Digilant drives $10.5MM in incremental meat sales during a three-week campaign

An organization that supports meat producers, that is also responsible for education, research, and promotion within its specific industry, sought to execute a targeted three-week campaign. 

The campaign aimed to boost sales for a specific category of meat products and achieve a strong return on advertising spend (ROAS). The organization focused on reaching African American consumers aged 18 to 44 who are primary grocery shoppers and identified as consumers of this specific meat in the top nine designated market areas (DMAs) across the United States: New York, Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, Washington D.C., Chicago, Philadelphia, Miami, and Detroit.

Strategy and Approach

To effectively engage the target audience and encourage purchases, the Digilant team proposed a diverse set of tactics to boost awareness and drive sales. The meat organization used strategically placed banner ads to connect with their audience and stimulate an increase in sales, as well as:

• Transactional data to target users who had previously purchased the meat and to identify primary grocery shoppers based on their frequency of grocery store visits.
• Geofencing technology to target shoppers at specific nationwide retail locations within key markets aiming to boost awareness and engagement among this customer base.
• A Curated marketplace to run ads across all African-American-owned publishers, ensuring a targeted approach to reaching the desired audience.

Data and measurement

Another national retailer played a crucial role as one of the leading data and measurement partners in the campaign. The meat organization leveraged the retailer’s first-party data to target those who had recently purchased the specific meat category, allowing for a precise and effective approach. Moreover, the retailer offered advanced measurement and analysis capabilities to evaluate ROAS.

To accurately gauge the campaign’s success, assessing incremental lift was essential. Digilant used Pathformance, a retail measurement vendor, to gain insights into both sales and incremental sales. The team leveraged one of the nationwide retailers and Attain, a transactional data and measurement partner, to calculate ROAS outside of the retailer’s stores.

Results

Pathformance analyzed sales in the nine test markets, comparing them with markets not exposed to advertising. The test markets saw a 3.6% incremental sales lift over three weeks. During the campaign, the meat organization generated $10.5 million in incremental sales, with the specific meat category experiencing a 52% increase.

New York, Dallas, and Miami were the top-performing DMAs for sales and lift. Attain reported an ROAS of $65.75, while one of the retailers reported an ROAS of $72.10.

Through targeted campaign efforts, the organization achieved a substantial incremental lift in sales for the specific meat category. Pleased with the results, the meat organization partnered with Digilant for a year-long campaign, expanding to new markets and incorporating shoppable units.

Brand Health Tracking Insights

At the end of the campaign, Digilant conducted a Brand Health Tracking analysis using proprietary analytics to evaluate the meat’s competitive standing against other meats. The meat organization was pleased to see that the specific meat category ranked third in the share of search.

• The meat’s share of search grew to 16.6% in December, an increase from the average of 11-12%, likely due to the advertising efforts.
• Searches for cooking terms revealed the highest engagement with the specific meat around temperature, likely tied to finding the ideal cooking temperature. Additionally, searches for recipes showed strong interest in dishes that included the meat. 
• When considering shopping and store-related terms, the meat showed the highest share of voice with specific national retailers, indicating the campaign effectively targeted the right audiences using first-party data.