Objective

The campaign aimed to position General Mills' suite of products as essential items for parents during the back-to-school transition period, while driving portfolio sales. With back-to-school being a cluttered and competitive time for grocery brands, the goal was to stand out by supporting parents through this hectic period, helping them feel like superheroes tackling the challenges of getting back into school routines.

The campaign had several key objectives:

1. Create meaningful connections with parents through livestreaming content that offered genuine value and inspiration during a traditionally stressful and expensive season

2. Drive awareness and sales across General Mills' portfolio of after-school snacks and lunchbox favorites

3. Differentiate General Mills from competitors by developing an ownable concept that showcases products across every occasion needed to win back-to-school with parents

4. Build an innovative, full-funnel campaign that effectively combines commerce, content, and connection through Amazon's suite of advertising solutions, including Amazon Live

5. Leverage authentic talent partnerships to demonstrate understanding the challenges of parenthood, while positioning General Mills' products as practical solutions

The campaign sought to transform a typically overwhelming season into an opportunity for parent empowerment, while simultaneously driving commercial success through strategic promotional offerings and seamless shopping experiences.

Strategy

The campaign leveraged a multi-faceted approach combining immersive livestreaming content on Amazon Live with influential parent creators and comprehensive ad distribution. Over two-thirds of American households with children entering K-12 in the fall of 2024 were expecting rising prices to impact them more this year compared to last year, according to Statista. With that insight, General Mills and Amazon Live helped create a strategy focused on value for the consumer by offering a stock up and save deal across their product portfolio of after-school snacks and lunchbox favorites. The multi-platform content strategy was built on three core pillars:

1. Authentic Talent Selection & Content Creation

• Carefully selected parent influencers who could genuinely relate to the back-to-school challenges
• Partnered with Olympic gymnast Shawn Johnson and Andrew East, leveraging their timely return from the Paris Olympics to connect with their transition into "back-to-school mode"
• Engaged actress/creator Melissa Fumero to share authentic experiences as a working parent
• Created dynamic livestreams that balanced practical advice with genuine product integration that viewers could seamlessly shop
• Enabled real-time interaction through chat features where parents could engage directly with talent
• Developed content that positioned parents as "superheroes," with talent sharing personal stories about managing multiple responsibilities

2. Value-Driven Commerce Strategy

• Created a comprehensive "stock up and save" deal structure across General Mills' portfolio
• Focused on after-school snacks and lunchbox favorites that parents need regularly
• Developed a custom landing page in partnership with Brand Innovation Lab to highlight savings opportunities and integrate a content to commerce experience
• Designed promotions to address consumer concerns about rising prices while maintaining brand value

3. Comprehensive Distribution & Amplification Built an intentional distribution strategy across Amazon's full suite of advertising solutions:

• Amazon Live shoppable streaming content served as the campaign cornerstone
• Custom destination featuring curated livestream content
• Alexa Home Screen activation featuring Melissa Fumero's "parent superhero" messaging
• Sponsored Ads strategy to deliver on lower funnel conversions
• Video creative featuring talent acting as superheroes served as Online Video (OLV), Sponsored Brand Video and Streaming TV creative, capturing attention and building the brand across touchpoints 
• Amazon DSP creative touting the stock up and save promotion allowed for precise audience targeting
• Audio ads to captured attention, reaching busy parents on the go

The execution was carefully orchestrated to ensure consistent messaging across all channels while maintaining the campaign's creative throughline of empowering super parents. The livestreams were designed to be both entertaining and practical, with talent sharing real-life tips while naturally incorporating General Mills products into their solutions.

The campaign stood out by creating a perfect blend of commerce and content:

• Interactive elements allowed for real-time engagement and community building
• Practical tips and meal ideas were shared to simplify back-to-school routines
• Brand messaging was naturally woven into authentic conversations
• Value propositions were clearly communicated through multiple touchpoints
• The "superhero" theme resonated across all content pieces, creating a memorable and relatable campaign narrative

This comprehensive approach ensured that General Mills maintained visibility throughout the cluttered back-to-school season while providing genuine value to parents through both content and savings opportunities.

Results

The campaign exceeded expectations across all key metrics, demonstrating success in both brand building and driving sales for General Mills during the crucial back-to-school period.

The primary objective of standing out in a cluttered back-to-school season was achieved through superior engagement metrics:

• 74% higher click-through rate compared to the blended campaign CPG benchmark, showing the content successfully captured parent attention
• 14% higher Return on Ad Spend versus CPG benchmark, demonstrating strong commercial performance
• 64% increase in new-to-brand sales through the Alexa Home Screen content experience compared to category benchmark, proving the campaign's effectiveness in acquiring new customers

The goal of driving portfolio sales was exceeded with:

• 25% year-over-year sales lift on promoted products, showing significant commercial impact
• Strong performance across the full product portfolio of after-school snacks and lunchbox favorites
• Successful conversion of engagement into sales through seamless shoppable content

The multi-channel approach proved successful in reaching parents at various touchpoints, while the authentic talent partnerships and value-driven messaging resonated with the target audience during a price-sensitive season.The key was unifying the content with a creative throughline and tapping into relatable, recognizable talent to drive results.

As Jamie Needham, Sr. Manager of Customer Marketing & Ecommerce at General Mills, noted, "The Amazon Live team was able to differentially create an ownable concept to drive use cases of General Mills' portfolio across every occasion needed to win back-to-school with parents."

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