Summary
ITC utilized the pandemic-induced lockdown as opportunity to launch ITC eStore. To drive awareness and increase average-bill-value, Facebook, Google Display and Display channels like Quora/Verizon were utilized. Creatives were customized towards campaign objective being fulfilled by the featured products. Localization of messaging was implemented. Campaign led to 30% increase in average-bill-value, and overall 10x organic revenue growth compared to previous duration. We currently Rank 1 on core brand terms outranking marketplaces like Amazon, Flipkart etc.
Challenge
The pandemic-induced lockdown and movement curbs marked an inflection point for online grocery shopping, pushing demand to record highs. India's online grocery market grew by 80% to $2.66 billion in 2020. Also, moving forward, consumers are expected to increasingly rely on e-commerce for grocery purchases due to the adoption of digital lifestyles and rise of dual-income households. Anticipating increase in consumer preference for contactless shopping and home delivery, ITC introduced E-stores in 2020. The objective was to help customers who didn't have access to its basket of FMCG products in physical stores, in addition to exclusives. ITC e-store highlights how the consumers can leverage the one roof shopping experience for their daily essentials. We had been running campaigns for ITC store on Google and Facebook since Nov'20. However, after an initial spike, sales plateaued. Moreover, average basket value of purchases was low thus impacting ROI and limiting scale-up.
Objective
ITC Store was launched during COVID to help customers who didn't have access to its basket of FMCG products in physical stores, in addition to exclusives. We wanted to target consumers who were purchasing ITC products from other channels, to drive awareness and shift purchases to ITC store. We needed to radically redefine our strategy with the twin-fold objectives of: • Scaling up campaigns to drive awareness about ITC Store as a grocery destination • Increasing Average Bill Value
Strategy
We decided to adopt 360-degree approach integrating search engine like Google, social media platforms like Facebook, and Display channels like Quora/Verizon to reach consumers. We ensured that the actions we take, the channels we chose support one another to reach customer at the right time, on the right budget, and with the right message. To build awareness, acquire more market share, and increase average bill value, ITC eStore adopted Facebook where it targeted relevant set of audiences interested in grocery. We also utilized Google search ads targeting keywords related to grocery buying to reach and acquire more consumers with specific localization of the ad content. Google Discovery, Performance Max and Facebook campaigns were supported by the likes of other Display channels like Quora & Verizon which helped us cover the other ad inventories. We wanted to target consumers who were purchasing ITC products from other channels, to drive awareness and shift purchases to ITC store. We did this through a combination of 1st party, 2nd party, and 3rd party data to reach the relevant segments, including remarketing segments. We mapped these segments to specific creatives and relevant communication objectives which had seen a good performance in the past: • Remarketing Website Visitors - Store USPs • Shoppers, Female Grocery Buyers - Monthly Essentials • Health Conscious, Parents, Female Grocery Buyers - Hygiene & Sanitization, Health foods • Busy Professionals, Working Women, Parents - Snacks • Working Women, Female Grocery Buyers - Personal Care Localization of the messaging was an important aspect of the campaign due to difference in consumer buying behavior between cities. Targeting options basis geographical location allowed to refine what creatives were shown to similar audiences across each city. To build trust amongst consumers we highlighted store USPs like next day delivery, free delivery above Rs. 750 etc.
Data
To achieve our business objective, we did a deep-dive basket analysis. This helped identify 2 key parameters to map our communication objectives: Volume and Value. Once we put our product range on these axes, we saw that each quadrant had different associated campaign objectives: 1. High Volume, High Basket Value - Promote as Hero SKUs in Pure Play Performance Channels 2. High Volume, Low Basket Value - Use to drive saliency and relevance 3. Low Volume, High Basket Value - Promote for need based cohorts 4. Low Volume, Low Basket Value - Use as an add on with other categories Communication for each creative was customized towards campaign objective being fulfilled by products featured on it. Creatives featuring products driving ROI had callouts to drive purchases, whereas those driving volumes had callouts of discounts to drive clicks. For audiences with awareness objective, we used video format that instantly grabs attention, focusing on store USPs, range and offers. To attract audiences with a consideration and purchase objective we used ad formats like Image Ads, Carousel Ads and Collection Ads to present a range of offerings and benefits. We exposed them to category specific offers highlighting an offer end date to create FOMO effect. In terms of creatives, we adopted the practice of having seasonal creatives like Holi, Eid, Diwali; Lockdown based messaging; summer and monsoon creatives. Theme of the creatives were mapped to landing pages for a seamless consumer experience. During Holi 2021, we made ‘The Big Holi Splash Sale' as the creative theme. The festival of Holi was on 29th March. So, we strategically ran the campaign during the buying cycle, 25th March – 4th April when online purchases spike. We also ran category-based creatives by doing basket analysis and creating different product baskets which were being bought together frequently.
Solution
We used Facebook Reach & Frequency and Google Display as platforms for this campaign. We used channels like Facebook traffic and google discovery to achieve traffic and engagement objective. Google Discovery, Performance Max and Facebook campaigns were supported by other Display channels like Quora & Verizon which helped us cover other ad inventories. On Google Search, we adopted an overall coverage where we ranked for all the well-known ITC brands with search as well as product listing ads in tandem with Discovery & Performance Max display ads. We ran smart shopping campaigns to cover dynamic remarketing and product related search queries. We launched Discovery campaigns and Performance max campaigns to help achieve our traffic and ROI objective at optimized cost. Grocery related in-market and custom audiences were targeted through Discovery campaigns. We split the campaigns geographically into top metro cities & other cities which helped us scale the efficient cities. On Facebook, we ran full funnel campaigns starting from awareness (Reach and frequency), consideration (Traffic and Video views) and conversion (Website conversion and Catalogue) campaigns. Awareness and Consideration campaigns helped us to fill upper funnel by generating traffic to website and building remarketing pool. We later targeted this audience through conversion and catalogue campaigns. We also ran prospecting campaigns with conversion objective to bring relevant traffic to the website by using different audience segments like first party, third part data, Facebook Interest and Lookalike segments. Since most Indian consumers are now shopping via mobile devices, we had to ensure our website and creatives were optimized for mobile. We re-evaluated our website from a consumer journey perspective. UI/UX audit was done to identify gaps in consumer journey across product discoverability and purchase. Core issues were fixed to drive a significant improvement in conversion rates and reduction in bounce rates %.
Results
ITC store campaigns on Google and Facebook was started from Nov'20 but the sales were not growing as ITC store was a new platform for consumers and hence the awareness was low. The existing sales were mostly coming from the low value products which was impacting the return on investment. Hence, we wanted to leverage the buying cycle period to create awareness about ITC store and to promote the high priced, bestselling products to attract the high value customers to lift our average bill value. The campaign delivered much better-than-expected results, leading to a 30% increase in average bill value, and overall 10x organic revenue growth while paid revenue grew by 20x as compared to previous duration. Since we were able to target very sharp customer segments, we were able to achieve these results at a lower CPC reading to a 2x reduction in cost of acquisition. Due to the SEO activities combined with high store traffic, there was a 400% increase in share of voice on organic search for brand terms. Post this campaign, our BAU campaign ROI increased from 1.4 to 2.4 and increased store traffic has led to a month on month increase in sales. We are currently Rank 1 on core brand terms outranking marketplaces like Amazon, Flipkart etc.
