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Costco expected 8 to 12 weeks. All 24 stores sold through in 4.

When Drumroll launched its protein donuts in 24 Costco stores across the Northeast, the pilot was expected to take 8 to 12 weeks to sell through.

We helped put the product in front of shoppers who were already visiting those exact warehouses.

Four weeks later, every pilot store had sold through its first order.

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Costco Wholesale announcement showing boxes of Drumroll mini glazed donuts coming to fridges in select Northeast stores.

  • 4 weeks

    FIRST-ORDER SELL-THROUGH

  • 24 stores

    SOLD THROUGH THEIR FIRST ORDER

  • 199+ stores

    WITHIN 6 MONTHS

  • 59,829

    STORE-LOCATOR SEARCHES

The challenge: Get the right shoppers to the right shelves.

Drumroll had secured a 24-store Costco pilot. Now the product needed to sell.

But there was a catch.

The brand didn't have access to Costco's retail media network or historical purchase data. That made reaching actual Costco shoppers more difficult.

Traditional radius targeting could reach people who lived near a Costco. It couldn't tell us who was regularly walking through those warehouse doors.

And with an estimated 8 to 12-week sell-through window, spending the budget on the wrong audience wasn't an option.

We needed to reach people who were already shopping at the participating stores and give them a reason to pick up Drumroll on their next visit.

What we did

We targeted shoppers who'd actually visited the stores.

Using geofencing and mobile location data, we built audiences based on foot traffic to the 24 participating Costco locations.

That gave us a more relevant starting point than targeting everyone who happened to live nearby.

We used those audiences to run Facebook and Instagram ads, then expanded our reach through lookalike audiences in surrounding areas.

The creative showed the actual product inside Costco, so shoppers knew what to look for when they arrived.

We also built a store locator specifically for the pilot, making it easy to find a participating warehouse.

The entire campaign focused on those 24 locations and getting product off the shelves.

WORK DELIVERED

  • Geofenced shopper audiences
  • Facebook & Instagram advertising
  • In-store video creative
  • 24-store pilot locator

8 to 12 weeks expected. 4 weeks actual.

All 24 Costco stores sold through their first order in four weeks.

The campaign also generated 59,829 store-locator searches on a total advertising budget of $28,000.

And within six months, Drumroll was in more than 199 stores.

The launch timeline

  1. WEEK 0

    Pilot launched

    Drumroll entered 24 Costco locations across the Northeast.

  2. WEEK 4

    First orders sold through

    All 24 stores sold through their initial inventory, well ahead of the original estimate.

  3. WEEKS 8 TO 12

    Original sell-through estimate

    The pilot had already completed its first-order sell-through.

  4. WITHIN 6 MONTHS

    199+ stores

    The brand's retail footprint expanded to more than 199 locations.

The budget went where the product needed to move.

This campaign was built around a very specific business goal: help Drumroll sell through its first order across 24 Costco locations.

We had a defined group of stores, a limited advertising budget, and a short window to make shoppers aware of the product.

So we focused on people who'd actually visited those locations, showed them what to look for, and helped them find the product.

The results were measurable.

$28,000 in ad spend. 59,829 store-locator searches. All 24 stores sold through their first order in four weeks.

And within six months, the brand had expanded to more than 199 stores.

That's the kind of retail performance we want marketing budgets working toward.

MORE RESULTS

REGULATED DTC

From $16K to $650K a month.

After an ad account ban, this brand went from $16K to $650K in monthly revenue in just six months.

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A hand holding an orange can against a blue sky as the drink sprays out of the top.

01 / 04

Getting onto the shelf is a big deal. Getting product off it matters even more.

If you're preparing for a retail launch or need to increase sell-through at existing locations, let's talk about how to get your product in front of the shoppers who can actually buy it.

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