Nestlé targeted mothers with a TikTok and influencer campaign that advertised its children's formulated milk.
Nestlé aimed to achieve a 6 percent higher gross merchandise value (GMV), amounting to millions of dollars, compared to its previous campaign.
Beyond mere sales, Nestlé's goal was to spark a meaningful social movement across Southeast Asia. Nestlé became the first fast-moving consumer goods brand to launch a multi-market branded mission on TikTok, aiming for 79 million impressions.
In Malaysia, Nestlé aimed to launch a championship gameshow live stream engaging in generational clash challenges. Campaign success would be measured by GMV generated, e-commerce rankings, page and video views, impressions, engagement rates, and user-generated content videos.
This was the fourth consecutive year of the Nestlé and e-commerce platform Lazada's Regional Super Brand Day campaign. While Nestlé's primary objective has been sales conversions, this year Nestlé aimed to drive a meaningful social movement leveraging TikTok's popularity. Recognizing the cultural reluctance in Asia to express love and gratitude to mothers, Nestlé tested this theory. Nestlé tasked all markets with conducting random street interviews, capturing responses in local languages using basic phone recordings, and turning them into a viral videos.
Nestlé used a voiceover AI tool for subtitles, ensuring relatability. This initiative extended to TikTok via a multi-market branded mission and a hashtag challenge for creators and public users. Collaborations with Photobook, LANEIGE, and local partners provided relevant gifts as rewards, enhancing basket size and campaign coherence.
Nestlé's primary focus was on mothers with young children aged one- to six-years-old as they are the key decision-makers in purchasing formulated milk, while fathers with children in the same age group were its secondary target audience.
Studies highlight the fact that mothers rely on recommendations from family, friends, parenting apps, and online content for choosing formula milk. Recognizing TikTok's rising popularity, Nestlé extended its reach beyond Meta and Google, engaging this audience through TikTok. This effort promoted a meaningful movement to express gratitude and affection towards mothers, fostering brand trust and loyalty.
Nestlé's campaign, "Generations of Love," was rooted in the fundamental insight of mothers' unwavering love and care for their children, which resonates with the brand's mission to provide the nutritional foundation for raising healthy and happy children.
Nestlé, with agency partner Imagic Esolutions, harnessed the emotional power of maternal love, leveraging TikTok's popularity with authentic content and influencers to celebrate mothers and drive social media participation and sales conversions. By creating raw, relatable videos in local languages and engaging influencers to share personal stories, the brand resonated deeply with younger mothers in Southeast Asia.
Nestlé utilized TikTok, live streaming, influencer partnerships, and other digital platforms to maximize reach and engagement. The campaign began with viral social videos on TikTok and Meta, followed by a TikTok hashtag challenge that spurred user-generated content.
Nestlé's Generations of Love campaign was 100 percent digital and optimized for mobile to resonate with modern mothers navigating a sea of information and brand messages. The entire campaign budget was allocated to digital platforms to maximize penetration, awareness, engagement, and conversion.
Nestlé engaged social media influencers to amplify reach and engagement through a campaign hashtag challenge on TikTok. Paid videos directed users to its marketing campaign page (MCP) on Lazada, showcasing deals, gifts, exclusive promotions, and live streams. The MCP enhanced average basket size by illustrating accumulated savings and gifts based on spending tiers.
Strategic partnerships with LANEIGE, Photobook, and local brands tailored to regional interests boosted basket size and sales conversions, attracting new buyers and adding excitement to the campaign. By focusing on authenticity, influencer engagement, innovative digital tools, and strategic partnerships, the campaign achieved high levels of awareness, engagement, and conversions.
Pre-teaser phase. Nestlé launched a regional social viral video on TikTok, Meta, and Google to generate interest. These videos, featuring background music, sound effects, emojis, stickers, and localized subtitles, were shareable and engaging. Influencers amplified the effort's reach by catering to diverse audience profiles. TikTok was key, inspiring users to express love for their mothers with a dedicated app filter.
Teaser phase. Nestlé heightened excitement with deals, promotions, and exclusive live streams through paid ads on Meta, TikTok, Google, and influencer activations. Branded banners on the MCP drove traffic between partner stores.
Launch. The campaign climaxed with a four-hour TV-scale live stream, featuring hosts and influencers in generational clash challenges. Viewers participated via live comments, with exclusive vouchers and deals promoted. In-app notifications, push messages, email, and SMS campaigns reinforced the brand's message, driving engagement and conversions.
Nestlé and Wyeth Nutrition, esteemed brands in children's formulated milk, have been leading sales in the category. However, the market is shrinking due to declining birth rates in Southeast Asia, tight competition, and the rise of alternative products. Data shows younger Southeast Asian moms are reshaping shopping behaviors with strong digital engagement, preferring platforms like TikTok.
Nestlé's TikTok branded mission across Southeast Asia markets garnered over 100 million impressions, achieved a reach of 98 million, and garnered 88 million video views in less than two weeks. Over 3,600 videos were created within six days, resulting in 60 percent improvement in the click-through-rate, 20 percent improvement in the brand mission submission rate, and 13.5 percent increase in the engagement rate.
The overall campaign achieved a 90 percent uplift in brand metrics, with a 3.9 percent improvement in ad recall, 7.3 percent improvement in brand familiarity, and 6.5 percent improvement in brand intent. The campaign delivered almost 100 percent of the GMV target, with Vietnam achieving this milestone in the first two hours.
