The Problem
Muffin Break is a global bakery franchise chain with over 200 stores across Australia. Their signature product is, of course, the muffin. Muffin Break have run a number of $2 Muffin Days on isolated occasions, state by state. Halloween of 2018 would mark the first time $2 Muffin Day went national. After the success of this initial attempt, they planned the next $2 Muffin Day for Valentine’s Day 2019.
Our task was to help them achieve even higher performance the second time around, thereby increasing awareness of the event and driving sales across the board. This awareness was not solely focused on their considerable dedicated loyalty program and existing following — but new customers, as well. The main KPI was awareness, getting the messaging in front of as many eyes as possible to drive turnout at the stores on the date.
There was an additional detail that came left of field during early February 2019. Townsville had recently been hit with devastating floods. At the very last-minute, an amendment to the campaign was made in an effort to raise funds through the Townsville Muffin Break stores. It was decided that all muffin sales from the Townsville stores would go towards aiding victims of the floods as a show of support for the effected community.
The Idea
Our first step was to decide which assets needed to be created. We decided on a foundation of one blog post, two social posts, and a boosted Facebook event for starters. The creative team collaborated to ensure that both copy and design were correctly aligned with Muffin Break’s messaging and branding.
In terms of email marketing efforts, we decided that two eDMs were to be sent out to customers. One to announce the day, and one that was to serve as a teaser, alluding to something exciting around the corner. Eventually, two additional eDMs were created with Townsville specifically in mind.
In order to achieve our objective of reaching the existing customers as well as acquiring new ones, we decided to take a two-pronged approach with our digital strategy.
On Facebook and Instagram, our targeted social media ads would be focused on acquisition. With social campaigns, we spoke to an audience that might be less familiar with Muffin Break, and/or not classified as regular customers. Through these channels, we drove the compelling $2 offer with a call to action prompting to visit their local store visits (linked to the Muffin Break store locator).
In addition to this, the boosted Facebook event served as a hub for further information about participating stores, terms and conditions, as well as on-going promotional material to spike interest. Yet again, this was structured to drive users to find their nearest store.
The Result
The event was a success. The Valentine’s Day $2 Muffin Day saw a 53% uplift in sales in comparison to the previous national $2 Muffin Day of Halloween 2018. We exceeded our projected reach numbers on social by an incredible margin, reaching over one million people across Australia. Our $2 Muffin Day emails to the loyalty database even beat industry standard open rates — particularly with the Townsville audience due to engagement with our relief support efforts. The open rate for our eDM campaign regarding fundraising efforts was well above industry standards at over 25%.
And finally, in terms of the Townsville people themselves, we are proud to say we were able to support their community in a meaningful way. Incidentally, a key Muffin Break pillar is “community”. Across the four stores in the Townsville area, sales were absolutely fantastic, driven by the right marketing efforts, directed to the right people, at the right time and place.
Our incredible results earned us a prestigious Silver Davey Award for Integrated Campaign – Marketing Effectiveness. Read more about it here
The power of a carefully curated social media/digital campaign cannot be ignored. If you’re interested to find out how we can help your business achieve similar results, do not hesitate — to get in touch now!
