Case Study: Lurpak Uses Search Trends and Programmatic to Target Effectively

When Arla Foods was creating its annual Ramadan campaign for the Lurpak brand, the team wanted to reach an engaged audience on the web and to showcase Lurpak messaging using video. They also wanted to make sure they achieved consistent reach and frequency across formats.

“There is no doubt that the Holy month of Ramadan is one of the key consumption seasons in the MENA region. Hence, it was important for us to own this season and be the voice that not only encourages home cooks everywhere to take a more active role in their kitchens again, but also enables and inspires them to create the good food their families and loved ones deserve and look forward to gather around for Iftar.” explains Ahmad Al-Saheb, Regional Category Head BSM MENA. “Equipped with a deep understanding of recipe search dynamics and video content consumption trends in the region, we worked with top cooking YouTube influencers on a series of Ramadan video recipes.”

The Lurpak campaign consisted of tutorials and recipe videos designed to run throughout the month. Arla Foods’ agency PHD proposed merging all buying into programmatic to benefit from advanced targeting, a wide variety of available formats and consolidated measurement.

Taking a centralized approach also meant it was straightforward to set one frequency cap across all video buying. Arla Foods and PHD targeted segments including female audiences and food and cooking content, and leveraged three video formats – YouTube TrueView, YouTube Google Preferred and cross-exchange programmatic video.

A relatively new format, Google Preferred provided upfront access to YouTube's most premium content, making it possible for Lurpak to run ads on the top 5% of channels by popularity and passion in a brand-safe environment. Lurpak used the cooking line up and also targeted women viewers.

When it came to the most important metric, cost per reach, Google Preferred outperformed pre-rolls by 27% and TrueView by 46%. A brand lift survey demonstrated a 19% uplift in ad recall and a 135% brand uplift among men. The team also identified the ideal frequency for driving recall was two impressions, a learning that will inform other video campaigns going forward.

“The blend of smart programmatic targeting capabilities and the specialized Google Preferred content allowed us to run a successful video campaign during a key season for the GCC,” says Nawal Nasreddine, PHD Senior Director. “We captured the high demand for cooking content and inspiration during this season to maximize reach for over 12 pieces of video content. By consolidating our media buying on DoubleClick Bid Manager, we achieved higher view-through rates at efficient cost per view.”