UFS’ Killer Recipes

Challenge

Unilever Food Solutions (UFS) is a professional condiment brand serving restaurant owners and chefs.

In 2021, however, the business faced two key challenges:

Firstly, restaurants were some of the hardest hit by COVID-19. While China managed the pandemic better than most, there were nonetheless lingering effects felt by the industry. Despite the broader economic recovery from COVID-19, consumer spending on meals was still down -17% at the end of 2020 (Sources: China Bureau of Statistics).

Secondly, young diners – who make up 65% of restaurant consumption in China – have tastes that are changing faster than ever before.

UFS needed to increase sales, as well as increase product penetration by +45%. Because of the lingering effects of the pandemic, 2021 had to be anything but a ‘copy and paste’ year to inspire restaurant owners and strengthen the UFS brand amongst chefs.

 

Strategy

To transform recipe inspiration into business impact, we linked our B2B campaign with a B2C element to drive footfall and sales for our restaurant chefs.

There were two key pillars of this strategy:

B2C: Build an appetite for our Killer Recipes among young Chinese diners to drive footfall to participating restaurants.

B2B: Convert chefs into customers through recipe inspiration, amplifying diner experience and transforming data into a frontline sales tool.

Running concurrently, this strategy built a holistic marketing ecosystem for UFS to help sell through their products and support their customers.

 

Execution

We analysed big data from social platform Weibo and lifestyle app Dianping for recipe inspirations, and developed dish concepts with external experts and internal chef consultants and KOLs. These concepts were then tested by 600 high-value young diners who voted on the final recipes.

We unveiled the Killer Recipes at four top restaurants, attended by 60 KOLs who helped share the experience on Douyin and Weibo, while we also created a short branded film with comedian Li Dan to drive social buzz.

We then shifted towards converting interest into footfall. We promoted the dishes on Dianping, WeChat and Douyin, targeting ‘young foodie’ audiences. On China’s top lifestyle app, Dianping, users could download dish coupons that they could redeem directly at participating restaurants, linking content directly to footfall.

We also worked with Tencent to create a specific look-alike chef target audience targeted with UFS ads, driving to an H5 page where they could download the Killer Recipes and join the initiative, in exchange for leaving their contact info. Dianping users could download dish coupons redeemable at participating restaurants, linking content to footfall.

 

Results

Thanks to our innovative B2C2B approach, Unilever Food Solutions is now in a strong position to lead the restaurant industry’s recovery in 2021.

B2C: The ‘Killer Recipe’ topic was viewed 200M times on Weibo in 10 days of launch (+193% YOY).

B2B: The campaign led to a 460% increase in UFS’s sales, outpacing market growth 6.8x. Market penetration improved 118% vs our target of +45%.