Industry overview
What is shaping food & beverage
Food and beverage brands compete on taste, price, health perceptions and shelf presence. Small changes in pack, recipe or price can shift share quickly.
- Health and natural claims influence choice
- Quick commerce and modern trade change shopping habits
- Taste remains the deciding factor at repeat
Client background
A premium bakery and café chain, working in Dubai & Abu Dhabi. Client identity is withheld to protect confidentiality.
- Organisation
- A premium bakery and café chain
- Sector
- Food & beverage
- Team engaged
- Digital Marketing
- Services
- Social media marketing, Video marketing, Influencer marketing
Client challenge
The bakery had loyal customers but little online presence, and new competitors were attracting attention through social media. Its posts were occasional product photos with little engagement.
Research objectives
- Deliver on the brief: building a social media presence for a premium bakery brand.
- Set measurable targets and a tracking baseline before launch.
- Improve results through structured testing, reported in plain language.
Target audience
Scope: Instagram and TikTok over six months.
Audiences we typically reach in food & beverage
Shoppers and consumersHouseholdsRetailers and kirana ownersQuick-commerce usersFood-service buyers
Geographic coverage
Coverage: Dubai & Abu Dhabi. Market: United Arab Emirates.
- United Arab Emirates
Research methodology
A test-and-learn programme: a clear baseline, focused campaigns and weekly optimisation against agreed targets.
- 1Brief
- 2Content calendar
- 3Short-form video
- 4Food creator partnerships
- 5Insight
We built a content calendar around seasonal menus and celebrations, produced short videos showing bakers at work and products being finished, and partnered with local food creators for honest reviews with clear disclosure. Content was produced in English and Arabic. Each post linked to online ordering, so the team could see which content drove orders.
Social media marketingVideo marketingInfluencer marketing
Sampling strategy
- Audiences were defined from the client's customer data and platform targeting, with test and control groups where possible.
Data collection
- Campaign, website and CRM data were tracked daily through analytics and ad platforms.
Data quality & validation
- Conversion tracking tested end to end
- Consistent UTM tagging on every link
- Numbers reconciled between ad platforms and analytics
- Two-person check before anything goes live
Data analysis
- Funnel analysis from impression to lead or sale
- A/B test results on creatives, keywords and pages
- Channel and campaign attribution
Key findings
- Engagement and followers grew steadily, and branches reported customers arriving to order items they had seen online.
Showing craft and people behind the food built more interest than product photos alone.
Recommendations
- The bakery later used the most popular videos in in-store screens and paid campaigns.
- Keep testing creatives, keywords and landing pages against the new baseline.
What we recommended, and the client put into practice
Business impact
- Seasonal pre-orders for celebration cakes increased.
Deliverables & next steps
- Campaign assets and landing pages
- Monthly performance report
- Repeat the measure after changes are in place to track progress.
- A natural follow-on question: how healthy is the brand?
Client identity is withheld to protect confidentiality.