Cover story Grocery retail

The Two-Mile Radius

ALDI gave each of its 2,300 stores its own audience and its own local creators, so every trade area heard an answer to the hesitation that actually lived there. Verified store visits rose 9.02% year over year in a category whose foot traffic had been flat.

ALDI’s prices and quality were already competitive. What kept first-time shoppers away was the store itself: a European layout, shelves heavy with private labels, a quarter to unlock the cart and bags you bring from home. Unfamiliar felt risky, and the risk looked different from one neighborhood to the next. In a college town the question was whether a student could eat well on a tight budget; in a family suburb, whether the kids would accept the substitutes; in an urban wellness neighborhood, whether the natural range was real. A single national message could only answer one of those questions, and ALDI had 2,300 stores asking them.

Read the full case

+9.02%

verified store visits, year over year

“I finally went to ALDI. Here’s what it’s actually like.”

The line that landed with first-time shoppers
Sports and entertainment

The Night, Not the Game

The Padres sold casual fans a full night out, with a place to go before the game and a place to go after, matched to how each San Diego neighborhood already spends an evening. Ticket sales rose 22.0% in thirty days.

+22.0%

ticket sales in 30 days vs. the prior 30

+35.3%
first-time buyers (13,213 to 17,880)
5.1% → 7.6%
mobile ticket conversion rate

“Stop marketing the game. Start marketing the night.”

Full case
Retail health

The Sideline Standard

To mothers of student-athletes, MinuteClinic read as the cheap option. Moonbrush worked out what luxury meant to each of them and placed the clinic inside the life they already admired, lifting branded search 37% in eight weeks.

+37%

branded search in eight weeks

3.8% → 5.4%
branded search click-through
+41.4%
“MinuteClinic near me” impressions per month

“Modern parenting means knowing where to go fast.”

Full case
A U.S. fuel and convenience retailerName withheld Fuel and convenience retail

From Pump to Counter

A fuel and convenience retailer treated the few minutes at the pump as a moment of intent and served ten-minute offers to drivers while they were fueling. Verified store entries rose 48%, holdout-adjusted, and second visits within 30 days roughly tripled.

+48%

verified store entries, holdout-adjusted

+208%
second store visits within 30 days (6.2% to 19.1%)
−41%
median days to a repeat visit (11.7 to 6.9)

“A single visit is only a trial. The value lies in the second and third.”

Full case
A regional brewery and restaurant groupName withheld Hospitality

The Message That Breathes

A brewery with deep local loyalty and fading momentum replaced its promotional calendar with messages matched to each guest’s motivation and timed to their own rhythm. Revenue rose 32.6% in the first 90 days, and the next quarter ran higher still.

+32.6%

revenue in the first 90 days

+41.1%
revenue in the following quarter
+18.4%
repeat-purchase frequency

“Timing is part of the product.”

Full case

In flight

The Five Hundred Thousand

Find likely responders for a prescription dry-eye treatment without touching a single health record.

  • Ranked 22.4M adults by behavioral fit and responsiveness, with no PHI in the model
  • Corrected the model to the brand’s own segmentation, cutting drift to under ±2.0
  • Selected the top 500K as the pilot cohort, with about 21.5M held in reserve

22.4M → 500K

adults ranked, top 500K in the pilot; results pending

Results describe specific engagements and are not a guarantee of future results. Several programs predate the current platform; the method behind them is the one atlas and Gravity run today. Where a client asked not to be named, the story describes them instead.

How we report

Four rules for every number in this issue.

  1. 01

    One decision, named first

    Every engagement names the outcome it will be judged on before launch. Where a numeric target was set in advance, the case states it.

  2. 02

    A comparison, always

    A holdout, matched control geographies or the prior window. Each case says which one it used and what that design can’t rule out.

  3. 03

    Platform numbers labeled

    Views and reach reported by social platforms are marked as platform-reported. Outcomes come from the client’s own systems or a named measurement panel.

  4. 04

    In flight means in flight

    A pilot without a read shows what was delivered and how it will be judged. No outcome figures until the read is in.

Grocery retail

The Two-Mile Radius

ALDI USA · Ten weeks, Q1–Q2 2022, about 2,300 U.S. stores

ALDI gave each of its 2,300 stores its own audience and its own local creators, so every trade area heard an answer to the hesitation that actually lived there. Verified store visits rose 9.02% year over year in a category whose foot traffic had been flat.

What we did

  1. Treated each store’s two-mile trade area as its own market, enriched with 120M data points
  2. Clustered shoppers into 2,000+ micro-market personas and one audience fingerprint per store
  3. Briefed about 21,000 creators who live in or near the trade areas, each with a store-specific persona and script
  4. Read verified visits from opt-in location panels against matched control geographies

Who it spoke to

  • The Dorm-to-Kitchen Cook

    Campus-adjacent shoppers running a first kitchen, meal-prepping on Sundays and counting protein per dollar. The first two weeks of a semester break old habits, which is when a new store can win them.

    Lands“Here’s how I get all my gym meals for $25 a week.”

    Misses“Low prices every day.”

  • The Lunchbox Planner

    Suburban parents who plan five lunches at once and will switch stores only if the kids eat what comes home. Their routine resets in late August and early January.

    Lands“Dinner for five for under $10, and they asked for it again.”

    Misses“Great value for families.”

  • The Macro Counter

    Fitness-focused shoppers who buy the same twelve items every week and want a cheaper version of exactly that, often in the week after starting a new program.

    Lands“Affordable protein at ALDI, the whole week, under $40.”

    Misses“Fresh, healthy options for everyone.”

  • The Curious First-Timer

    People who have watched the haul videos but never been inside, and won’t ask how the cart works. They need to see the trip before they take it.

    Lands“I finally went to ALDI. Here’s what it’s actually like.”

    Misses“Now open near you.”

The results

+9.02%
verified in-store visits, year over yearOpt-in mobile location panels, ten-week window
6.7 pts
gap between the densest-content ZIP codes (+13.5%) and matched controls (+6.8%)The case calls this the honest incremental read
+28 pts
agree “ALDI is easy to shop at” (36% to 64%)Pre/post brand tracking, forty markets, n = 5,127
+21 pts
likely to try ALDI in the next 30 days (19% to 40%)Same panel, n = 5,127
$0.014
cost per engagement, against a $0.059 category averageBenchmark is the 2021 retail category average
72%
of total reach carried by micro-creators with 1–20K followersCross-sectional, not randomized

What this design can’t rule out

  • Control geographies also rose 6.8%; the design can’t separate spillover from seasonal lift.
  • Stated attitudes inflate under panel effects, which is why verified visits are the check.
  • View counts are platform-reported.
Read the full case

Sports and entertainment

The Night, Not the Game

San Diego Padres · Thirty days, spring 2023, San Diego metro

The Padres sold casual fans a full night out, with a place to go before the game and a place to go after, matched to how each San Diego neighborhood already spends an evening. Ticket sales rose 22.0% in thirty days.

What we did

  1. Clustered metro-wide dining, nightlife and spend patterns into fourteen ways San Diegans spend an evening
  2. Gave each cluster its own three-stop evening around the game and its own line
  3. Briefed 2,100+ neighborhood creators living within five miles of their cluster
  4. Attributed with promo codes, affiliate links and ZIP-level uplift models, checked against the club’s ticketing

Who it spoke to

  • The Brunch-to-Brewery Planner

    North Park groups of three to five who plan the night around food and settle the weekend in the group chat between Tuesday and Thursday.

    Lands“Girls’ night with baseball and brews: three stops, one ticket.”

    Misses“Great seats still available for Friday.”

  • The Coastal Date-Night Curator

    La Jolla planners who book dinner before the destination and want an evening that reads as considered. The ballpark works as the surprise once they see it styled.

    Lands“A date night at the ballpark: dinner on the coast, first pitch, the skyline after.”

    Misses“Family fun for everyone.”

  • The Post-Surf Gatherer

    Mission Beach crews who want to keep the afternoon going after a surf session and decide late, roughly 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. on game days.

    Lands“Post-surf Padres: rinse off, grab the crew, in your seats by first pitch.”

    Misses“Don’t miss our weekend series.”

  • The Late-Night Group Host

    Hillcrest hosts who organize the night for others and treat the game as the opening act of something longer.

    Lands“Baseball, tacos, and the afterparty: your three-stop Friday.”

    Misses“Celebrate with the Padres this weekend.”

The results

+22.0%
tickets sold (186,400 to 227,500), against a 15% objective set before the first briefClub ticketing, thirty days against the prior thirty
+35.3%
first-time buyers (13,213 to 17,880)CRM accounts with no purchase in the previous eighteen months
5.1% → 7.6%
mobile ticket conversion rateClub ticketing, same windows
+14%
bundle click-through with “friend pack” framing, same bundle and priceA/B read; directional pending a second season
+28 pts
would consider the Padres for date night or girls’ night (38% to 66%)Pre/post survey, twelve ZIP codes, n = 2,127
87%
of campaign-linked posts carried a positive associationSentiment models over captions and comments

What this design can’t rule out

  • No geographic holdout: the two windows differ in schedule and opponents.
  • “First-time” means no purchase in eighteen months, so some are returning fans.
  • Tracked links capture a floor of attributable purchases.
Read the full case

Retail health

The Sideline Standard

CVS MinuteClinic · Eight weeks, Q1–Q2 2023, national

To mothers of student-athletes, MinuteClinic read as the cheap option. Moonbrush worked out what luxury meant to each of them and placed the clinic inside the life they already admired, lifting branded search 37% in eight weeks.

What we did

  1. Mapped how people felt about seeking care at CVS against cues of modernity, safety and self-worth
  2. Built four cohorts around what luxury meant to each mother: time returned, calm, taste or certainty
  3. Briefed 5,100+ lifestyle creators per cohort; the four formats were never cross-run
  4. Scored tone on every asset and moved paid spend weekly toward the register that landed

Who it spoke to

  • The Time-Sovereign

    Luxury is time returned. She books care in the gap between school drop-off and her next obligation and checks hours and wait times before anything else.

    Lands“Modern parenting means knowing where to go fast.”

    Misses“Walk-ins welcome. Most insurance accepted.”

  • The Naturalist Guardian

    Luxury is calm. She avoids institutional settings and scans reviews for words like calm, clean and kind before anything clinical.

    Lands“Care and calm, in one stop.”

    Misses“Fast, affordable care when you need it.”

  • The Curator

    Luxury is taste. What she chooses reflects on her, so aesthetic coherence has to come before any claim.

    Lands“Smart, quick, and curated care when you need it.”

    Misses“Quality care at a price you can afford.”

  • The Assurance-Seeker

    Luxury is certainty. She has never used walk-in care and needs to see exactly what a visit looks like before she will go.

    Lands“Follow me in. This is what it’s actually like.”

    Misses“No appointment necessary.”

The results

+37%
branded searches (index 100 to 137), against a 30%+ objectiveNational branded-term tracking, eight weeks against the eight before
3.8% → 5.4%
branded search click-throughSame windows
+41.4%
“MinuteClinic near me” impressions per monthSame windows
+9.1%
net-new appointment bookings across test marketsClient analytics, store-group level
+8.4%
new MinuteClinic enrollments, year over yearClient analytics, Q2 2023
+26 pts
agree it is “convenient and aesthetically pleasant” (27% to 53%)Pre/post survey panel, n = 4,783

What this design can’t rule out

  • Branded search had no geographic holdout and is treated as a leading indicator, not incremental bookings.
  • Year-over-year reads carry seasonal and economic confounds.
  • The finding that tone mattered more than volume is directional pending a second term.
Read the full case

Pharma telehealth · In flight

The Five Hundred Thousand

Enginuity Rx · 2026 pilot, online purchase path

Enginuity Rx is piloting online sales of a prescription dry-eye treatment through its telehealth platform. Moonbrush ranked 22.4 million adults by behavioral fit, with no health records anywhere in the model, and keyed the pilot’s creative to six sub-cohorts. Results are pending.

What we did

  1. Seeded the model on past category purchasers, with every element of PHI and PII stripped before modeling
  2. Re-expressed the seed as behavior and ranked 22.4M adults for fit and responsiveness
  3. Recalibrated against the brand’s own segmentation, cutting drift from ±7.5 to under ±2.0 points
  4. Wrote ten landing-page variants for six sub-cohorts and registered five predictions before spend

Who it spoke to

  • The Continuous Operator

    Long-session screen professionals who treat relief as uptime, with the longest daily screen time in the audience.

  • The Stack Optimizer

    Systematic self-improvers who audit ingredients and mechanisms and have already worked through over-the-counter options.

  • The Mobile-First Always-On

    Phone-native decision-makers who act in short, decisive windows and abandon a process that adds friction.

  • The Diligent Self-Educator

    Research-intensive readers who read to the bottom of the page and convert on evidence and mechanism.

  • The Household Steward

    Decision-makers for the household who weigh safety, trust in buying online and cost before they commit.

  • The Pragmatic Wellness Investor

    People who pay for what demonstrably works, value clarity over novelty and judge health spending by its return.

The results

22.4M → 500K
adults ranked, top 500K selected at a 0.80 confidence gateModel output, not a campaign outcome
~21.5M
qualified adults held in reserve for staged expansionModel output
Under ±2.0
drift against the brand’s own segments, down from ±7.5Compared percentile by percentile
Pending
cost per completed purchase against the agency baseline, by cohortMeasurement plan registered before spend

What this design can’t rule out

  • Scores are directional rankings, not conversion forecasts.
  • No outcome figures until the read is in.
Read the full case

Fuel and convenience retail

From Pump to Counter

A U.S. fuel and convenience retailer (name withheld) · Eight-week flight across four markets, 2024

A fuel and convenience retailer treated the few minutes at the pump as a moment of intent and served ten-minute offers to drivers while they were fueling. Verified store entries rose 48%, holdout-adjusted, and second visits within 30 days roughly tripled.

What we did

  1. Detected drivers who were fueling right then, using pump-level geofences and dwell
  2. Served a $1 morning coffee or a $5 lunch offer as a wallet pass that expired in ten minutes
  3. Followed a first visit with reminders on day two and day five, and stepped-up value for repeat visitors
  4. Held out 10–15% of pump clusters in every market, with synthetic controls for fuel prices and weather

The results

+48%
store entries per 1,000 fueling devices (142 to 210)Door crossings with at least 60 seconds inside; holdout-adjusted
+208%
second store visits within 30 days (6.2% to 19.1%)Exposed drivers who made a first visit, against control
−41%
median days to a repeat visit (11.7 to 6.9)Same exposed population
+21%
food-program purchases attached to fuel tripsAgainst the pre-period
3.2×
media return on net food-program marginMedian across markets
$0.78
cost per incremental store visit ($0.61 in the best decile)Median across markets

What this design can’t rule out

  • Food-program attachment was modeled from time-aligned register data where no loyalty link existed.
  • Margin stayed positive after media and offer costs everywhere except the sites with the longest walk from pump to door.
  • Figures cover the eight-week primary flight.
Read the full case

Hospitality

The Message That Breathes

A regional brewery and restaurant group (name withheld) · Two consecutive quarters after go-live; Net Promoter Score over six months

A brewery with deep local loyalty and fading momentum replaced its promotional calendar with messages matched to each guest’s motivation and timed to their own rhythm. Revenue rose 32.6% in the first 90 days, and the next quarter ran higher still.

What we did

  1. Unified point-of-sale, loyalty, search and social traces into consented, person-level guest profiles
  2. Grouped guests by the reason they visit, each with its own trigger, creative frame and daypart window
  3. Used text messages as a two-way read, pausing when receptivity fell and resuming on new signals
  4. Timed loyalty milestones and seasonal cues to habit windows instead of discount ladders

Who it spoke to

  • The Experience Seeker

    Comes for what is new and for an atmosphere worth sharing. Responded to atmosphere-forward stories and first looks at new offerings.

  • The Value Pragmatist

    Comes for a reliable, good-value night out. Responded to clear value rather than atmosphere.

  • The Mindful Moderate

    Balances a night out with healthier habits. The case doesn’t report this group’s response separately.

The results

+32.6%
revenue in the first 90 daysPre–post, against the pre-intervention baseline
+41.1%
revenue in the following quarterSame baseline
+18.4%
repeat-purchase frequencyOver the campaign period
7.3 → 8.6
Net Promoter ScoreOver six months
+22%
email open rateCross-channel read

What this design can’t rule out

  • A pre–post design without a randomized holdout; seasonality, local competition and macro shifts can’t be fully ruled out.
  • Results by archetype were not disclosed, so per-segment effects aren’t reported.
  • No cost curves were disclosed, so return on spend isn’t stated.
Read the full case

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