The team applied the data-driven insights and recommendations – limiting the unnecessary stylistic visuals and scenes, while still keeping the ads lighthearted and fun. The ads also showcased a wider variety of actresses and with less focus on appearance or clothing.

The third phase of research sought to validate the effectiveness of these changes by retesting two of the previous executions and two new ads that reflected the recommendations. We saw much improvement around understanding and recall of the Pinnacle brand. Additionally, two new ads were extremely well received and without the negativity among women. Further, with these new ads in the mix the cumulative impact of the campaign was very powerful and showed significantly more promise of achieving awareness and demand for Pinnacle.

Throughout all phases of research, collaboration and partnership played huge role in bringing the new campaign to life. As the senior brand director for Pinnacle indicated “...this is very encouraging news to receive…to know that we’ve moved the needle on our important success metrics, and we couldn’t have done it without the data-driven insights and recommendations.”

While the campaign is relatively new in market, we’ve already seen an impact. Research shows, among the target market, a 10% point increase in awareness, an 8% point increase in consideration, a 9% point increase in trial and Pinnacle moved from 8th to 5th most desired brand in the relative category.

The Pinnacle team tested three early-stage ads from a new creative campaign, and also tested a recipe-themed ad for ‘La La Lemon’ cocktail.

Data showed that women were not relating well to the three early-stage executions; they didn’t find them enjoyable, and there was negative engagement with the copy and situations. While the creative attempted to show how women interact, a number of women took offense to what they felt were stereotypes with undertones of sexism.

However, the ‘La La Lemon’ ad performed extremely well; it was engaging, and women indicated a strong desire to purchase Pinnacle. While a few distracting visual elements hindered the brand’s memorability, the creative idea and style resonated very well. The team passed on the first campaign, and decided to build on the recipe-themed ‘La La Lemon’ ad.

Before launching the new campaign, we deployed phase two of research, designed to understand women’s reactions to each execution and the cumulative impact of the broad campaign. We found the new ads were not quite as powerful as ‘La La Lemon’, so we used data to determine why and to explore how we improve.

One ad, ‘Halloweenie Tini’, showed promise – women connected to it and enjoyed the Halloween theme, décor, and humor. Three remaining ads didn’t have the same appeal. Data indicated the ads were distracting and disliked due to excessive, confusing visual elements. Women also perceived undertones of sexist stereotypes and focused on the women’s revealing clothing.

These visual elements were a stark contrast to the ‘La La Lemon’ ad, which included more modest clothing and a focus on the recipe more than the actress or situation.

It was clear, though, that this campaign idea held value. Enhancements included honing the visuals to spotlight Pinnacle and the recipe, and representing women with appropriate tone and imagery.