THE CHALLENGE:Premium waters operate in a highly competitive category with increasing market fragmentation. While the market continues to grow, brands face challenges in capturing market share and reaching new customers.
Nestle premium water brands needed to leverage key shopping events to accelerate sales velocity, increase brand consideration among new-to-brand (NTB) customers, and drive long-term customer loyalty through Subscribe & Save (SNS) programs.
Goals For The Campaign
Accelerate Sales During Amazon Prime Day
Drive significant sales volume during the Prime Day event by leveraging strong promotional offers and robust advertising across all phases (Lead Up, Prime Day, Lead Out).
Increase New Customer Acquisition
Achieve increased consideration among new-to-brand consumers and deliver significant growth in product visibility and glance views across the premium water category.
Drive Subscription Growth
Build a strong Subscribe & Save customer base to deliver immediate and lasting wins, creating long-term customer value and lifetime revenue.
Establish Multi-Brand Portfolio Leadership
Leverage a unified strategy across multiple premium water brands (Essentia, San Pellegrino, Perrier, Aqua Panna, Maison Perrier) to dominate the Prime Day event and outcompete category rivals.
TACTICSSuccess required a comprehensive three-phase strategy designed to build awareness, drive conversions, and maximize long-term customer value. The campaign integrated Search, Display, and Share of Voice advertising with strategic retail partnerships to achieve maximum impact.
Lead Up Phase: Build Awareness
Invested in Paid Share of Voice (SOV) packages to secure prominent homepage placements and reach over 51 million unique Amazon customers.
Created brand-specific and ASIN-specific creative that directed shoppers to curated landing pages featuring all premium water brands and deals.
Prime Day Phase: Conversions
Deployed aggressive Sponsored Ads and Display campaigns across all brands to capitalize on high consumer intent.
Optimized targeting for repeat purchasers and NTB audiences. Achieved $6.2M in sales with a 3.15 ROAS across search and display combined.
Lead Out Phase: Drive Loyalty
Maintained momentum through continued Display and Search campaigns to capture consumers still in market.
Focused on Subscribe & Save optimization, resulting in significant cost-per-subscription reductions and volume increases. Achieved 20% growth in sales and ROAS from week ending 8/3 to 8/17.
Brand-Specific Strategies
Customized campaigns for each brand based on category position and growth opportunities. Essentia focused on defending market leadership; San Pellegrino emphasized full funnel approach and non-branded keyword performance; Maison Perrier invested in brand awareness and acquisition for new product launch; Aqua Panna concentrated on consideration and loyalty.
Campaign Results
Overall Campaign Performance
Combined Ad Spend & Sales:
$1.9M in advertising spend generated $6.2M in sales, delivering a $3.15 return on ad spend across search and display channels.
Conversion Performance:
Achieved a 58% conversion rate overall, with significant variance by phase. Display campaigns delivered strong performance during Prime Day and Lead Out phases.
New Customer Acquisition:
62% of ad-attributed sales came during the Lead Out phase, demonstrating the sustained impact of lead-in awareness building. NTB customers represented 34% of total SOV-attributed purchases.
Homepage SOV Performance:
The 3% Lead Up Homepage SOV package reached 51 million unique customers, driving $943K in sales with a $1.05 ROAS and 34.1% of purchases from new-to-brand customers.
Four Brand, Four Wins
Brand-Level Performance Highlights
Essentia:
Maintained market leadership with $1.89M in ad-attributed sales and 2,953 new Subscribe & Save subscribers. Strategic SOV investment increased paid search visibility 230% during Prime Day. Brand sustained ROAS above Amazon benchmarks throughout the campaign.
San Pellegrino:
Achieved $1.49M in sales and 1,509 new SNS subscribers through full funnel approach. ROAS grew 600% from week of 6/23 to 8/11, capturing demand momentum from lead out period while reducing spend 23% week-over-week.
Maison Perrier:
Successfully launched a new brand on the Amazon platform, generating $426K in sales during the Prime Day period with 1,304 new SNS subscribers. Top of search efforts paired with dayparting drove 88% month-over-month growth in non-brand paid SOV.
Aqua Panna:
Drove 42% year-over-year sales growth while maintaining focus on low-funnel conversion and loyalty. Incremental ad spend increased paid SOV by minimum 60%, with Spring Water category achieving 150% SOV increase.
Key Strategic Insights
Multi-Phase Investment Critical:
Investing in all three Prime Day phases (Lead Up, Prime Day, Lead Out) proved essential. Lead-in awareness campaigns seeded remarketing audiences and demand that paid dividends throughout the event.
Paid SOV Drives Incremental Results:
Lead Up SOV package delivered impact across the entire marketing funnel—2.6x likelihood to conduct branded search, 3.3% purchase rate for customers exposed to SOV plus Sponsored Ads and Display.
Subscribe & Save as Loyalty Driver:
SNS performance improved significantly during Lead Out as demand built earlier proved sustainable. Cost per SNS declined substantially post-Prime Day while volumes accelerated, indicating strong customer retention potential.
Category Opportunity Beyond Prime Day:
Data shows Q4 tentpoles (particularly October and Holiday seasons) present significant opportunity for NTB customer acquisition, especially for growth brands like Maison Perrier and San Pellegrino.
What We Learned
The 2024 Prime Day campaign demonstrated the power of coordinated, phased investment across multiple premium water brands. By combining strong retail offers with robust advertising at every stage of the customer journey, brands drove significant sales acceleration, expanded their customer base with high-quality NTB acquisitions, and built sustainable loyalty through SNS growth.