Rethinking Ooni's media mix
The Challenge
Ooni Pizza Ovens experienced rapid growth in the culinary space prior to partnering with Backbone for paid and earned media support and was seeking to continue their upward trajectory. As the brand was looking toward 2022, goals for continued growth included:
- Reaching new and receptive audiences that showed high brand alignment and engagement.
- Achieving broader reach and brand awareness.
- Maintaining its premium position in the culinary space.
The Solution
Backbone's paid media team started from square one to create a refreshed approach to Ooni's media program in 2022.
Through research and audience analysis, we identified two key audiences for Ooni to achieve their 2022 goals. One audience was broad and served to define the total addressable audience of relevant home cooks. The other further narrowed down the addressable audiences to those who showed demographic and behavioral characteristics best aligned with the brand’s knowledge of their core consumers’ habits, including home & garden, DIY and business/finance audiences, which were well primed for Ooni's messaging.
With audience insights in-hand, we recommended a strategy to retain a majority of media targeting Ooni's core foodie communities, while also going bigger with the home/DIY audience. Among these receptive audiences, it remained vital to target the right consumers while featuring Ooni's premium positioning.
The Backbone team shifted to a brand-focused media approach, heavying up in awareness media (CTV, podcasts, print) and reducing performance digital spend.
Backbone’s recommended strategy included opportunities to continue Ooni's strong creative campaigns while also reaching new, receptive audiences via high-quality video placements. Additional touchpoints in audio and print also allowed the brand to create deeper connections to its core communities while simultaneously building broader awareness. We also seized on the opportunity for Ooni to own their space through partnerships with content creators and publishers that would amplify the brand's voice through new video content.
The Results
High-quality, video-led content partnerships with Tastemade, Food & Wine, Vice, and others led to significant increases in aided brand awareness from users exposed to Ooni's media placements, according to a KANTAR study, as well as millions of video impressions and ongoing organic partnerships.
