About Gruma
Gruma is the global food brand behind the Mission and Guerrero products. The Mission and Guerrero brands hold a range of wholesome Mexican tortillas, tostadas and flatbreads, along with high-protein, low-carb and keto options. Mission and Guerrero products are made with the freshest ingredients and serve as the platform for simple recipes and diverse flavors.
Client Location
Irving, TX, USA
Campaign platform
Instagram, TikTok
Campaign snapshot
Retail Sales Relative to Organic Investment
Retail Sales vs. Online Sales
Creative Views
Pieces of Creator Content
The big question
Can CPG Influencer Marketing Drive Measurable Behavior at the Supermarket Too? (Spoiler: Yes)
The background
ONLINE CAMPAIGNS TO DRIVE ONLINE AND OFFLINE ACTION
BENlabs and Gruma, the global food brand behind Guerrero and Mission products, have a longstanding and successful relationship and have brought an online community together. Getting new followers is great, but to be a success, a CPG campaign needs to drive predictable, measurable results: purchases at retail.
The question becomes, how does a CPG brand engage content influencers to build community online while also driving measurable, attributable results at the supermarket checkout counter, across retailers and down to the single dollar?
The AI
Savoring the Smarts
BENlabs AI helps to make every campaign a success and it learns even more with every single engagement.
Gruma needed to get the right message in front of the right audience to drive real results for the Mission and Guerrero brands, not just online but offline, at the supermarket checkout too. BENlabs AI made it happen.
Audience Cluster Analysis
Every BENlabs campaign begins with our AI models finding the right audiences. The right audiences aren’t always (or only) most the obvious ones. With BENlabs AI building receptive audience clusters where meal prep, cooking, family, and other interests converged, we ensured that Gruma messages got in front of audiences who were ready to listen and take action.
Smart Creator Matching
With BENlabs’ proprietary and ever-growing database of more than 13 million qualified content creator influencers, BENlabs AI surfaced and ranked creators who aligned with Gruma’s brand values, as well as targets and goals for Mission and Guerrero products. BENlabs brought 21 creators on board resulting in more than 40 pieces of engaging, on-brand creator content for the campaign.
A/B Autopilot
BENlabs AI tested countless copy, CTA, creative and audience combinations to quickly hone in on winning paid creative that drove to campaign KPIs. Using AI to learn then quickly double down on the most effective creative, BENlabs was able to overdeliver clicks and drive a below target CPM over the campaign.
THE CREATIVE
Authentic Creator Content Highlights Gruma Products
Creating an environment where the product inspires as opposed to dictates creator content is key to authenticity in influencer marketing campaigns.
To that end, BENlabs provides empowering briefs including clear do’s and don’ts for creators to ensure the Mission and Guerrero brands are shared in the best light. These guidelines act as a scaffold as opposed to a box; creators are free to create authentic brand spotlights that align with their own content and creator brand. As a result, sponsored creator content feels natural, with key messages delivered authentically and in the creator’s own voice and content style.
With BENlabs AI highlighting the most receptive audience clusters and identifying the most influential content creators to speak to those clusters — and with the confidence of accurate AI predictive analytics trained on past campaign data — Gruma influencer campaigns don’t require the same level of testing and ramping that a new client would need. Instead, campaigns can launch at scale, with BENlabs AI analytics models accurately predicting results.
For the Summer 2022 campaign, 21 creators including jerry_yguerabide, eatpaylove, feelgoodfoodie, ice.karimcooks, _mrmakeithappen_, and more created 40 unique pieces of content ranging from quick meal prep ideas and full-on chef-inspired recipes, to fun kid’s lunch ideas and nutrition tips, all with the Mission and Guerrero brands in a starring role.
The results
Tasty Recipes, Tastier Numbers
After seeing their favorite creators sharing their favorite Mission and Guerrero products and inspired recipes, over 18,000 people joined Gruma’s primary audience. Not only does this speak to how well the creator content resonated with AI-selected audiences but it also provides the brand an ongoing direct line to cut through the online noise with content they can be confident will be seen in their audience’s algorithmic feed.
Top-performing content was further boosted with a paid ad strategy. Thanks to BENlabs direct relationship with its Creator Community, we were able to share paid ads directly from creator accounts. This is one factor that helped the paid ad strategy to over deliver on clicks by 253% while still coming in under CPM targets.
BENlabs was able to track sales down to the dollar at retail outlets including Walmart and Sam’s Club (24% of retail activity), Costco (11%), Target (17%), Kroger (15%), Publix (6%), Amazon Fresh (13%), Albertson’s (11%), and Stop & Shop (3%).
For every five purchases of Mission and Guerrero products as a result of the campaign, four (82.3%) happened offline compared with one (17.7%) online. Offline retail represented 82.3% of product purchases relating to the campaign compared with 17.7% online sales.
Gruma saw a 2.3X ROI in product sales relative to organic creator content spend.
Gruma In Action
The takeaway
Authentic Influencer Endorsement Drives Measurable Action for CPG
Clearly defining goals before a campaign begins is key to success. Finding the right tools and partners to measure that success is key. In consumer packaged goods (CPG) like Mission and Guerrero tortillas and tostadas, that means tracking retail product sales.
Tracking online sales is relatively easy but in CPG, the real story is at the supermarket checkout counter. Tracking offline sales — what people are actually putting in their grocery carts — is challenging. Without measurable, attributable, and reliable offline data though, CPG products can’t accurately gauge the success of their influencer marketing programs.
Influencer marketing success for CPG brands is all about finding the right partner.
Gruma tapped BENlabs for its AI-driven approach and proven track record in authentic influencer marketing with engaged content creators. The partnership continues to be successful because BENlabs always delivers results and doesn’t shy away from a good challenge.
