Brief:

• Campbell Soup is among the first brands to test shoppable Sparkle ads from Group Nine Media, the digital publisher of Thrillist, NowThis, The Dodo and Seeker. Sparkle is a mobile-optimized platform specializing in social commerce that lets marketers link ads to shopping sites like Amazon and Walmart, per an announcement shared with Mobile Marketer.
• Sparkle has miniature apps to ensure marketers are engaging consumers with a shopping experience on smartphones. The platform lets brands support ecommerce among multiple online merchants that can create customized pages with product SKUs and capture purchase-intent data.
• Campbell's first Sparkle ads will appear on O&O, the website from women's lifestyle brand Popsugar that Group Nine acquired in October. Campbell's media agency, Spark Foundry, helped with the Sparkle ads test. Popsugar originally created the Sparkle platform, per Group Nine.

Insight:

Campbell's test of Sparkle ads aims to convert consumers into shoppers on a platform geared for mobile commerce. The ads let consumer place Campbell's consumer packaged goods (CPG) into a digital shopping cart at a retailer, which can either deliver the product directly or offer it for free pick-up at a nearby location.

The test may help Campbell to reach a mobile audience as the brand burnishes its image among consumers. Campbell last year topped a ranking of brand personalities after boosting its stature with a focus on corporate social responsibility and more natural product offerings, per a study by consumer review site Trustpilot. The site named Campbell as the most trusted U.S. brand.

For Group Nine, the Sparkle platform can help its digital publications generate affiliate revenue from e-commerce, a major focus for digital media companies including search engines and social networks. Group Nine is the top video publisher on mobile in the U.S., and its digital publications reach more than 70% of U.S. consumers in their twenties each month, per Nielsen data cited by the company.