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Built to Convert in Two Weeks: Driving a 25.6% Sales Lift Around a Manufactured Holiday

2 min read Paid Media

25.6%

YoY increase in caramel apple sales

7.5%

YoY increase in overall store sales

2.9M

unique reach

The Challenge

Turning a manufactured holiday into a revenue moment

Manufactured holidays arrive every year whether or not a brand is ready for them. Turning one into registers ringing at specific Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory (RMCF) stores, on almost no runway, is a different problem than building general awareness: it needs the right markets, the right content, and speed, all at once.

The Approach

Right markets. Right content. Real speed.

Geo-first market selection. Paid and organic both targeted RMCF's key store markets — Southern California, Phoenix, Denver, Chicago, and Salt Lake City — plus individual cities with store locations, rather than a national blanket buy. The top-delivering markets were Los Angeles, Houston, Phoenix, Denver, Chicago, and Salt Lake City. Each of the 11 creators was based in one of RMCF’s key store markets, then sent to their local standalone RMCF location on Caramel Apple Day to film real-time Story content and send followers there.

A content format built for reach and conversion. Each creator delivered one hero Reel plus three Instagram Stories. Reels drove the bulk of reach; one alone pulled 1.11M paid impressions, while Stories carried the highest engagement rate of any format and a direct swipe-up to find the nearest store, splitting reach and conversion across formats rather than tacking one onto the other.

Fast, in-flight optimization. Paid amplification layered in immediately behind the top-performing organic posts, and the team adjusted ad copy mid-flight: when the in-store promotion moved to the first sentence instead of being buried, click-through rate climbed 60% over the 3-day flight.

All of it ran inside a two-week window from pitch to live content, with paid amplification flighted over the final three days leading into Caramel Apple Day itself.

 

The Results

+25.6% sales — and the lift reached past the hero product

Paid amplification behind 11 creators drove 3 million impressions and 2.9 million unique reach over a 3-day flight, with a 14.3% engagement rate and roughly 2,994 link clicks back to store locations. That scale turned into sales: caramel apple sales at activated stores grew 25.6% year over year, and overall store sales grew 7.5% — proof the lift reached the full basket, not just the hero product. Ad copy that led with the in-store promotion saw click-through rate climb 60% over the flight, and women drove nearly 90% of clicks despite being 70% of the audience, a signal the team leaned into in real time.