Creative Execution

Highly targeted media and a partnership with food delivery service Foodora put our cheese packs in the hands of our target audience at a key social time – weekend afternoons between 2-6pm. Here's how: Over 5 consecutive weekends in Australia’s two largest cities, Sydney and Melbourne, we set up ‘roving delivery stores’ to disperse our 'Catch Up' packs. Facebook and Spotify ads were then geographic, demographic and time targeted to reach our core audience within these zones. The creative executions (film and display ads) featured messages that dramatised mobile addiction and encouraged our audience to put down their phones to catch up ‘in real life’ over Cracker Barrel cheese. Clicking the ads linked to Foodora to order a Catch Up pack, which was delivered within 30 minutes, completely free of charge. Moving the stores each week required nimble store logistics management and weekly adjustment to localise media targeting and creative.

Our campaign activity generated over 59 pieces of media coverage. In a country with 25 million people and a target audience of 5.2 million, our social activity reached 4.1M people and generated 35,792 likes through Facebook. Our small paid media budget ($39,000 AUD) delivered 776,000 Facebook mobile ads and 229,142 Spotify ads. Aggressive media and creative optimization drove effectiveness e.g. Facebook click through rate improved by 91% and cost per click reduced by 51% over the campaign. Cracker Barrel’s social following doubled on the back of 43,000 organic video views and 1,200 comments/shares/reactions. Overall, we reached over 71% of our target audience during the campaign. Among those reached, approximately 21% of people (76,384) engaged with the campaign (interacted with an ad/commented on social media/ordered a pack). Most critically, we encouraged over 14,000 people* to put down their phones, enjoy some great cheese and have a real-life conversation.

Data showed Cracker Barrel purchasers skewed older, but volume growth was from ‘everyday entertaining’ occasions and younger consumers, which led us to define an experience driven younger audience, ‘the millenially minded’. Lifestyle analysis showed they were highly socially active (e.g. dining out, having friends over) but these activities became more home centred (versus outdoorsy) over winter months. Media usage skewed heavily mobile internet/social media. Media impact analysis identified the most influential touchpoints as samples/brand experiences (owned), partnerships (shared), friends/family conversations (earned) and store promotions (paid). Our challenge was how to engage our audience who spend most of their time on their mobiles in social media to get them off social media? The strategy - enhance existing get-togethers by using the lure of cheese and crackers to create conversations IRL (in real life). The vehicle - a brand experience leveraging a partnership promoted via mobile social media.