You’ll be able to name it a warmth wave – however Liquid I.V. sees a possibility.
The Unilever-owned model, which makes powder that will get added to water to enhance hydration (and style), started its first nationwide branding marketing campaign every week in the past, together with its first TV, OTT and out-of-home media buys.
Liquid I.V. was acquired by Unilever in 2020 and 6 months in the past added Stacey Andrade, a long-time model director at Procter & Gamble, as its VP of selling.
The model and the corporate have now reached an “inflection level the place we really feel very effectively geared up to scale,” Andrade mentioned.
Driving consciousness and educating shoppers are the highest orders of enterprise. And for Liquid I.V., which discovered its early traction as a Fb and Instagram-based model, meaning exercising very completely different marketer muscle groups.
Liquid I.V. began with a large client analysis report, Andrade mentioned, and a number of the findings had been shocking.
For instance, Liquid I.V. has traditionally focused aggressive sports activities, particularly endurance athletes or those that are uncovered to the solar for hours – however seems that isn’t the perfect focus for a nationwide branding effort.
Athlete influencer-types had been amongst Liquid I.V.’s first loyal prospects, however with the intention to attain much less energetic (and extra typical) shoppers, the analysis pointed away from high-intensity actions and in direction of out of doors actions, hobbies and even rest, Andrade mentioned.
The storytelling focus wanted a change. After which there’s the measurement side.
Liquid I.V. has relied totally on campaigns tied to direct gross sales and attribution, like affiliate-style social shopper visitors or sponsored product listings. However because the firm is including many new advertising and marketing channels (and legacy media at that), Liquid I.V. can be conducting its first media combine modeling report for this marketing campaign.
Andrade mentioned Liquid I.V. added an MMM vendor “to have the ability to say: ‘Okay, as a physique of proof, is that this actually transferring the needle in the way in which that we want to so we now have ongoing monitoring of issues like our consciousness numbers or family penetration numbers?’” She declined to specify the seller.
The brand new marketing campaign received’t essentially drive direct conversions, however Andrade mentioned the MMM info following the marketing campaign ought to display which ways or channels improved model consciousness and, most significantly, which has an impression on shoppers by way of training concerning the worth of a powdered hydration product.
“In some ways, this marketing campaign is sort of a large check for Liquid I.V.,” she mentioned.
MMM can be a extra thorough evaluation of many various channels, she mentioned. For example, OOH adverts could show their worth if the cities focused for that media present a robust soar in Liquid I.V. consciousness and gross sales in comparison with comparable cities with out OOH placements. And entire channels, akin to YouTube, Instagram and Fb, could be judged not on their in-the-moment optimization or self-reported conversions, however by a third-party vendor them alongside different complete channels.
The price of MMM, nevertheless, is greater than the value a model pays its associate run surveys and parse the information. Establishing an MMM program takes time and the model additionally has to attend earlier than analyzing outcomes.
In Liquid I.V.’s case, the plan is to begin wanting and run fashions just a few months after the marketing campaign ends, “with the intention to affect how we plan and resolve what our technique appears to be like like for subsequent yr,” Andrade mentioned.
However there’s nonetheless room for fast information suggestions and optimization, she mentioned.
“One of many issues I’m actually enthusiastic about with Liquid I.V. after my background in longstanding CPG manufacturers like Procter & Gamble is the advantage of a DTC property,” she mentioned. For example, as a result of Liquid I.V. has a robust DTC ecommerce enterprise, it could actually see if and when TV campaigns or OOH helped drive digital visitors, because the firm can attribute by monitoring any surge in search and web site numbers in a particular market.
“There are a few metrics that I’d say are quick time period, even actual time, and permit us to pivot and be versatile as wanted,” Andrade mentioned.
For comparability’s sake, a P&G laundry detergent model doesn’t have a web site that gives a dependable stream of first-party information indicators to gauge the efficacy of its TV adverts.
“As we study extra and as we layer on this higher funnel to what till now has largely been a efficiency advertising and marketing firm, it’s going to light up what is de facto efficient at driving consciousness,” Andrade mentioned.
Some channels, for example, are centered solely on conversions, however don’t drive house the advertising and marketing aims of serving to folks perceive how Liquid I.V. works and getting them to contemplate the product as a hydration profit.
“The place are the perfect returns by way of with the ability to inform a narrative versus being laser-focused on conversion?” Andrade mentioned. “The reply could evolve the way forward for our advertising and marketing technique and the platforms that we select to prioritize.”
