CATEGORY: FOOD

Wild Planet's always-on sampling generated over 11,000 reviews and counting

COMPANY SIZE

High Growth

CATEGORY

Fresh Seafood

USE CASE

New product launch, Support key retail listing, Consumer insights

RETAILERS

Wild Planet retailers

IMPACT AT A GLANCE

8,230

community members engaged on offer

85%

of consumers intend to repurchase the products

71%

new customer acquisition

1,546

reviews collected for syndication with an average 4.6/5 rating

From the ocean to the shelf

Wild Planet Foods has built its reputation on one simple belief: sustainably caught seafood should be accessible, delicious and something shoppers can feel good about. Known for their premium seafood, Wild Planet has carved out a meaningful presence in the natural products space — earning devoted fans who care as much about how their food is sourced as how it tastes.

As the brand continued to grow their retail footprint, they faced a challenge familiar to any natural brand on the rise: how do you consistently win over new shoppers, prove your value to buyers and build a body of authentic reviews that keeps working for you long after a campaign ends?

Wild Planet Skipjack Tuna

Hook, line and a new challenge

Expansion brings opportunity — but it also brings pressure. When Wild Planet secured new listings for their Skipjack Wild Tuna at Kroger and Meijer, and landed their new Tuna + Red Bean Salad at Publix, the clock started ticking. New shelf space needs to earn its keep, and fast. Dana Lusted, Wild Planet’s Digital Brand Manager, knew that driving in-store velocity at specific retailers required a more targeted approach than the broad, nationwide sampling campaigns of years past.

She needed a solution that could geo-target offers to specific store locations, drive high-intent shoppers directly to those retailers, and generate credible reviews for syndication to their e-commerce pages — keeping products moving off shelves and buyers coming back for more. Beyond that, Wild Planet wanted something sustainable: not a one-time velocity spike, but a consistent engine for new customer acquisition that would deliver value week over week, all year long.

Wild Planet Tuna and Red Bean Salad

Casting a targeted net

Wild Planet partnered with Social Nature to launch two simultaneous, geo-targeted campaigns — one for Skipjack Wild Tuna at Kroger and Meijer, and one supporting the new Tuna + Red Bean Salad launch at Publix. A free trial offer was used for the Skipjack Wild Tuna campaign to maximize velocity and review volume at the new retailer listings, while a 50% discount offer was used to attract high-intent shoppers and support awareness of the new product. In both cases, Social Nature’s pre-trial survey qualified shoppers before they received the offer, ensuring the right consumers were being matched with Wild Planet’s products.

The campaigns were designed to do more than drive a one-time sales spike — the goal was a steady, sustained stream of new customers, reviews and email opt-ins that would continue delivering value week over week throughout the year and feed directly into Wild Planet’s broader CRM and retail strategy.

"My goal at the end of the day is to continue having new consumers, and so our new households are doing really well. On top of that, my sales team loves us because they're hearing back from the buyers like, 'Wow, the product is really doing well in our stores.'"

Dana Lusted

Digital Brand Manager, Wild Planet

Reeling in results

The results across both campaigns were strong: over 3,500 total customers purchased their products with 71% being first-time Wild Planet customers and they generated a total of 1,546 reviews, averaging 4.6/5 stars. Throughout the campaign, Wild Planet was adding a steady stream of new redemptions, reviews and email opt-ins to their database — new customers who tried the product, liked it and were now opted in for future communication.

What made the results even more meaningful was the cumulative review asset Wild Planet was building. Over ten years of working with Social Nature, Wild Planet has now collected over 11,000 reviews with a 4.7/5 average rating and 90% purchase intent — a scale of authentic shopper feedback that gives them a distinct edge in retail conversations and across their own digital channels.

"We're using the reviews on our own website as well. But syndicating out to the retailers, consumers are going to be looking at reputable sources like the Social Nature website, like the actual retailers, to make sure that the reviews are being left there. If they're coming just from our website, they might think, 'Oh, well, they have control of their website, so they're just going to put what they want to put.'  That's not the case with what Social Nature is doing. They're putting these genuine reviews on retailers."

Dana Lusted

Digital Brand Manager, Wild Planet

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