Nothing Bundt Cakes drives sales with Waze ads

Nothing Bundt Cakes expanded its paid media strategy to include Waze, aiming to boost brand awareness and drive in-store visits year-round. By partnering with Ansira, they launched a campaign to highlight nearby bakeries and drive impulse purchases, enhancing their overall marketing mix.

Started by two friends who shared a love of baking delicious, handcrafted cakes to bring joy to friends and family, Nothing Bundt Cakes is a growing franchise with over 400 bakeries.

Previously, their paid media strategy focused primarily on lower-funnel activities to grow online orders. When this strategy shifted from a local to a national buying approach, Nothing Bundt Cakes seized the opportunity to add Waze to the channel mix, hoping to grow brand awareness and help drive purchases. Together with their agency, Ansira, Nothing Bundt Cakes designed a campaign to highlight nearby bakeries, draw in more bakery traffic, and reposition sweet treats as not just a seasonal celebration, but an everyday occasion.

While the cake business is heavily seasonal, including Waze in the expanded channel mix helped Nothing Bundt Cakes invest in growing bakery visits year-round. By connecting with drivers nearby through Waze advertising, the bakeries could increase brand awareness and strengthen their community presence.

“For each bakery, their job first and foremost in marketing is to reach out and engage in their community,” said Julie Lee, Director of Media and Communications.

Most of Nothing Bundt Cakes’ digital tactics are optimized to drive online orders. Still, Waze presented an excellent opportunity to focus on in-bakery visits, leading to more impulse purchases and repeat guests. “We always say, the moment you taste our cake, you’ll be coming back for more,” added Lee.

Increasing brand presence with evergreen campaigns

Nothing Bundt Cakes launched a strategy with Pins and Takeovers, featuring various cake flavors, sizes, and cake decorations in their creative. They included messaging to encourage pre-ordering for special occasions — such as ordering as early as four weeks ahead for a Father’s Day cake — which meant they could extend holiday campaigns for longer durations.

“We saw Waze as a lever to help us with awareness. Ultimately, we’re also measuring the success of walking into one of our bakeries and likely purchasing our cakes,” said Lee. “The results are really successful. Right off the bat, we’re seeing the impact, and we can tie revenue dollars to our ads in Waze. We’re really proud of that.”

Increased bakery visits

As the campaign ran, guests began dropping in for a treat. “Waze exceeded our expectations,” says Yvonne Riggs, Associate Director at Ansira. “We were so pleased to see such a high volume of guests on a monthly basis.” The campaign surpassed the 50% navigation benchmark, consistently bringing 52% of navigations to bakeries. Overall, Waze drew in 90,253 guests in 7 months, resulting in a 391% return on ad spend.

Looking forward, Nothing Bundt Cakes and Ansira are testing new ways to reach nearby guests, especially as Waze continues to expand its offerings. Striking a balance between its seasonal and evergreen campaigns, the team demonstrates to their communities that every day is a special occasion.