Person in a lilac sweatshirt on a blue sofa holds up a Sweet Defeat gum blister pack printed "STOP SUGAR CRAVINGS"
Submitted by The Shelf Influencer Marketing AgencyAgency IPI Score 43/100

Sweet Defeat: Taking the Sweet Out of Sweets

Influencer Marketing

The Shelf ran an 18 influencer campaign for Sweet Defeat that shifted from impressions to clicks and reports an overall engagement rate of 3.81% across 6 platforms.

9Instagram Story frame views
8,400engagement rate, one creator
6overall engagement rate

Case in 60 seconds

Sweet Defeat sells a patented Gymnema Sylvestre formula that makes sweets taste bland or bitter, and the page frames breaking a sugar habit as hard because the body is hardwired to want the sweet stuff.

The campaign appears to turn on the difficulty of selling a taste, because an audience cannot be told what suppressed sweetness feels like and reads a creator's unrehearsed reaction as the proof instead.

Personalized creator stories carried the education about how the formula works and the all natural ingredients, with the product demonstrated in a taste test rather than described, so the reaction on camera did the explaining.

The Shelf briefed 18 influencers to try Sweet Defeat and share their own stories across Instagram carousels, in feed posts, videos and Stories, TikTok videos, YouTube videos, blog posts and podcast audio. Creators ran a Sweet Defeat Challenge, trying the product and then a sweet on camera, and the agency hired new influencers with video expertise and reworked its whitelisting when the objective moved from impressions to clicks.

The Shelf reports 6 different platforms at an overall engagement rate of 3.81%, with 9 influencers running Stories that drew over 230,000 views across Story frames, 810 link clicks, 1,666 sticker taps and a 4.37% engagement rate, while Gia's content took 8,400 likes at 5.29%.

Strategy Breakdown

Followers of the 18 influencers, addressed as people trying to cut a sugar habit and lose weight naturally, who needed educating on how the formula works and what is in it.
The page sets a hardwired appetite for sugar against modern conditions that no longer require the extra calories, so the work sits in the gap between a craving people keep satisfying and a habit they want to break.
Based on the available evidence, the difficulty is that the benefit reads as a penalty, because a formula whose whole promise is that sweets stop tasting good has to be sold as relief rather than as deprivation.
Sweet Defeat is positioned as the mechanism that interrupts a cycle rather than as a diet, with the clinical backing and the all natural ingredients carried by creators as the reasons the claim holds.
The campaign appears to rest on the reading that an involuntary reaction to a sweet persuades more than an explanation of how the plant extract works, which is why the challenge format was given to creators.

Creative & Execution System

Assets & channels

  • Blog
  • Instagram
  • Podcast
  • TikTok
  • YouTube
  • Instagram carousels
  • Stories
  • blog posts
  • in-feed posts
  • podcast audio
  • videos

Partners

  • The Shelf

Creator role

  • Ashley — creator
  • Brittany Marsicek — creator
  • Charlie — creator
  • Gia Fey | Curvygirls Fitness — creator
  • Hayley Lombard — creator
  • Lauren Elyce Atlanta Blogger — creator
  • 18 influencers
  • 9 influencers who did Stories
  • new influencers with video expertise

Results & Evidence

MetricValue
Instagram Story Frame ViewsOur Instagram Story content KILLED on engagements - across our 9 influencers who did Stories, we had over 230,000 views across Story frames, 810 link clicks , 1,666 sticker taps to Sweet Defeat's Instagram page, and an overall engagement rate of 4.37% !
Engagement Rate, One CreatorLastly, we loved how Gia brought her personality, pep, and energy to her posts - her content garnered 8,400 likes and an overall engagement rate of 5.29% .
Overall Engagement RateAs a result, we ran across 6 different platforms with an overall engagement rate of 3.81% !

Why The Shelf Influencer Marketing Agency's strategy worked

  1. 1

    A campaign whose objective changes mid flight keeps its measurement honest only if the formats change with it, which is why the move from impressions to clicks came with creators hired for video rather than fresh briefs to the existing roster.

  2. 2

    Products defined by a sensory effect appear to be better served by a filmed reaction than by a description, because the audience is being asked to accept a claim that argues against its own appetite.

  3. 3

    Stories carried the higher measured rate on this campaign at 4.37% against 3.81% overall, which suggests the tap and swipe surfaces suited a demonstration that rewards watching a reaction to the end.

  4. 4

    Whitelisting was reworked rather than added, so the click objective was pursued by extending creator posts that already ran rather than by commissioning separate paid creative for the same audience.

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