How Kellanova improved targeting and sales lift with LiveRamp’s clean room

The Challenge

Kellanova faced a challenge with Special K in the UK as the cereal brand experienced declining sales and stagnating market penetration.

Despite strong brand awareness, its premium price was 145% higher than competitors’, leading to reduced consideration rates, which were starting to mirror those of private label brands.

The traditional demographic-based marketing approach was no longer effective, as it wasn’t engaging consumers in a meaningful way. To address this, Kellanova sought to improve targeting and better understand consumer behaviours while maintaining privacy. The goal was to refine consumer segmentation and craft tailored messaging to drive renewed interest and sales.

The Solution

Kellanova turned to LiveRamp’s clean room technology, which allowed them to unify data from multiple sources, including postcode-level Circana data and 20 million addressable records from Experian, while ensuring privacy protection.

By analysing consumer behaviours beyond demographics, Kellanova identified two key groups:

• Loyal buyers who needed encouragement to purchase again.
• Price-conscious buyers who had shifted to private label brands.

By identifying and segmenting these distinct audiences, Kellanova personalised creative messaging for each group and implemented a stronger call to action. Activating the updated campaign across social media platforms, including Meta and YouTube, Kellanova were able to leverage closed-loop measurement to track which campaigns influenced purchases. With enhanced insights through data collaboration across media, data, and creative teams, Kellanova optimised campaign performance and engagement.

The Results

The clean room strategy yielded significant results for Special K. Price-sensitive consumers who hadn’t purchased the brand in the past year returned at a higher price point, resulting in a 9% sales lift. Loyalists saw even stronger results, with a 36% increase in sales as they bought more of the brand at a premium price.

Additionally, a consideration impact study showed a threefold increase in consideration compared to traditional demographic-based targeting.

The campaign was executed in about three months, far faster than previous methods, demonstrating the power of data collaboration to drive effective personalisation, measurable business outcomes and incremental results.

Read Marketing Dive’s interview with Louise Cotterill, Global Senior Director of Insights and Intelligence, Kellanova here.