Case Study · DTC Food · For Those Who Know…
Building a hummus brand people seek out by name
Sumsum is a direct-to-consumer hummus, pita, falafel and tahini brand — a foreign-funded startup with no advertising history and a deliberately niche audience. We built demand from zero and turned a cold market into repeat online sales, without ever competing with its own B2B sister brand.
- Client
- Sumsum
- Sector
- DTC food brand
- Product
- Hummus · Pita · Falafel · Tahini
- Model
- Direct-to-consumer
- Market
- Ukraine
- Channels
- Google · Meta
- Focus
- Demand & online sales
- Period
- Oct 2021 – Oct 2022
01 — The Challenge
A new consumer brand, a niche audience — and a line it couldn’t cross
Sumsum was a foreign-funded startup with no ad history, selling a considered grocery product to a specific crowd: Middle-Eastern expats, hummus lovers, vegans and vegetarians. There was also a hard strategic constraint — the brand could not compete with its own B2B sister brand, SigNature, so paid Search on the generic term “hummus” was deliberately off the table. Demand had to be built, not just captured.
02 — The Strategy
Generate demand up top — then convert it lower down
With generic search off-limits, the plan led with demand generation — reach the right people, warm them with content and remarketing, then convert branded and competitor intent into sales.
Build awareness
Display, YouTube and Discovery introduced Sumsum to expats, hummus lovers, vegans and travellers to the Middle East — building a brand people would later seek out.
Audiences & remarketing
Meta interest audiences around healthy eating, veganism and Middle-Eastern travel, plus a CRM look-alike and dynamic remarketing, kept the brand in view and moved people toward a first order.
Capture warm intent
Search on brand and competitor terms (never generic “hummus”) caught the demand we’d created, while CRO on the store turned more of those visits into sales.
03 — Execution
A full-funnel engine, built and measured from scratch
The work behind the demand
Every channel pointed at one outcome — repeat online sales — with the full path from first touch to checkout tracked end to end.
- ✓ Search on branded & competitor queries (generic “hummus” excluded by design)
- ✓ Display, YouTube & Discovery for awareness and a touch-to-sale chain
- ✓ Meta interest audiences: healthy eating, veganism, Middle-Eastern travel
- ✓ CRM look-alike + dynamic remarketing to scale and re-engage
- ✓ Store CRO: floating mobile buttons, HoReCa redirect form, A/B-tested product cards
- ✓ Rebuilt analytics: GA + GA4, Enhanced Ecommerce, sales & follow tracking
04 — The Results
Demand that compounded — and converted
05 — Why It Worked
Three moves that built a brand, not just clicks
Created demand, then caught it
Awareness channels built recognition first, so branded and competitor search had warm intent to convert — not a cold audience.
Protected the whole portfolio
Deliberately skipping generic “hummus” kept Sumsum from cannibalising its B2B sister brand — disciplined strategy over easy clicks.
Closed the loop
Rebuilt analytics and store CRO meant every touch was measured and more visits became orders — turning spend into repeatable sales.
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