Brandao
About The Company
Issei Mochi Gummies is an innovative, woman owned brand crafting natural, vegan, and gluten free treats inspired by traditional Japanese mochi.
Recognized as an industry pioneer, the brand has won top honors at the World Food Innovation Awards and earned coverage across major networks like CBS News and CNN. CEO Mika Shino has also been featured on the cover of Inc. Magazine as a standout female founder.
The Challenge
As the brand grew rapidly and expanded into hundreds of stores across the United States, it needed a structured advertising strategy to build brand awareness and increase online sales. Prior to this, the brand was simply spending its budget on boosted Instagram posts without any data tracking to measure the impact on revenue.
The Strategy
First, the primary goals for the brand were established. The owner wanted to increase brand awareness to drive retail store visits while simultaneously boosting online sales. This dual approach allowed the brand to maintain strong relationships with resellers and protect its retail shelf space, while also increasing revenue through high margin online sales that avoid reseller commissions.
Four types of campaigns were created:
Awareness: Geotargeted campaigns reaching people living near physical stores stocking the products. Creatives featured shoppers visiting the stores and adding items to their carts.
Engagement: Short-term giveaway campaigns designed to increase Instagram followers and grow the email list.
Sales (Cold): Cold audience campaigns allocated 80% of the overall budget. Four audience segments were tested: vegans, Asian expats, moms, and broad targeting, with budget distributed at the ad set level based on performance.
Sales (Retargeting): A consolidated custom audience combining past customers, website visitors, cart abandoners, Facebook and Instagram engagers, and email subscribers.
Multiple copy variations and creatives were tested, with the most successful assets focusing on the core message "Life is short, eat candy." Ads featuring this hook achieved a ROAS of up to 8.7x and proved extremely profitable, offering clear insights into what messaging resonates best with the audience.
Results
The campaign not only met every performance goal, but far exceeded them. Highlights include an ad ROAS reaching up to 8.7x, a 65% increase in Shopify revenue, and a conversion rate increase from 0.49% to 2.43%. Driven by this new full funnel strategy, the brand is poised for continued retail expansion across the country.