Nutella: Social Experience
Lots of people know Nutella, but not many know it isn't just for toast. With low repeat purchases and competitors biting into business, Nutella needed help.
Research found Nutella had a young, active online audience open to finding and sharing new ways for using the spread. We knew Nutella could connect with them to inspire versatility and trial.
There was already a passionate fan base among this audience that LOVE Nutella on the web. Leveraging their enthusiasm, we'd help build a community—sparking new love and usage.
We hit social channels: Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram and Tumblr, creating 500+ pieces of original content in seven months—inspiring fans with fun, tasty ways to enjoy Nutella and appealing to their real-time interests and lives, while engaging influencers to promote their Nutella stories.
Today, through organic and paid media, engagement has more than doubled, and our fans and followers have increased by 518%.
Nutella: The Social Experience
Nutella is a brand that most consumers know and love. But, despite over 90% brand awareness and less than 10% negative sentiment online, Nutella was faced with decreasing household penetration and low repeat buyers. Research showed there was a lack of understanding around how Nutella could be incorporated into consumers' usage occasions beyond spreading the product on toast. Nutella also had new competitors like JIF and Hershey's entering the category. With these challenges, the brand came to us for help to reach new users and inspire versatility.
Our first step was to understand what was driving the consumer mindset. Through quantitative research, we found there was an opportunity to expand Nutella's universe size and reach a new, younger audience online—one that was very active across multiple digital and social touch-points and engaged with brands in day-part segments. Through online listening and qualitative research, we also discovered that this audience has a passionate and adoring fan base that wanted to talk about how much they love Nutella. Not only did this group have creative ideas on how to use the product, they were anxious to share it with the online universe.
Our strategy became clear. We would set out to build a community around Nutella by amplifying the passion and love that already existed amongst their most vocal fans to spark new occasions—reaching new users and inspiring versatility.
Our approach was to optimize and expand Nutella's social footprint: spreading creativity, inspiration, joy and advocacy through relevant content and community engagement. On Facebook, we relaunched Nutella USA to grow deeper participation with local fans. We brought a voice back to Twitter. And with much anticipation, we launched Nutella Pinterest and Instagram pages. In our first seven months alone, we created over 500 pieces of original content—whetting fans' appetites, appealing to their real-time interests and everyday lives, and inspiring them with fun, tasty ways to enjoy Nutella.
For the most active fans, we designed a special Tumblr community for them to share and engage others with their own unique Nutella content.
To support Nutella's 50th anniversary campaign, we created an influencer program—pulling in over 15,000 stories about Nutella from fans in just two days.
And all along, we've been engaging with influencers, including well-known and local celebrities, like William Shatner and Sweet Paul magazine, to curate and amplify their Nutella stories.
In fact, the Nutella love keeps spreading far and wide. Through a strategic mix of organic and paid media, conversations online are up 15.6% and total engagement has more than doubled to 1,339,699—exceeding the brand's benchmarks by 2x. And, as a result of successful content and engagement, our fans and followers have increased by 518% to 2,696,458.
As we inspire new usage, grow the Nutella community and its love, this is just a taste of yummier things to come.
