Picture this: There’s a mom sitting on a park bench. It’s a sunny day, and she’s watching her kids play ball on the grass. She takes a quick look around to confirm no one’s watching her. Then, when she’s sure she’s not being observed, she takes out of her bag … a GoGo squeeZ pouch and eats it surreptitiously.
That may sound like an odd scenario, but it’s not that uncommon, said Mark Anthony Edmonson, CMO of GoGo squeeZ, which makes blended organic fruit, veggie, yogurt and smoothie snacks with electrolytes and vitamins.
“We’ve heard from parents that they feel like they’ve got to sneak around,” he said. “Because there’s been this perception that we’re only for toddlers and very young kids, which isn’t the case.”
This was a key insight at the heart of a campaign that launched over the summer to promote GoGo squeeZ as a nutritious snack for anyone on the go, busy parents and beyond.
“We spoke with older consumers, and a lot of them told us they bring pouches along on bike rides, runs, when they’re hiking, when they’re playing sports,” Edmonson said. “Basically, any active occasion.”
And so GoGo squeeZ has been evolving its targeting and messaging strategy to reach these new consumers.
“We still want to reach kids, of course,” Edmonson said. “But now we also want to speak to millennials, to Gen Z – to a much broader audience.”
Edmonson spoke with AdExchanger.
AdExchanger: What exactly are you doing to reach older audiences?
MARK ANTHONY EDMONSON: We use a combination of behavioral insights and demographics to understand our targets and create personas for segmentation online.
From a media perspective, everything we do is digital. We’ve decided not to do any linear TV.
No TV, huh? We’ll get back to that! But first, what are some of your personas?
One I can share is called the “active seeker.” That might sound general, but it’s actually a very defined segment. This is someone with specific behaviors. They’re looking for ways to be continuously active throughout the day, whether that’s alone or in a group.
If they’re in New York City, they’d rather walk than take the subway. If they’re with friends being social, they want to do something active. With that in mind, they don’t just want to consume snacks for the sake of consuming snacks. They want to fuel their active lives.
How do these insights inform your media buying strategy?
We use our personas as a foundation to reach people we think will buy our products. But if you only rely on behavioral and demographic data, you might miss out on connecting with people you didn’t necessarily realize would be interested in your brand.
We track how consumers interact with our digital advertising, and we use that data to find lookalike audiences we hadn’t thought about before.
For example, we recently discovered an active segment that isn’t related to sports. We refer to it as “general activity.” Say I’m rushing to the grocery store, then I’ve got to drop my kids off at soccer practice and run more errands before picking them up – I’m sweating, I’m exhausted and I need nutrition. That’s a whole new segment for us to engage with.
But not through linear television. Why don’t you spend on TV anymore?
We want to be more surgical with how we approach our target. We haven’t executed television since around 2017/2018.
That’s not to say we’ve moved away from it forever. We may go back to TV at some point. But it’s just not part of our mix right now. We’re finding digital to be a more efficient way to communicate our message. We do spend on radio, though.
That’s interesting. So, some traditional media does work for you. Why radio?
People – parents, especially – spend a lot of time in their car, often with the radio on. We’ve actually found that radio performs even better for us than linear TV did in the past.
But we’re also doing streaming audio. That started getting big for us during the pandemic, when people got more into podcasts. It’s been really effective for us.
Even though you’re aging up your media strategy, you still need to appeal to younger consumers. How are you doing that?
We know where to reach Gen Alpha. It’s Twitch, for sure. YouTube, through influencers.
Our challenge is creating a balance in our messaging so we’re communicating the nutritional benefits to parents while also highlighting that this is fuel for all your fun, everyday adventures.
But our target is also out there talking about our product themselves.
What are they saying?
For example, we just recently had a consumer post about discovering our product because she was getting dental work done and needed something soft to eat.
The engagement she got on was tremendous because it speaks to an authentic need. It also taught us something new about our own brand.
This interview has been lightly edited and condensed.
