Why context matters: How Quest captured consumer intent to drive awareness boost, 20% sales uplift

Host: Nadia Cameron, Publisher | Editor – Marketing ‘Context is key’ is one of those age-old principles most people hold to be true. But when it comes to advertising, our industry can get rather one-track minded on what context best serves conversion, commonly placing the emphasis and weight on the point of purchase, or last-click, to gain a commercial result. Yet as protein and nutrition brand, Quest, and its media agency partner, Pearman Media, discovered, pick an environment where need states are formed further up the food chain, and you can drive even more impactful bottom-line results. And for Quest, that meant hitting the gym. Quest was returning to above-the-line advertising after a three-year hiatus, looking to rebuild awareness and consideration in an increasingly noisy protein snacking category. As Pearman Media group business director, Tara Lamond, puts it, one common question in marketing is ‘Where do people buy?”. But for this campaign, the more impactful question became: ‘Where does demand begin?’. “When we were looking at our consumer insights, we could see 70 per cent of people go to the gym before they go to the grocery store. That was a really good indicator for us that we should be targeting people in both places,” Lamond says. The campaign for Quest’s new Protein Tortilla Chips – chosen as because it’s a differentiated product format in a sea of protein bars and bites dominated by giant FMCG players – centred around leveraging two complementary VMO environments: VMO Shop, the media operator’s retail solution; plus VMO Active, its gyms network. With just one pack shot on-hand, VMO’s in-studio team also created 3D animated assets that could best target audiences while they were exercising, as well as for follow up at the path to purchase. “We knew our audience were wanting to get fit; they were already interested in their health and wellness, and in going to the gym regularly, they had this undivided time to be able to hit with the message,” Lamond says. Going with one supplier in VMO who could access consumers through that journey, and also deliver the brand uplift study to prove out effectiveness, made for a smarter, more streamlined program of work, Lamond continues. This outdoor play was complementary by a smaller audio campaign on Nova to build frequency and cement awareness. Quest climbed aboard the strategy quickly. “It just shows too that if you have the evidence and the research to back it up and the decisions that you're making, not all clients are driven to the performance end,” says Lamond. The integrated VMO play proved significant: A 20 per cent sales uplift during the six-week campaign. Off the back of this, Quest extended the campaign into October and November. But it’s the surprising contribution of a contextually relevant environment that was even more fruitful, overindexing in brand lift and consideration metrics. With proximity to the supermarket shelf itself so crowded, Quest gained an ability to stand out well beyond what its media dollars would otherwise have allowed it to. Per VMO’s proprietary tool, Validate, awareness of Quest reached 67 per cent among those who saw the campaign, compared to 43 per cent who didn’t. Layering VMO Active on top delivered another 11 percentage points on average across awareness, trial, purchase intent and recommendation, compared with just VMO Shop alone. While VMO Shop-only awareness grew from 43 per cent to 54 per cent, trial inched up 3 per cent to 23 per cent. By contrast, VMO Active reached delivered 84 per cent product awareness and 52 per cent trial, more than double the control group on both counts. “We do really well for FMCG brands wanting to drive sales in store by using our retail network, or we do really well with health food nutrition products who want to target those consumers in the gym environment. Using the two to actually drive sales was something we've been pushing for a long time,” comments VMO managing director, Paul Butler. “Gyms could be a real amplifier for the brand metrics you would have got just using one retail media opportunity.” Including fitness within updated Move measurement released earlier this year provided a critical instrument to proving the power of the two out. “Those brands that are prepared to look at the unique environment and the attributes of the gym space will see … there's new audience and more share of voice opportunities with the combination of existing retail. That's a real potent mix,” says Butler. “There are these newer audiences available that are not used to seeing some of these messages. That's where you can really get some uptick.” Butler now has his sights set on proving the unique combined power of other out-of-home environments, such as its office tower network and petro-convenience sites with retail media. “Those sorts of environments provide ways that you can stand out. There are big dwell times; they're not as commonly used as maybe some of the other more traditional formats of out-of-home. That's a really big new opportunity for measurement, and obviously businesses like ours.” Lamond meanwhile, has been convinced on the power of context. “The campaign reinforced the value of planning around moments, not just media channels, and that context amplifies effectiveness.” See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.