‘How do we start to turn this brand around’: Why Edible Arrangements is changing its media mix for brand awareness
Hoping to gain a competitive advantage and reach younger shoppers, Atlanta-based fresh fruit bouquet brand Edible Arrangements is rethinking its marketing strategy and media mix to include more video and social media.
“In the last year, we’ve shifted our dollars to be more non-branded focus,” said Somia Farid Silber, vp of eCommerce at Edible. “We’re looking at attracting people who may be looking for gifts and treats but edible isn’t necessarily top of mind.”
It’s a move the company is making as the e-commerce spaces continues to heat up, especially as the pandemic has pushed more people to shop online.
The shift comes alongside a new global campaign, Be Sweet Today, which emphasizes people shopping for everyday items instead of focusing specifically on the holidays. Currently, the brand’s media mix leans heavily in linear and digital television, programmatic display and video, followed by paid social and digital audio with a bit of print and out of home, per Farid Silber. There are also lower marketing funnel mix tactics to convert new and returning customers via paid and organic search, affiliate marketing and conversion-focused paid social and display campaigns, she added.
It’s unclear how exact ad dollars are being spent as Farid Silber declined to offer details. Per Kantar, Edible Arrangements spent just under $6.5 million on media from January through September of this year, up from the $5.4 million spent through that same time period in 2020 and $4.4 million in 2019. Those numbers do not include social media spend as Kantar does not track those figures.
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In 2019, Edible Arrangements was in the midst of upgrading its e-commerce capabilities, per previous Digiday reporting. At the same time, Farid Silber said the brand was primarily focused on lower-funnel marketing tactics to get shoppers to buy. Still, sales were falling and to turn it around, Edible Arrangements needed to inject more personality into brand copy and show customers everyday use cases, she added.
“It was a challenging time for us in 2019. Sales were down double digits. We were trying to figure out how do we start to turn this brand around because there was a lot of value here,” Farid Silber said.
Since rolling out e-commerce offerings and a new media mix, the brand has won brand recognition and dollars from younger shoppers, including Gen Z, she added.
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It’s a strategy more direct-to-consumer brands are picking up, exploring full-funnel marketing tactics to discover new channels and thus, new audiences, according to Meryl Draper, CEO of Brooklyn-based ad agency Quirk Creative. This is especially true post-pandemic, she added.
“Brand is starting to become a part of the conversation again this year,” Draper said. “It’s that shift back to, ‘We’ve got to do performance-driving tactics, like lower-funnel tactics. But we also have to now rebuild our brand equity and tell our brand story.’”
As more brands return to brand storytelling, video will become increasingly popular, especially CTV and OTT, which offers attribution and measurability, per Draper.
Going forward, Edible Arrangements will continue to hone in on Gen Z and the next generation of shoppers, per Farid Silber.
“We have something that works for them when it comes to pricing and category, and that’s exactly what we’ve been able to do over the last year, which we’re really proud of,” she said.
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