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Nestlé Hot Chocolate South Africa

11 November 2019

Boosting brand awareness and favourability using tailored Facebook video ads


South Africa’s leading hot chocolate brand boosted ad recall by 33% by using Facebook video ads that were specifically tailored and targeted by age and demographic.

The plan 


Nestlé is a Swiss multinational food and drinks processing conglomerate corporation headquartered in Vevey, Vaud, Switzerland. With hot chocolate striking a particular chord with Sound Africa renowned for its creamy, silky texture, appealing colour and rich taste.

Creating more relevant ads 


Nestlé wanted to test whether ad creative that was tailored to different audiences would drive better results than broadly targeted ads in terms of ad recall, message association and favourability. By getting personal with there audience Nestlé worked alongside media agency MetaMedia, digital agency ARC Worldwide and Facebook Creative Shop, Nestlé Hot Chocolate created two campaigns—one with broad targeting and one with demographic targeting.
The broad campaign used to reach and frequency buying to reach South Africans between the ages of 18–44. The demographic campaign was divided into three segments: men between the ages of 18–34, women between the ages of 18–34, and men and women between the ages of 35–44. The campaign used automatic placements to generate optimum results at the lowest average cost.
The next step was creating short videos targeted at each audience, with tailored messaging and themes aimed at men, women and couples. All the content had an overarching theme: that people should make time for the things they love and celebrate with hot chocolate. Following Facebook’s best practices for video, each ad introduced the product immediately and clearly by showing an image of the product and a person sipping Nestlé Hot Chocolate.
The video targeted to women featured a female lead along with this caption: “When you’re juggling a busy schedule, a jam-packed social life, and quality family time, Nestlé Hot Chocolate is always a delicious way to make time.” The video targeted to men featured a male lead, but the caption read: “When smashing the 9–5, getting in the gym workouts and having a jol with your buddies gets a little hectic, make time with Nestlé Hot Chocolate.”

Warming results


Nestlé’s experiment proved that ad creative tailored to specific target groups drove significantly better results than broad targeting. Between June 3–30, 2019, these ads achieved:

  • 6-point lift in message association

  • 2-point lift in favourability

  • 33% lift in ad recall


This blog was originally from Facebook, to learn more about Nestlé's success check out their website and give their hot chocolate a try.