5 Ways CPG Brands Activate Shoppable Media

According to Statistica, the total number of online grocery shoppers in the U.S. is projected to reach 163 million by 2024. This increase in tech-savvy consumers has greatly shifted the path to purchase and, in turn, inspired the rise of digital solutions designed to meet shopper needs — including convenience, price comparison and delivery. But what about the needs of CPG brands?

 As the grocery industry continues to adapt to omnichannel shopping trends, shoppable tech must also evolve to meet brands’ strategic needs — from growing category share to launching a new product. At Chicory, we’ve developed off-platform advertising solutions to complement in-store and retail media activations. Our contextual commerce approach combines contextual advertising with shoppable tech to allow brands to reach high-intent heads of household shoppers and execute shoppability strategies to effectively transform moments of inspiration into opportunities for conversion.

In this blog post, we’ll review five Chicory-powered shoppable media strategies and supporting case studies to inspire brand-first advertising solutions at your company.

Own an Ingredient 

We know that 89% of consumers report using digital recipes. Each time your brand’s ingredient is called for in a recipe is an opportunity to associate your brand with said ingredient. By ‘owning’ your product within online recipe content, brands can effectively reach consumers who are strongly considering making a purchase. 

Perdue, a leading poultry manufacturer, partnered with Chicory to execute this strategy: owning chicken any time it was mentioned in a recipe across our network of 1,500+ recipe sites. Our Premium in-line ad units appeared directly within the recipe to align Perdue chicken with recipes that called for each particular cut — resulting in a campaign that drove an impressive 688% ROAS. Learn more about Perdue’s campaign here.

Target Key Seasons

For ingredient and non-ingredient brands alike, aligning with seasonal recipe content is a valuable way to win key drive periods. Our Premium pairings advertising units suggest complimentary grocery products in contextually relevant environments — like corn chips on a salsa recipe —  and even boast engagement rates 85% higher than standard display ads. 

To drive sales during spring celebrations, a major wine brand worked with Chicory to target recipes for Easter entertaining to suggest wine as the perfect pairing for each dish. This seasonal targeting helped secure a 12.4X ROAS for the campaign. Get the full case study here.

Align with Consumer Lifestyles and Trends

Brands can also leverage Chicory’s contextual media solutions to align with various consumer lifestyles — from quick and easy weeknight dinners to diet-focused recipes. This strategy is an effective way to reach brands’ target personas and support ad relevance by aligning messaging with that lifestyle. 

This strategy proved successful for a disruptor frozen treat brand that sought to win over health-conscious shoppers browsing healthy recipe content. Chicory’s contextual targeting strategy drove both consumer awareness and sales for the brand, resulting in a sales lift of 5.3%. Discover the campaign’s total sales here.

Suggest an Ingredient Swap

 In a recent consumer survey, we learned that 37% of millennials discover new products via digital recipes. This confirms that positioning your product as an ingredient swap in a recipe is an effective way to inspire new use cases and drive sales.

This strategy was a perfect fit for an alternative sweetener brand looking to steal category share from traditional sugar. Ads suggested the product as a healthy swap with messaging emphasizing its low-calorie benefits. This “swap and educate” strategy proved successful, driving a 5.7% lift in brand awareness, as measured by a third party partner. Learn more about the campaign’s sweet success here.

Launch a New Product

When launching a new product, it is critical that a brand’s go-to-market strategy seeks innovative ways to engage shoppers. With recipes being the #1 driver of new product trial, recipes are an ideal environment in which to launch a new product. 

A well-known yogurt brand took advantage of this to launch their new sugar-free yogurt line. Beyond ‘owning’ yogurt as an ingredient, the brand leveraged Premium pairings units to feature lifestyle imagery of the new yogurt being used in a variety of ways — in a smoothie, as a tangy pancake topping and even mixed into mashed potatoes. This inspired both new use cases and serious sales — driving $115K in hero incremental sales alone. Get the full scoop on this campaign here. 

These five shoppable media strategies just scratch the surface of ways CPG brands can activate shoppability solutions with Chicory and each showcases how digital recipes are a powerful resource for CPG brands. 84% of shoppers use recipes to make their shopping lists, making recipes the perfect environment for CPG brands to advertise within. Digital recipes provide consumers with a roadmap for their shopping trips⁠ and inversely, a direct path for CPG brands to secure a spot on shoppers’ lists. By layering the above five strategies onto their shoppability tactics, CPG brands can begin to drive conversions more effectively and reach both new and lapsed shoppers.