Programmatic advertising made sweet with Caotina

For several years, DEPT® has provided digital marketing support to Swiss food producer Wander AG, which includes brands such as Caotina, Ovomaltine, and Isostar. After helping Caotina bring its light brand repositioning to life in 2019, we were prepared when the brand wanted to engage consumers with a new, purely digital campaign in 2021. In its highly competitive segment, Caotina set a goal to become the brand of choice thanks to its strong values and quality differentiators (real chocolate that’s made in Switzerland with zero palm oil).

Our initial step toward achieving Caotina’s goal was developing a comprehensive media plan in which all Google channels were used across all phases of the customer journey. Such a full-funnel marketing strategy simultaneously builds awareness, consideration, and ultimately purchase intent.

At the top of the funnel, sometimes referred to as the “see phase,” we aimed to generate maximum attention by appealing to a broad audience. In the middle funnel, or “think phase,” we narrowed down the optimal target group using remarketing and custom audiences. Finally, in the “do phase,” we drove the most relevant users to take our desired action: purchasing the product. 

We started in the see phase with a combination of CPM masthead and display banners via programmatic advertising on YouTube. We reached 4.8 million unique users in two waves, while driving a positive brand lift of 6%.

Following the branding push was the think phase, which also rolled out in two waves. In order to generate maximum video views and clicks to the website, we utilized 6-second pre-roll videos on YouTube (AKA bumper ads), display, and native advertising.

The entire setup of these two phases was carried out via programmatic advertising (fully automated and individualized buying and selling of ad space in real time) in the Google tool DV360. By precisely targeting the advertising message, we could control individual banners, largely minimizing waste and optimizing conversion rates. This allowed us to maintain optimum campaign control, centralize data collection, and make tactical adjustments throughout the campaign.

Finally, for the do phase, we used an efficient Google Ads setup with Smart Display and Paid Search to encourage our target group to buy a product.

By using programmatic advertising with an optimal mix of advertising media, advertising formats, and placements, we were able to reach 56% of the Swiss-German population across all demographics. Throughout the campaign, we worked with phase-specific target KPIs, most of which were exceeded—making the Caotina campaign a sweet success for all.