With American Cheese Month approaching, Wisconsin Cheese was looking for ways to highlight its products in retail locations. Its team wanted to promote specialty cheese products through the “Wonders of Wisconsin” campaign.
A nonprofit organization representing dairy farmers, Wisconsin Cheese’s goal is promoting dairy products from around the state. For the American Cheese Month promotion, they were interested in reaching on-the-go consumers to encourage them to visit a point of sale location.
Partnering with Waze, Wisconsin Cheese ran a six-week pilot program that sought to accomplish two things: drive shoppers to specific retail locations, and increase overall sales of its branded products. The resulting campaign exceeded the organization’s expectations.
A partner that’s a ‘strong fit’
Peter Cesiro, an Account Director who has worked for the past several years with Wisconsin Cheese, said that the organization was eager to partner with Waze on the promotion for a couple of reasons.
“One of the reasons Waze came to mind for this initiative is that it’s a consumer-based navigation platform,” said Cesiro. “Wisconsin Cheese is a community-based product. It felt like a very strong fit.”
Because Wisconsin Cheese isn’t a retailer, it doesn’t have immediate access to sales figures. Cesiro said the organization needed a partner that could deliver trackable metrics for both door swings and sales lift. Waze was able to provide a detailed analysis of both.
Driving shoppers to the front door
Cesiro said the six-week campaign dovetails with the organization’s overall marketing strategy that includes television ads, videos on YouTube and other outlets, and paid social media promotion across various platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest.
The campaign, which ran from mid-April to the end of May, employs Waze’s Pins, Search, and Takeover ads to drive consumers to retail locations in select markets nationwide; California, Illinois, Texas, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Florida. It urged shoppers to celebrate American Cheese Month and directed them to retail locations that carry branded Wisconsin Cheese products, including H-E-B, Jewel-Osco, Nugget, Shop-Rite, and Winn-Dixie.
There are a lot of store-brand cheeses that come from Wisconsin, but Cesiro said the organization wanted to raise the profile of products that bore the “Proudly Wisconsin” badge. The campaign tracked sales of these cheeses.
One of the reasons Waze came to mind for this initiative is that it's a consumer-based navigation platform. It felt like a very strong fit.
Peter Cesiro, Account Director, Overdrive Interactive, Wisconsin Cheese
Focusing on a drive-to-retail strategy
Cesiro said that combined with Wisconsin Cheese’s overall marketing strategy, Waze’s navigation-based approach can have big benefits. “It shows that when you leverage a drive-to-retail strategy, you can influence consumer behavior,” he said. “In a very short period of time, you can really increase brand awareness about your product.”
“We had a strong sales lift, with the final numbers over $800,000” said Cesiro. “So from our perspective, that's a very strong performance for a six-week initiative.”
The performance of Waze’s Takeover ads was particularly impressive. There were 13,225 engagements leading to a total of 8,977 navigations to retail locations. The navigation rate of 0.12% is almost twice that of the benchmark. Ad recall was 146% higher among those who were exposed to the takeover ads.
Cesiro said that combined with Wisconsin Cheese’s overall marketing strategy, Waze’s navigation-based approach can have big benefits. “It shows that when you leverage a drive-to-retail strategy, you can influence consumer behavior,” he said. “In a very short period of time, you can really increase brand awareness about your product.”
