never see the same text, nor the same creative content.
For example, in the visual aimed at buyers of indulgence products, pieces of caramel and chocolate have been added. Why? Because these buyers have a particular proclivity for this type of recipe.
The creative was targeted at buyers from the biscuits category to emphasise the product itself. A close-up was provided of the new biscuit within the range.
Finally, the creative targeted at purchasers of the Gocciole brand focused on the biscuit packet and the notion that the product is new.
The campaign reached 295,000 users, representing the number of unique shoppers. This group was exposed to the creative an average of 10 times during the course of the campaign.
- Purchasers who had seen the advertisement spent + 6.2% compared to those who had not seen it (this result does not take recruitment into account).
- Turnover saw an increase of + 7.1%, it considered the following two aspects: expenditure and purchaser recruitment.
- 7.8:1 return on investment (ROI), for each euro spent on the Gocciole brand.
What’s Next?
If you’re ready to join the world’s most innovative companies and explore what data collaboration can do for you and your partners, LiveRamp is ready to help!