Grocery Gateway
2018 Campaign

The Goal

Following the acquisition by Longo's, Grocery Gateway underwent a massive rebrand, transforming the simple online grocery store into an intimate digital food experience. To reinvent its presence, both online and offline, the brand needed to amass a new generation of grocery buyers while also retaining its strong base of loyal customers. The brand needed to communicate the service and convenience of Grocery Gateway's online grocery delivery while leveraging Longo's brand equity to help new customers get over the barrier of having someone else pick their fresh produce for them. In preparation for powerful competitors from south of the border entering the Canadian market (Walmart and Amazon), and with delivery services like Uber Eats and Instacart encroaching on its turf, the brand needed to develop a new, refreshing go-to-market campaign to solidify its stake as the first mover in Canada's online grocery delivery market.

Target

Facing a suite of Goliaths entering the market, Sid Lee looked to identify the highest-growth-potential customers in the Greater Toronto Area-young and old, new families and singles, able-bodied people and those with accessibility needs. By diving deeper into the values and needs of our core customers, the team developed seven key personas to inform the brand, UX and marketing efforts, allowing to split the campaign between identifying new customers and creating look-alike audiences from the most loyal and profitable customers to drive new customer acquisition.

Insights and Strategy

Leveraging growth-hacking techniques from the start-up world, the agency combined creative efforts with a deep dive into digital analytics, creating a highly targeted campaign that would cater messaging unique to different regions of the GTA, varying demographics and specifically addressed topical and seasonal moments. The approach to messaging and remarketing took into consideration things like seasonality, geographical location (targeting specific regions of the GTA) and audience response to each round, resulting in creative that felt truly personalized.

The Plan

With social media and Google Display Network as the brand’s sole platforms, the agency was aware of how easy it would be for the messaging to get lost in a sea of offerings, especially in the promotional period during the 2017 holiday season. It was crucial that the creative be dynamic in every sense of the word. Headlines that catch the eye and stunning, food porn-esque, thumbstopping imagery that was guaranteed to make the audience salivate and click for more. In addition, the team wanted the creative to mimic the natural behaviours of our mobile audience, without sacrificing desktop interactions. Vertical video with a cascading animation mirrored the natural scrolling behaviour of the audience and was particularly optimized for Instagram Stories, where conversion consists of a swipe-up action.

Technology and Tools

Utilizing Facebook Pixel, the team was able to optimize the messaging, sorting through various combinations of copy and visual assets to define the most impactful story. A/B testing of different product offerings and messages allowed the agency to redevelop messaging to appeal directly to each consumer and drive that consumer to conversion. Utilizing look-alike audiences in Facebook Pixel, the agency was able to further target these messages to potential new customers, optimizing towards those most likely to shop with the brand.

User Experience

For each of the customized creative ad units, the team also generated a specific landing page to ensure the user experience was intuitive and seamless. Using Facebook Pixel, it was also able to track the user all the way to conversion. The brand knew that it needed to get new customers to shop at least three different times before they became loyal customers. Based on their shopping behaviour, the brand was able to customize retargeted messages to them until they converted for the third time.

Supporting Channels

Given the strength of the rebranding efforts and the affiliation with Longo's, the agency was able to build awareness of Grocery Gateway through owned media, specifically signage at key Longo's locations in profitable areas around Toronto. Also, its delivery trucks served as effective out-of-home advertising. As the deliveries increased, there were more trucks driving around more neighbourhoods.

The Results

Within the first three weeks of the campaign, GG was forced to put a pause on the campaign simply to catch up with the influx of new customers and increased frequency by its existing clientele. In the first three months of the campaign, there was a total spend of $330K, while total purchases was 9,019 items, valuing it at $1.5M. The brand saw an add-to-cart increase by over 26% MOM and increased purchases by over 39% MOM.