Overview

Reel Paper is on a mission to answer one question— how do you broadcast the sustainability issues of conventional household paper while simultaneously convincing customers that the eco-friendly alternatives offer a premium experience? The approach appears simple: bring tree-free, plastic-free products to the shelves where customers are already shopping and give them an offer that drives trial.

Challenge

Before using Aisle, Reel was focused on its direct-to-consumer business, occasionally working directly with retailers to set up in-store promotions or leverage traditional cash-back tools to drive in-store trials. Ultimately, they found these tactics were not scalable, provided minimal reporting capabilities, and required significant lead time. With an intuitive interface, a flexible reward platform, and the ability to quickly spin up and optimize their creative assets, they decided Aisle was worth a test.

“Aisle is a game changer for our marketing and sales teams – after just one launch, it’s proven extremely cost-effective and has fundamentally changed our retail marketing strategy” - Jeff Borsuk, VP of Marketing

Results

Within a few months of onboarding their first campaign with Aisle, Reel generated over 7,000 new marketing contacts and saw a 45% in-store conversion rate, resulting in over 3,000 new retail customers. With retention tools and built-in SMS messaging, Reel can reactivate these shoppers anytime. Using Aisle’s analytics and UTMs across their marketing campaigns, they can now track engagement from when users click on their marketing activations through their in-store purchases. Their team has visibility across every digital touchpoint and knows how each one influences retail sales.

While their direct-to-consumer customer acquisition cost has historically floated around $35, with Aisle, they achieved a $2 CAC, reflecting a 94% decrease across their digital channels. With paid social ads through Meta, they saw a $0.90 cost per lead. In addition to their organic and social media campaigns, they positioned this offer to a targeted cohort of existing SMS subscribers, resulting in a 36% conversion rate, helping them reactivate dormant direct-to-consumer subscribers.

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