Mars Wrigley is the world’s leading manufacturer of chocolate, chewing gum, mints and fruity confections. Headquartered in Chicago, it’s world-famous brands are sold in more than 180 countries around the world and include Snickers, M&Ms, Twix and Skittles. In 2018, Mars wanted to launch a new M&Ms Mix range in the UK and drive sales by appealing to new buyers as well as existing customers.
Mars recognised that it was increasingly challenging to reach younger generations through traditional marketing methods and that moving their focus to mobile marketing was integral to any successful strategy. To engage this audience, Mars worked with Facebook Creative Shop to develop mobile-first video ads for Facebook and Instagram to run in the UK.
The creatives were eye-catching, brief, bold animations which brought the variety of colourful M&Ms in the new Mix product to life. The campaign introduced the product to customers, with the key message landing within the first 3 seconds. The animations also included the well-loved M&Ms characters at the end of each video, adding warmth and familiarity. The plan was to drive high household penetration by reaching almost 17 million unique men and women aged 18-50.
The eye-catching, bold Facebook campaign proved to be the most effective that Mars has run across any product segment globally. Run between February-March 2018, the campaign achieved:
- 85% of purchases prompted by the campaign were from consumers who hadn’t bought M&Ms in Tescos in the last 6 months.
- 80% of buyers had not bought M&Ms in the previous 26 weeks.
- 10.7% increase in sales across the M&Ms brand.
- 36% increase in sales for M&Ms Mix range.
This campaign proved the effectiveness of Facebook video ads, with an increase in sales amongst both new and existing customers.
Alexa Saller, M&Ms Brand Director, commented on the success of the campaign: “This campaign has fundamentally changed the way we think about News Feed content at Mars and made it a much more attractive medium.”
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