Challenge Dairy Drives Incremental Sales Lift of 63%

Since its inception in 1911, Challenge Butter has been churning out success from family-owned dairy farms. With a product portfolio that includes traditional stick butters, spreadable butters, European-style butters, and the new line of sweet and savory Flavored Butter Spreads, Challenge is known for innovation in the category. Most recently acknowledged by Progressive Grocer, who named Challenge as a Category Captain for its pioneering efforts in the dairy segment.

Partnerships driving success

Challenge was already actively advertising on Instacart before the online grocery boom in 2020, but with the immense and immediate shift in consumer behavior that followed, they began scaling their investment on the platform. By advertising on Instacart, Challenge was able to engage with its core consumer base even though many were no longer shopping at brick-and-mortar stores. 

Challenge used their success on Instacart to support innovation and develop alternative products, pivoting strategies when product inventory at retailers fluctuated.

“Instacart has been a strong partner for us,” said Jessica Pang, Brand Manager, Challenge Dairy Products, Inc. “They’re willing to listen to our feedback and help improve the platform experience together. It’s an awesome tool that maximizes our reach with online grocery shoppers across a large number of our key retail customers.”

Matrixx CPG, Challenge’s digital and ecommerce partner, manages the brand’s day-to-day relationship with Instacart.

“Our team at Matrixx has worked closely with Instacart to really help Challenge get the most out of the resources they are investing in advertising on the platform,” said CJ Pendleton, Chief Strategy Officer, Matrixx CPG. “Instacart worked to understand the nuances of this specific category, including challenges in regional item availability in different parts of the U.S., going above and beyond to deliver a comprehensive view of how Challenge’s items perform across a variety of advanced metrics.” 

Proven incremental sales lift of over 60%

While Challenge has witnessed consistent positive outcomes around core metrics such as impressions, attributed sales, and return on ad spend on Instacart, it was the results of an incremental lift test that provided the clearest indicator of success. They participated in an incremental sales lift study examining the holiday/Q4 period of 2022 in order to quantify the impact advertising on Instacart was having on their sales. That study revealed an incremental sales lift of 63%. 

“The lift study was very encouraging. It provided compelling evidence that our advertising efforts with Instacart drive incremental sales,” said Pang. “The positive iROAS was remarkable as well, surpassing internal benchmarks.” 

Challenge has also been using additional metrics like new-to-brand sales to refine advertising strategies and leveraging new Instacart Ads features to drive significant impact.

Instacart Ads — a key ingredient in the marketing mix

“With the addition of more brand-focused ad formats like display, shoppable display, and shoppable video, along with the ability to create free dedicated brand pages – we’ve been able to turn Instacart into more than just a sales conversion pillar in our marketing mix,” said Pang. “We are able to now reach consumers browsing complementary items and push new households to discover our brand for the first time and drive brand awareness and discovery of new items in our portfolio.”

As Challenge Butter continues its legacy of quality and innovation, the brand looks forward to delighting audiences with new offerings and maintaining its commitment to excellence.

*Prior results do not guarantee future outcomes. 

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