Plant-based leader Alpro sees high engagement rates thanks to UGC
Collecting and redistributing user generated content (UGC) via Flowbox has helped plant-based leader Alpro maintain high engagement rates and inspire their website visitors. Following their success, they influenced their sister brand Provamel to start leveraging UGC as well.
Founded in Belgium in 1980, Alpro is one of the world-leading brands for plant-based dairy alternatives on the market. With a multitude of plants as the base of their products, they are loved and used by customers in 50+ markets worldwide.
“We have a wonderful online community, and it felt like a pity not to promote it,” says Ralph Urmel, Digital Experience Manager at Alpro.
Alpro has a dedicated following that actively posts photos, recipes and more on social media. Since 2019, the brand has been using Flowbox to leverage the user generated content that their customers continuously provide and in 2020, they encouraged their sister brand Provamel to do the same (which they did).
Challenge
Alpro is at the forefront of an innovative, climate conscious industry where many want to spread a positive message about plant-based dairy alternatives through photos and videos on social media. User generated content is an amazing resource, and Alpro’s customers post a lot of content featuring their products, but it can be hard to figure out exactly how to leverage it. Alpro wanted to include the UGC that their customers provide in their marketing content mix, and they needed a simple yet effective tool to help them do that.
“I was keen to pull in UGC, but I wanted it to be easy to manage,” says Ralph Urmel.
Plant-based dairy substitutes have seen a huge surge in popularity over the past few years, but aren’t quite the norm, yet. People who aren’t acquainted with dairy alternatives can sometimes have a prejudiced idea that “plant-based tastes bad”, which Alpro works hard to disprove. It obviously isn’t true, especially as there are so many different alternatives to choose from. For example, if you don’t like oat-based foods, you might like almond-based, or coconut-based, and Alpro alone offers products based on eight (8!) different kinds of plants. Once people actually try it, they usually find something they like.
Solution
When Flowbox entered the picture, Alpro had not worked with UGC before. The concept was of course familiar, they just hadn’t implemented it yet. They wanted a proactive tool to help them out, and when comparing different softwares, it was very important to Alpro for it to be easy to both learn and use. And so, the collaboration between Alpro and Flowbox started, and Flows were implemented on their site: both on their homepage and product pages.
“Flowbox just really excels. We love the flexibility, how you can integrate Flows into any website. It’s not a complex solution, and it’s easy to make Flowbox a part of your ecosystem. We even often let our trainees manage Flowbox, because it’s so easy to onboard them to the platform,” says Ralph Urmel.
User generated content helps Alpro showcase their products in real-life environments, and creates an authentic visual experience for their website visitors. When their fans share recipes and photos of how they choose to eat and drink Alpro’s products, it inspires both existing and potential customers. Showing not only that people enjoy the products, but also how they enjoy them, in their own homes, really makes a difference.
“Our customers really know how to make things look tasty!” says Ralph Urmel.
Results
Since implementing Flowbox, the engagement rate of their on-site UGC is consistently high, averaging on about 4%, which is an incredibly impressive number. As any other brand, Alpro has peaks throughout the year, and at those peaks, the engagement sometimes increases all the way to 15%!
“We are so impressed that our engagement rate is as high as 4% – it’s outperforming all our benchmarks and it proves how effective UGC truly is,” says Ralph Urmel.
UGC fills a vital function for Alpro as it helps them connect with their audience and inspire potential customers to try their products. Real-life practice emphasizes the case for plant-based products.
“Our community loves to engage with our recipe content, which is something that makes us stand out from other brands,” says Ralph Urmel.
Alpro is always striving for excellence and improvement. Continuing to develop their UGC strategy, they are looking into expanding their on-site UGC to a dedicated community page in the future, which is something that has been proven successful for many of our other Flowboxers.
Following their great success and high engagement rates, Alpro decided to get their sister brand Provamel onboard, too. Provamel hadn’t worked with UGC prior either, but after seeing Alpro’s success, they wanted to incorporate customer content too, but with a different approach: by featuring it in their social media channels. In 2020, they started using Flowbox not only to collect UGC, but also as their main content management system to distribute the content to their socials as well. Leveraging user generated content helps Provamel stay close to their audience and connect and engage with their community.
Interested in working with UGC like Alpro and Provamel? Click here to book a free demo with Flowbox.
Results in numbers
- 4% engagement rate on average
- 15% engagement rate at peaks
More information:
Bianca Rior, Digital Marketing Specialist, Flowbox
bianca.rior@getflowbox.com
Tags:
