Unilever margarine brand Rama used Facebook for the first time for a campaign to relaunch its brand in South Africa, and successfully increased ad recall by 20 points.
Case study summary
• Margarine brand wanted to relaunch in South Africa after changing the recipe and redesigning the packaging
• Facebook ads with animations spelled out benefits of Rama as part of a healthy and controlled diet
• Target audience was women aged 25–55.
• Achieved as 20 point increase in ad recall
The challenge
Rama margarine came to the South African market in the 1970s and has established itself as a firm favourite for baking, school sandwiches and home cooking. It is one of Unilever’s stable of brands sold in South Africa.
The brand wanted to relaunch its Rama Original margarine product after changing the recipe and redesigning the packaging.
The solution
Although a household name in South Africa, this was Rama’s first digital campaign on Facebook. Facebook proved a natural fit for the brand, allowing it to reach busy mums who want to make healthy and tasty meals for their kids.
The brand kept its ad creative clear, colourful and simple, with animations spelling out the key benefits of Rama as part of a healthy and controlled diet. By using animated GIFs in the creative, the ads came to life in mums’ News Feeds, while simple captions flagged the product’s key selling points. Rama used Facebook’s reach and frequency buying to effectively target its audience of women aged 25–55.
The results
By reaching out to consumers with a clear and positive message, Rama saw hugely positive results. A brand lift insights study by Kantar Millward Brown found that the campaign had achieved above-average increases in 3 key metrics (compared to all global case studies tested). Between April 24–May 24, 2017, the campaign resulted in:
• 20-point increase in ad recall
• 13.5-point increase in message association
• 12-point increase in belief that Rama meets consumers’ needs
Teniel Nelson, Digital Lead South Africa, Unilever, said: “Rama has wonderful heritage in South Africa, and we have been really excited to launch online. Facebook is a valuable platform that has given us great reach and the ability to hear customer feedback on our products. The ad recall of the campaign was excellent, and it was great to work with Facebook to make this campaign both memorable and effective.”
