Rachael’s Kitchen

Hummingbird digital: Our results

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The Challenge

Rachael’s Kitchen — a luxury cupcake delivery brand — approached Hummingbird with a familiar yet complex challenge: standing out in an overcrowded online gifting space.

The brand had built a strong reputation for quality and presentation, but its digital ecosystem was built around moments, not momentum. Sales spiked beautifully around key holidays like Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, and Christmas — then dropped sharply during off-peak months.

The team wanted to change that.

They needed a way to sustain growth all year round, not just during calendar spikes. They also wanted to modernise how they showed up online: sharper paid media, a more emotional brand story, and a stronger foundation in AI and search visibility to future-proof their discoverability.

When Hummingbird came on board, Rachael’s Kitchen had a loyal customer base but lacked unified messaging, data-driven targeting, and a clear performance funnel to connect awareness to purchase.

Our goal was to create a system that didn’t just sell cupcakes — it delivered joy daily.

Year

2024

Channels

Industry

Gifting / DTC Bakery

Our Approach

We began with a brand and audience deep dive, looking at what truly drove Rachael’s customers to gift. It wasn’t just about cupcakes — it was about moments of connection, thoughtfulness, and surprise. From that insight came our new brand narrative:

“Deliver Joy Daily.”

This became the emotional driver across all channels — from ads and email to influencer content and SEO.

From there, we re-engineered every touchpoint of their marketing ecosystem, ensuring that each channel worked together to create a seamless and scalable growth engine.

1. Go-To-Market Strategy

We developed a year-round GTM plan that balanced planned seasonal peaks with evergreen storytelling.We developed a year-round GTM plan that balanced planned seasonal peaks with evergreen storytelling.

Instead of relying on holidays alone, we created thematic campaigns around birthdays, celebrations, thank-you gifts, and “just because” moments.

Our content strategy emphasised emotion over promotion — highlighting the joy of giving as much as the beauty of the product.

Every channel shared the same visual language: vibrant, personal, and irresistibly clickable.

2. Paid & Organic Integration

The next step was to connect Rachael’s paid and organic marketing into one unified funnel.

We rebuilt PPC and Meta campaigns from the ground up, focusing on intent-driven keywords and visual storytelling that matched what people were seeing on social.

On Meta, creative focused on unboxing moments, personalised gift notes, and close-up “pour” shots that showcased the sensory side of gifting.

Google PPC mirrored those stories with high-intent keywords such as “cupcake delivery UK,” “birthday cupcakes,” and “thank you gifts.”

We also introduced TikTok campaigns to reach younger audiences with authentic, creator-led content — transforming everyday gifting into a shareable lifestyle experience. The alignment of creative and targeting led to a 54% improvement in ROAS across both PPC and Meta channels within four months.

3. Social & AI Search Optimisation

Looking beyond 2024, we prepared Rachael’s Kitchen for the next wave of search visibility: AI search.

We optimised the website with structured data, conversational FAQs, and long-form content designed for Google’s Search Generative Experience (SGE) and emerging AI search tools. Instead of optimising just for keywords, we optimised for questions people actually ask, like:

• “What’s the best way to send cupcakes as a gift?”
• “Do cupcakes travel well in the post?”
• “How do I personalise a cupcake gift?”

This allowed Rachael’s Kitchen to secure top-3 visibility for several gifting and cupcake-related queries — both in traditional Google search and in AI-driven snippets.

4. Email & Automation

We introduced smart email automation to turn one-time gifters into loyal repeat customers.

Our team built personalised event-based flows, including birthday, anniversary, and thank-you triggers, plus abandoned cart and win-back sequences.

Each message carried the same brand warmth and emotional tone — “we’re here to make someone’s day sweeter” — and featured product recommendations tailored to purchase history.

This automation helped grow customer lifetime value and delivered consistent, predictable revenue even between campaign peaks.

The Results

Rachael’s Kitchen saw a complete transformation in how it connected with its audience — emotionally and digitally.

Key Highlights:
🍰 +162% increase in year-round revenue META performance
💡 54% improvement in ROAS across Meta
🔍 Top-3 organic visibility in Google & AI search for core gifting and cupcake terms

Organic impressions rose 188%, PPC click-through rates jumped 72%, and social engagement more than doubled. But most importantly, the brand broke free of seasonal limitations — generating steady DTC revenue throughout the year.

By combining emotion, precision, and forward-thinking strategy, Hummingbird helped Rachael’s Kitchen evolve from a seasonal favourite to a year-round gifting destination — perfectly positioned for the next wave of digital discovery.

Hummingbird digital: Our results