Ocean Spray
Ocean Spray | Driving Holiday Sales with Creator-Led Digital Media
Creator-driven content and retail media integration helped achieve benchmark-breaking ROAS.
Solutions
The holiday season is a critical sales period for food and beverage brands, requiring a strategic approach to break through the noise and capture consumer attention. Ocean Spray partnered with New Engen’s Acorn Creator Suite to execute a full-funnel digital strategy, integrating influencer-led content with targeted digital amplification to drive measurable results at a major mass retailer. The campaign successfully connected with key holiday shoppers, inspiring them with cranberry-infused recipes and drink ideas that drove engagement and conversions.
Immerse
To deeply understand the Ocean Spray brand and its audience, New Engen conducted extensive research into consumer holiday shopping behaviors, social media engagement trends around seasonal food and beverage content, major mass retailer shopper demographics, and competitive insights within the beverage and snack categories. This in-depth research helped pinpoint high-impact moments when shoppers were most likely to engage and convert.
Beyond the data, we worked closely with Ocean Spray’s internal teams to immerse ourselves in their brand vision and shopper marketing goals. Through strategic workshops and real-time campaign assessments, we gained a clear picture of the customer journey, identifying key triggers that influence purchasing decisions. This level of immersion ensured that our campaign strategy was fully aligned with Ocean Spray’s holiday objectives and the behavior of major mass retailer shoppers.
Inspire
Our research and deep engagement with the brand led to valuable insights that shaped the campaign’s strategic approach. We found that Millennials and Gen Z shoppers responded most positively to creator-generated content that showcased easy-to-make holiday recipes and festive cocktail/mocktail ideas, reinforcing the emotional connection between food, celebration, and nostalgia.
Another key discovery was the power of visual storytelling—high-quality imagery and engaging video content significantly outperformed traditional advertising. Additionally, a combination of creator authenticity and paid social amplification was necessary to drive conversions at scale. Based on these insights, we structured the campaign into two waves to maximize impact:
Wave 1 targeted Millennials new to hosting Friendsgiving and Thanksgiving gatherings, emphasizing simple yet impressive cranberry-based recipes.
Wave 2 focused on holiday baking and festive drinks, showcasing how Craisins could elevate desserts and how Cranberry Juice could be the perfect party mixer for Christmas and New Year’s celebrations.
This insight-driven approach allowed us to craft a campaign that not only resonated with the target audience but also seamlessly integrated Ocean Spray’s products into seasonal moments that matter most to shoppers.
Implement
Our multi-faceted media strategy ensured broad visibility and conversion impact by leveraging:
Recruited five high-performing influencers to generate 26 pieces of engaging content across Instagram and TikTok. Influencers created visually compelling recipes and drinks, aligning with holiday moments.
Meta & TikTok paid campaigns drove a 50.6% engagement rate, well above industry benchmarks.
Major mass retailer DSP activation extended influencer content to high-intent grocery shoppers. First-party audience targeting ensured ads reached consumers most likely to purchase.
$37K allocated to targeted display ads, ensuring the Ocean Spray’s products remained top-of-mind at purchase. Achieved a $45.07 ROAS, exceeding category benchmarks.
Impact
The campaign was a success, surpassing impression guarantees by +114% and outperforming category benchmarks by 3.7X - 20.2X, with 43K clicks & carts driven at the major mass retailer.
Leveraging the Acorn Creator Suite, this Global Food & Beverage Brand's influencer strategy effectively engaged holiday shoppers and delivered high returns, proving the power of a full-funnel, influencer-led approach for CPG brands.
