Case Study at a Glance
COMPANY DESCRIPTION
Online-based Licorice.com and Pretzels.com are sister companies that centralize sales of artisanal food for gourmet licorice and pretzel flavors.
COMPANY LOCATION
Delray Beach, Florida
WHY BEN
Licorice.com and Pretzels.com partnered with BEN in
an effort to drive sales. The partnership began with Licorice.com—after seeing positive initial results, the brand’s parent company entrusted BEN with the launch and scale of its second brand, Pretzels.com.
THE BLUEPRINT
Drive Licorice.com and Pretzels.com sales during the Q4 2021 holiday season
Engage influencers across verticals (interior design, motherhood, lifestyle) to showcase the product
THE PLATFORMS
A Festive Gourmet Snack
The founders of Licorice.com are a self-proclaimed “Licorice-obsessed family.” The brand was born out of their desire to elevate it to the artisanal, gourmet treat it was destined to be. As Licorice.com found a loyal customer base, the family behind it all—Adam, Jonathan, and Sarah—saw an opportunity to tap into an additional market. Soon, Pretzels.com, was born, “reinventing the snack, untying the knot and thrilling the palate.”
Today, the snack market is a competitive space. For the two brands, standing apart meant positioning their tasty products as high-quality, gift-worthy items. With the Q4 2021 holiday season approaching, the brands decided to work with creators that could effectively showcase their gift appeal and drive sales. Goat Foods, the parent company behind both, turned to BEN to identify the right partners.
A Tasty Twist on Gift-Giving
The Licorice and Pretzels campaigns were scheduled to start just before Black Friday and end shortly before New Year’s. This meant BEN had a short month-and-a-half period to find the right creators for the collaboration. The team’s process, a perfect marriage of human expertise and AI-driven insight, was up to the quick-turn challenge.
BEN’s experienced team identified a shortlist of creators that aligned well with the campaign goals of driving treat sales, then turned to AI to sharpen and expand upon those initial recommendations. BEN’s AI platform can analyze creator content at a granular level, looking at how they promote products, which talking points they use, and which verticals lead to the highest conversion rate. This AI data allows it to produce lookalike creators with similar content and audiences to the initial recommendations of BEN’s experts. The BEN team then reviews the AI’s list, resulting in a set of creators guaranteed to make the most impact.
For both Licorice and Pretzels, BEN’s list included many female creators, including moms and influencers focused on interior design. Based on the recommendations, these creators could do the best job of showcasing the products’ aesthetic and great taste. In addition to the vibrant colors of the treats, the product boxes and packaging are elegantly designed, highlighting the gourmet aspect of the treats themselves. And indeed, the creators’ unboxing videos featured colorful licorice and pretzels spilling out of impressive packaging in already-festive environments. Creators talking about the flavor possibilities of the pretzels—from Bacon Bourbon Jam to Strawberry Margarita—and emphasizing that there was “nothing like it in stores” were effective at driving engagement, BEN’s post-campaign insights revealed. With the holiday season around the corner, many creators shared who they were planning on gifting their licorice and pretzels to, including their childrens’ teachers, family and friends, and even their mail couriers as a thank you for their hard work during the season.
In addition to fresh, organic content, the BEN team used paid media to target specific audiences, mostly women 25-35, with messaging pertaining to gifting and being a great family treat.
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A Sweet Success
Though the campaign lasted a short six weeks, there was a noticeable increase in performance from month one to month two. After seeing success with moms and interior designer creators in November, BEN doubled down on similar creators in December, driving higher results. Month over month, customer acquisition cost decreased by 15% for both brands, while conversions increased by 206.6% for Pretzels.com and 192% for Licorice.com. Both brands also saw a healthy 3.5% click through rate, with Pretzels showing a strong 2% conversion rate.
In total, creators delivered 37 pieces of content for Licorice.com and 33 for Pretzels.com, resulting in over 940,000 views. Top performers emerged across both campaigns—home and recipe blogger Ashlee (@thesassybarn) produced some of the most effective content for both brands. Overall, the campaigns were such a success that the sites even temporarily sold out of goods—a good problem to have for any growing business.
As Pretzels and Licorice continue to grow, influencer marketing remains a core element of their brand strategy. BEN, meanwhile, continues to iterate its recommendations based on campaign performance.
JONATHAN PACKER, CO-FOUNDER, LICORICE.COM AND PRETZELS.COM
