Hershey utilised Nextdoor Sponsored Posts to reach a national audience. To optimise performance across both KPIs, the team utilised three different GIF creatives - one Reese’s, one KitKat and one for assortment packs. Each ad drove to a site where people could select their choice of retailer to click through for purchase.
To further support safely celebrating Halloween and brand awareness, Hershey also ran a carousel ad that drove to Halloween2020.org. This site was created in partnership with the Halloween & Costume Association and was aligned with Centers for Disease Control & Prevention’s (CDC) social distancing guidelines. It offered interactive maps created by Harvard Global Health Institute enabling users to see their county’s COVID-19 risks and provide recommendations on safe ways to celebrate Halloween based on local risk levels.
Additionally, Nextdoor provided added value support for the campaign by promoting Hershey and Halloween2020.org in a blog post ahead of Halloween to help people plan for safe celebrations. Nextdoor also polled over 130K users about their favourite Halloween candy, resulting in Reese’s as a top runner. When Reese’s came out as the top candy choice, the poll results were shared across Nextdoor social platforms and on a Halloween blog post heading into Halloween weekend.
"During this uncertain time, people are counting on neighbours for connection and information more than ever. Nextdoor has a unique position in the social marketplace to deliver on this type of engagement. Neighbours trust each other with things like creative ways to safely trick-or-treat and we believe it’s important to offer celebration ideas, solutions and guidelines to make sure people can enjoy favourite traditions and moments with us. We’re looking forward to continuing to explore opportunities for our brands to collaborate with the neighbours of Nextdoor."
The results exceeded both Nextdoor and MikMak benchmarks. The average “Add to Cart” via MikMak was 140% above the benchmark with almost 2,500 units being added to cart across Target, Walmart and Instacart e-commerce platforms.
The carousel unit performed the best for the campaign sharing awareness of treats available as well as Halloween2020.org info about how to safely celebrate Halloween.
In addition to strong paid performance, there was an uptick in organic conversations during the campaign. Mentions of the Hershey Company, Kit Kat and Reese’s were up 69% year over year in October, further driving brand awareness. A member poll revealed Reese’s as the favored treat nationwide and spurred organic related convos. Poll results as well as safety tips were shared across Nextdoor social channels and the blog.
