Nestlé International Travel Retail (NITR) has sparked increased engagement among travellers through a KitKat-branded digital initiative.

The ‘Digitally Connected Shopper’ Campaign ran at three global airports in Dubai, Madrid and Hainan from December 2021 through January 2022 and featured high visibility digital advertising hoardings to raise brand awareness among returning passengers.

Over the course of the campaign, 22 million impressions were delivered across the three target locations via eight different high-traffic platforms, with a 1,000% increase in website sessions in December versus the yearly average.

“We saw strong click through rates across all formats – meeting or exceeding our target benchmarks for the campaign,” said Tamara Spada, Marketing Manager, Nestlé ITR. “The focus on digital engagement was paramount.”

NEW PHASE OF DIGITAL MARKETING

While comparable sales were tricky to measure due to the Covid crisis, Nestlé ITR notes ‘a notable and beneficial increase in brand sales in all three locations’.

Infographics such as ‘Celebreak New Year – Discover KitKat at Dubai Airport’ and ‘Boarding – your ticket to an exclusive KitKat experience’ were designed to target travellers at a specific destination in their travel journey: pre-trip, in-trip and during travel.

The Dubai campaign was a four-way partnership between Dubai Airports, Dubai Duty Free, JCDecaux and Nestlé.

This helped to maximise the campaign’s communication to travellers by leveraging KitKat’s brand awareness during the shopping journey.

Following Dubai Airport’s return to 100% operational capacity, Nestlé ITR wanted to leverage increased PAX by having a 360-degree communication strategy including utilising digital and in-store/in airport communication to drive sales and brand equity.

Stewart Dryburgh, General Manager, Nestlé ITR said: “This campaign was designed to extend KitKat’s digital brand awareness among returning global travellers. We wanted to celebrate the whole passenger journey at the airport with seasonal branded communications to drive traffic into our retail locations.

“Our goal was to increase and drive sufficient brand awareness and consideration, on top of our direct customer communication, especially in the case of an impulse category, such as confectionery.”

The campaign represents what Nestlé sees as a new stage in the company’s digital marketing trajectory.

It says it remains focused on scaling up opportunities to target travellers at specific destinations in their travel journey across the three trip stages.