The brief centered on a single objective: foot traffic. Drive shoppers into Whole Foods and Costco and convert them into AeroFarms customers. The harder question followed. How do you prove a digital ad moved someone through a store's door? Most retail campaigns cannot answer it. They report impressions and trust the shelf to do the rest.
A more fundamental problem sat beneath it. AeroFarms had a remarkable story and an unremarkable package. Its greens were grown indoors, with no sunlight and no soil, using a fraction of the water of a conventional farm. None of that registered in the three seconds a shopper spends deciding what to buy.
WMG® took AeroFarms to market in Chicago, Washington and Detroit. Shoppers who responded to our advertising received a limited time buy one, get one offer tied to their nearest Whole Foods or Costco, turning every redemption into a measurable store visit. WMG® led the creative direction, campaign content and media buying.
Alongside the campaign, WMG® conducted research into the category, the competitive set on shelf and the shopper. The work revealed a position no competitor owned, and we built a complete identity and packaging system around it, designed to win the three second decision in the aisle.
More than 4,000 customers claimed the promotion through our advertising, each captured in a first party customer list, and AeroFarms recorded a 14% retail lift. Every redemption revealed which tone of voice, which creative and which positioning actually changed behavior in the aisle.
That evidence became the foundation of the deal. WMG® brought the acquisition to the table, made the case with a brand and a customer base that could be proven and guided AeroFarms through to a successful acquisition by an affiliate of Palm Ventures. The brand sold the product, and then it helped sell the company.
