Turning fans into customers
Gu¨ Puds
Issue 30 | March 2014
Agency
Publicis Chemistry
Creative Team
Executive Creative Director David Prideaux Creative Director Rob Trono Creative Team Amy Holman James Allen
Other Credits
Senior Account Manager Sally Winter Social Media Manager Courtney Maywald Account Executive Claire Chapeyrou Digital Project Manager Katharyn Gasson Creative Services Manager Raul Balreira Head of Tech Vladimir Exil
Date
June 2013
Background
Gu¨ was a small premium desserts brand trying to grow at a time when shoppers were fearful of recession.
With a very limited budget, the plan was to use social media to drive sales and not just Facebook 'likes'.
It was a classic 'test and learn' programme combined with a measurement framework, designed to help Gu¨ to measure both the value of basic Facebook engagement and the customer value created.
Idea
For Gu¨, CRM in social media was a commitment, not a campaign.
Every day, including weekends, a new post was put up on Facebook to find out what people were (or were not) interested in hearing from the brand.
It turned out that 11,000 foodies were interested in recipes and classes and fans wanted to know more about seasonally relevant puddings.
They were keen to meet the people behind the puddings, especially Fred, the chef.
And they weren't that interested in prizes and competitions (which was a nice, money-saving revelation for Gu¨). Just the puds.
Every user interaction got a response the same day as Gu¨ tried to show their fans the same sort of commitment their fans showed the brand.
When one fan got upset about the Chocolate and Chilli pud being delisted, she got six delivered to her.
From the experience Gu¨ learned it was better to have a small but highly engaged community than a large, inert one.
Results
The Facebook fan base grew from 74,000 to 132,000, whilst increasing their engagement levels.
Fans who engaged with the brand once a week or more spent 1.32 x more than those who engaged less.
Facebook friends were more profitable also in that 47% of them said Gu¨
was a repertoire purchase compared to 61% of the control group who said their purchases were offer-driven.
They were more likely to buy more the desserts they knew, more likely to buy desserts they hadn't tried and more likely to buy desserts they had never heard about before.
Our Thoughts
I was so taken by the music on the entry film, that I found myself watching it several times and really got to discover the how this small brand has done what many fail to do in this social media world...turn fans into customers. It’s all very well getting liked, but surely getting bought is something most marketers would prefer. It’s an intelligent, hard working campaign and I bow down to the creative strategy that delivered (and if someone could deliver to me the name of the music track, I’d be very grateful).