How Unilever reached Q4 festive season shoppers with Amazon Ads in Türkiye

In 2022, Unilever, a leading player in the beauty, well-being, and personal care (BPC) category with popular brands like Dove, Simple and Axe, found their growth on Türkiye’s Amazon store lagging behind the sector’s rapid expansion. ⁽¹⁾

Although the company saw an increase in viewership of their products and buyer base, it was insufficient compared to the overall growth in the BPC market. With the crucial Q4 sales events like 11/11 Singles’ Day and White Friday around the corner, Unilever faced the pressing challenge of enhancing their brand visibility, capturing a larger share of the rapidly growing audience and aligning their growth trajectory with the booming BPC sector.

To address this challenge, Unilever collaborated with Amazon Ads and identified a growth opportunity within the BPC category. The key insight: Deploying a full-funnel approach before and after peak sales events would help gain new-to-category customers for Unilever. By adopting this approach, Unilever aimed to not only reach more customers but also enhance the customer purchase journey.

In preparation for the Q4 peak events, Amazon Ads recommended a lead-in and lead-out activation, which is two-pronged strategy where the lead-in activation primes the audience by creating awareness and building anticipation before the events, and the “lead-out” activation sustains the momentum, maximising engagement and conversions even afterwards. This multifaceted Q4 strategy was tailored specifically for Unilever, integrating Amazon DSP and sponsored ads products to help ensure high visibility and customer engagement.

During the lead-up phase, the strategy was focused on driving more traffic to Unilever product pages and brand stores, engaging a wide range of personal care consumers. The strategy used two types of creatives: one to promote the launch of the brand Store, and the other to feature Unilever’s unique products via responsive e-commerce creatives (RECs).

Afterward, 11/11 Singles’ Day and White Friday marked a switch in strategy. During this period, audiences were directed to Unilever’s offer pages, highlighting special deals designed for these occasions.

After the Q4 events, the lead-out phase engaged viewers who had shown interest in Unilever brands with the use of RECs. The aim was to connect with those audiences who had seen, but not yet bought, Unilever products to make a purchase.

By broadening the potential customer base before key sales events like 11/11 Singles’ Day and White Friday, the campaign better positioned Unilever BPC for the Q4 peak shopping season by engaging more customers with their product offerings. Additionally, post-event remarketing campaigns were used to retain customers who showed interest during the peak sales period.

Some noteworthy results from the campaign:

• The number of consumers engaging with the Unilever brand online grew by 125% year over year, outpacing the growth on aisle browsers. By rolling out RECs and driving users to the brand Store during major retail events, the campaign drew more consumers into engaging with the Unilever brand online. ⁽²⁾
• The DSP campaigns resulted with a 0.9% detail page view rate vs. a 0.6% peer set average, and drove high visibility for potential customers. ⁽³⁾
• Furthermore, it also resulted in a 5.8X return on ad spend (ROAS), demonstrating the ability to effectively reach and engage with the intended audience. ⁽⁴⁾
• The sponsored ads campaigns achieved a 30X ROAS, indicating the ability to capture the attention of potential customers and drive them to make a purchase. With clear objectives set during the lead-in, event and lead-out phases, the sponsored ads campaigns were able to generate high ROAS. ⁽⁵⁾