DESPERADOS
The beer brand tested adding Instagram Reels to its usual campaign ads and found that the new placement boosted ad recall by 2X.
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Desperados is a beer brand owned by Grupa Zywiec – part of the Heineken family of companies.
lift in ad recall with Reels ads
higher lift in ad recall with Reels ads than usual ad mix
lift in ad recall among males aged 35–44 with Reels ads
lower cost per lift in ad recall with Reels ads than usual ad mix
Heineken already advertises widely and successfully on Meta apps, including Facebook and Instagram. It wanted to see whether adding Instagram Reels ads to its regular mix of ad placements (in Feed, Stories and in-stream) would drive brand metrics for Desperados even higher.
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THE SOLUTION
Reels ads for recall
Desperados launched its awareness campaign in Poland in early February 2022. The campaign objective was to test Reels ads’ incremental impact on brand metrics.
Reels ads are full screen and vertical, similar to ads in Stories, and appear in between individual Reels. As with regular Reels content, these ads will loop and can be up to 30 seconds. People can comment, like, view, save and share Reels ads.
The campaign ran from February 11–March 31, 2022. Heineken measured the impact of the Reels ads with a brand lift study, comparing Reels ads plus its usual campaigns (which ran in feed, Stories and in-stream) for Desperados with business-as-usual ads alone.
- 5-point lift in ad recall with Reels ads
- 2X higher lift in ad recall with Reels ads than usual ad mix
- 8.1-point lift in ad recall among males aged 35–44 with Reels ads
- 55% lower cost per lift in ad recall with Reels ads than usual ad mix