Advertising Case Study

Its Time to Gonuts With Donuts!

Company Background
Lalin Jinasena has always loved donuts, especially those that come in unusual shapes and sizes. Being a donut fanatic, it was only natural that when he opened the first donut shop in his hometown of Colombo, Sri Lanka, he called it Gonuts with Donuts. His caf features a wide variety of donuts, ranging from Cappuccino Cream to Strawberry Cream to Butterscotch and Cookies. He also serves donuts that can be eaten as sandwiches Garlic and Cheese donuts, Garlic Bread donuts and even Spicy Tuna donuts.

Overview

Objective: Drive brand awareness for the caf Gonuts with Donuts and increase its sales. Solution: Run ads for both the cafs Facebook Group and Page, increasing connections and engagement. Highlights: Seven additional stores

Objective

opened up as a result of successful

Facebook Ads. Lalin was drawn to the idea of being able to target his ads towards users in specific countries. He used this targeting feature when creating his ads for his donut cafes in Sri Lanka because he could directly target people in this country. People in Colombo, the countrys largest city, spend a lot of time on Facebook these days, Lalin says. As a result, he reckoned that advertising on Facebook would be an effective way to directly create brand awareness for Gonuts with Donuts.

Approach
In March 2008, Lalin decided to build a presence on Facebook for his caf to establish a lasting relationship with his customers. He created a Facebook Page, the public profile on Facebook that allows companies to send updates to existing and potential customers while allowing users to post comments and offer feedback. He targeted Facebook Ads to people who might also be interested in his business, with the objective of getting them to connect to his Facebook Page by liking it. Within a few months, more than 10,000 people interested in learning more about Gonuts with Donuts had connected to his Facebook Page. The people of Colombo went nuts for the donuts, and we had such a huge demand for donuts that there were queues outside the shop all day, Lalin says. We couldnt supply enough donuts. They wanted more.

Advertising Case Study

Its Time to Gonuts With Donuts!

Lalin promoted new flavors, new promotions, and new store openings to people connected to his Facebook Page. According to Lalin, Today, Gonuts with Donuts has 17 flavors of donuts and eight stores around Colombo. We are also in the process of opening a store in the Maldives, where we also hope to use Facebook Ads to promote the store.

Facebook Campaign Results Gonuts with Donuts saw a 750 percent increase in Facebook connections after just a few months The company successfully opened seven additional stores with the help of Facebook advertising It achieved a click-through rate of up to 0.17 percent for select campaigns Gonuts with Donuts generated over 11 million impressions for promotional campaign Birthday Mini Donuts in only 10 days

It proved to be a very cost-effective and strategic marketing tool that can be geared to target exactly the demographics and market segments I need.