Mountain House and Amazon Ads used Sponsored Display Onboarding Service and Amazon DSP to ascend new heights

Mountain House traces their origins back to the Vietnam War, when the United States military put out a request for better food for its rations. Mountain House’s parent company, Oregon Freeze Dry, won the contract and has been making food for the US Special Forces and other branches of the military ever since. In 1969, they expanded to consumer products as Mountain House.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, Mountain House was a category leader in camping and backpacking, while also expanding into emergency prep categories. But, when the pandemic hit in early 2020, Mountain House found itself in a difficult position. They were in the process of going through a re-brand when demand for freeze-dried products like theirs increased significantly. Combined with the re-brand and inventory issues, Mountain House lost some of its footing as newer brands moved into their categories to supply the demand for freeze dried rations.

Working with Amazon Ads for an emergency response plan

Going into 2021, Mountain House had rebranded and reached a better inventory position. In June of 2021, Mountain House worked with Amazon Ads to launch an ambitious new campaign focused on a Sponsored Display multi-goal strategy for driving purchases with engaged shoppers in the camping and backpacking categories they had previously excelled in. They also wanted to drive consideration with new customers in emergency preparedness categories that were new territory for the brand.

While using Sponsored Display Onboarding Service (SDOS) to reach newer customers in the emergency preparedness aisles, Mountain House also utilized Amazon DSP to reach existing camping customers at scale. SDOS is a 90-day service that lets brands partner with the Amazon Ads success teams to optimize reporting on Sponsored Display campaigns.

“For us personally, we're a small team, so to have the Onboarding Service team go in and set up these campaigns for us was great,” said Mountain House’s E-Commerce Marketing Manager Cara O’Brien. “And any time we ran into any issues, as far as inventory or budget, they were able to go in and make our requested changes to keep our campaign running smooth and effective.“

Reaching the summit with Amazon Ads

The combination of SDOS and Amazon DSP helped Mountain House regain its position as a leading brand in their industry, and reach even higher peaks. Compared to the pre-campaign period (March-May 2021), Mountain House saw ad-attributed impressions increase by 32%, clicks by 43%, orders by 27%, and sales by 36% during the SDOS campaign from June to August.¹ 50% of these orders were new-to-brand, meaning these shoppers haven’t purchased from Mountain House in the past 12 months.² Mountain House also saw their branded searches increase by an average of 54% during the campaign period.³

“Amazon Ads helped us drive awareness and send a message about where we stand as a brand and where we want to go,“ O’Brien said.

“We have these campaigns that touch every part of the purchasing cycle. I would recommend using Amazon DSP and Sponsored Display and Amazon Ads in general, just to make sure you’re staying top of mind for consumers and reaching out and expanding your brand and sending the message you want out there. For Mountain House, we are a brand of hope, not a brand of fear.”

— Cara O’Brien, Mountain House’s E-Commerce Marketing Manager Cara O’Brien

After the success of this strategy, Mountain House have decided to continue running their SDOS campaigns and have expanded their Sponsored Display efforts into the camping category.

^1-3Advertiser Provided Data, 2021