+42%
Brand Awareness Lift
Aided vs. Unaided Media Exposure
+14%
YOY Sales Increase
in Consumer Media Supported Markets
+33%
YOY Sales Increase
in New to Brand Sales
+26%
YOY Unit Increase
across all brand products
Señor Rico|
Consumer Packaged Goods

Omnichannel Marketing Approach Increases Brand Awareness and Year-Over-Year Sales/Unit Growth Across the Brand & Category

Señor Rico Desserts began over 30 years ago with a single delivery truck, bringing authentic flavors to Southern California’s local mercados. While they’ve grown tremendously since then, their parent company, Lakeview Farms, remains dedicated to the cherished family recipe for rice pudding that was originally entrusted to them. With every bite, they take pride in honoring the rich traditions of Hispanic cuisine, delivering a true taste of home. That same passion for quality ingredients and bold, authentic flavors extends beyond Señor Rico's signature rice pudding to a delightful selection of desserts, including creamy flan and refreshing gelatin.

Project introduction

The Challenge:

The refrigerated dessert category is dynamic and highly competitive, with shifting consumer preferences and new entrants challenging established players. Señor Rico faced a critical hurdle: expanding its household penetration, engaging younger, non-Hispanic consumers while maintaining its stronghold with Hispanic families, and growing the overall category.

Synergistic’s Shopper Marketing Capabilities were tapped to:

Increase sales and units moved while ensuring Señor Rico outpaces refrigerated dessert category growth

Increase brand awareness and drive consideration among millennials

Strengthen retailer relationships to grow shelf space and new product expansion

Challenge visualization

The Solution:

Synergistic’s Paid Media Team began by extending beyond Señor Rico’s Hispanic-focused audience and identifying the "Adventurous Eater" segment as a primary target, expanding the overall audience universe.

Based on the new audience segmentation, Synergistic leveraged media usage data to prioritize the best media mix to drive reach and engagement with the target audience, while leveraging frequency and efficiency to capture demand.

By looking at CDI, BDI, market penetration, and brand sales, 21 markets were selected to target with consumer-focused awareness and consideration tactics. The weighted analysis identified markets with a higher propensity for sales and robust retailer distribution to support growth. Key channels and partners were selected to ensure the right combination of engaging creative units to impact brand perception and consideration while maintaining media cost efficiency placement to maximize ideal reach levels to the “Adventurous Eaters,” supporting brand lift from the ad exposures. Touchpoints were built across the full funnel journey to attract new, repeat, and competitor buyers, and lower funnel, shopper tactics were utilized to drive purchase behavior and overall unit and sales growth.

Additonal key timeframes were identified based on historical sales - Cinco de Mayo in the spring/summer and Back-to-School in the early fall - supported through heavier flighting during these pivotal time periods.

To increase sales through on-shelf/digital-shelf merchandising, Synergistic’s Creative Team executed a brand and packaging refresh that delivered a cleaner, more modern look to easily POP on the shelf while communicating the wholesome ingredients, indulgent flavor, and “better than” benefits for the Shopper to see quickly as they scan the shelf – driving an increase with new buyers and increasing category penetration.

Solution visualization

The Outcome:

The push/pull strategy proved to be a success, driving an impressive 42% increase in brand awareness through strategic media campaign efforts. Beyond strengthening consumer perception, the campaign also delivered tangible business results, achieving a +14% lift in sales in consumer media-supported markets—outperforming the +12% lift seen in markets where only shopper marketing tactics were deployed. Additionally, Señor Rico outpaced the category, experiencing +9% growth, while the overall refrigerated dessert category faced a -2% decline.

Outcome visualization

Synergistic's Perspective:

Understanding that brands do not have infinite budgets, Synergistic leveraged a data-driven approach to strike the perfect balance between brand-building media and shopper marketing tactics. This strategy effectively influenced perception, consideration, and ultimately trial—driving sustained growth for the brand.

With efficiency as a top priority, Synergistic combined sales, audience, and marketing data to pinpoint the most impactful markets, optimize the media mix, and achieve the right reach and frequency levels. This strategic, choiceful approach not only drove sales growth at key retailers and ROI from the organization, but also created opportunities for expanded shelf space and product placement across retail partners.

Perspective visualization 1
Perspective visualization 2
Perspective visualization 3

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