Nature Valley | ReTok Shop

Nature Valley built a first-of-its-kind storefront on TikTok that rewarded sustainable behavior and turned Back To School into a movement to give back to nature. Powered by purposeful partnerships, social commerce innovation and a network of creators, #ReTokForNature created a platform for families to transact on the brand’s purpose for the planet.

Challenge

Nature Valley leads the Granola Bar category, but have begun losing share with younger families to the competition. They needed to defend their leadership position during the Back-to-School season with a breakthrough activation delivering brand distinction where they were falling flat and capture parents’ hearts, minds and wallets.

Idea

We built a first-of-its-kind storefront on TikTok that rewarded sustainable behavior, ‘hacking’ the hashtag as a mechanism for good. Do good, get goods. Families who shared a sustainable act using #ReTokForNature received a promo code infeed, unlocking access to free, exclusive goods at the Nature Valley ReTok Shop. The shop brought together like-minded brands like L.L.Bean, Park’s Project, & Stasher, with sustainable must-have essentials: backpacks, water bottles and creator merch. To rally our #ReTokForNature movement we tapped celebrity parents tWitch & Allison Boss to deliver reinspired ways to Reduce, Reuse & Recycle, and custom creative across channels spread our meaningful message.

Insight

Nature Valley was invented in 1975 and positioned as “the granola bar nature intended”. They have extremely high awareness, but consumers struggle to know what they stand for as a brand. The Back-to-School season is a must-win moment for them, making up nearly 1/3 of their annual sales and locking many household pantries for the remainder of the year. There is no issue more important for our parent target audience than preserving the planet for their kids. Families are naturally creating added strain on the planet with their sheer volume of consumption, so parents feel pressured to make sustainable choices but don’t know where to start or have the time to research.

Delivery

We designed a custom program from shop to surround that turned Back To School into a movement to give back to nature. – Built the first-ever sustainable storefront and 1:1 reward system on TikTok – Commissioned 18 creators to fuel a content engine of inspiration across 3x TikTok hashtag challenges (1x Reduce, 1x Reuse, 1x Recycle) and drive participation – Curated a seamless social commerce experience that let families shop exclusive, free merch or plant a tree – along with eco-friendly payment and recycled packaging – Developed cross-channel creative, including streaming audio, radio host reads and interactive Peacock ads allowing streamers to shop our store live from their remote

Results

Consumers took note, took part and our shop sold out! – 2.1MM consumers shared over 6MM pieces of original content (3.9X benchmark) – The ReTok Shop sold out – over 6K received a free back to school item – +14pts in key brand perceptions – ‘Cares about nature’ & ‘Rewards sustainable actions’ – $1.6MM incremental sales and 11% sales from net-new buyers -252MM imps earned coverage, 3K trees planted -Listed for the first time ever on the Ad Age-Harris Poll “20 Brands Getting Gen Z Attention”