CASE STUDY

CROSSTOWN DOUGHNUTS

CASE STUDY

The problem

Despite exponential YOY business growth and 23 physical stores across London, online sales represented a small fraction of total revenue, then COVID hit, and London went into lockdown.

In March 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic forced the closure of stores. Crosstown Doughnuts pivoted quickly, and together we drove outstanding results.

The results

With so many businesses in London forced to close doors permanently, Crosstown bucked the trend.

We drove sales across search, shopping and social resulting in:

55x return on ad spend. Phenomenal!

Total revenue is consistent despite the closure of 23 locations

Success story received widespread national press across BBC, Evening Standard, The Times, etc.

Post-Covid, Crosstown launched a national delivery service and created an increased online revenue stream for the business.

The goal

Create a new revenue stream for Crosstown Doughnuts through digital advertising.

Support Crosstown Doughnuts to thrive during COVID-19, whilst many businesses in a similar situation struggled.

Support the re-opening of physical stores post COVID-19 lockdown.

The solution

We had been working with Crosstown for some time before COVID-19, driving on-demand orders and generating leads for the corporate and catering streams of the business.

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Crosstown Doughnuts closed its physical shores and were 100% reliant on eCommerce to drive sales. Luckily, they pivoted quickly and launched the Crosstown Collective, banding together other individual retail businesses to deliver food boxes across London. Rather than pulling back on advertising spending, we moved quickly to identify a new audience and target opportunities to leverage organic content to explode sales.

As stores began to open up again, foot traffic was crucial. To support the re-openings, we created a highly targeted campaign within a 1-mile radius of each store location. The ad’s CTA is get directions, which launches Google Maps to help people find the stores.

Pre-COVID-19, we tested a series of audiences and ad creatives and identified that wedding catering was a profitable avenue to explore for catering lead generation. As well as Facebook and Instagram, we implemented Pinterest ads to target brides when they searched for content for their special day. Additionally, we used Active Campaign to set up a sales pipeline, a CRM and email automation to assist in nurturing these leads to a confirmed booking and capture missed opportunities through re-targeting.

“We’ve been working with SOMO for almost two years. The’ve become an integral part of our marketing strategy and a valuable extension of the team. They provide a first class service which we would highly recommend.”

James Brewer, Marketing Lead at Crosstown