Work
Lee Kum Kee Chinese and Asian foods – noodles product launch
Generating awareness of a new noodle range from a leading Chinese food brand with DSP and other programmatic advertising campaigns.
Services
The client
Founded in 1888, Lee Kum Kee is a Hong Kong-based producer of Chinese and Asian sauces, seasonings and food products, distributed in more than 100 countries.
In September 2025, Lee Kum Kee launched a new noodle range in the UK, entering a highly competitive FMCG category where purchase decisions are often influenced long before shoppers reach the shelf.
The objectives were clear:
- Build large-scale awareness of the new product amongst relevant audiences
- Drive qualified traffic to a central campaign landing page
- Support wider retail activity across Amazon and major supermarkets
As this was a launch-focused, upper-funnel campaign, success metrics were defined as impressions, click-through rate (CTR) and clicks to site.
The challenge
Launching a new FMCG product presents a unique set of challenges, particularly in a mature category, with intense competition and where established brands already command consumer attention.
The campaign followed a phased creative rollout, with video assets introduced later in the flight. This required the media strategy to remain agile, adapting as new formats became available and performance insights emerged.
Fluid Marketplaces built an audience-first optimisation framework designed to identify and scale high-performing audiences in real time, delivering continuous performance improvements throughout the campaign.
Fluid Marketplaces' strategy
Fluid Marketplaces built a DSP-led, audience-first programmatic strategy designed to deliver both scale and relevance.
Working closely with Lee Kum Kee UK, we developed five core behaviour-led audience clusters:
- Noodle lovers and pasta explorers: comfort-food buyers open to alternatives
- Asian food enthusiasts: culturally curious, flavour-led shoppers
- Convenience seekers: time-poor consumers seeking quick meal solutions
- Health-conscious home cooks: cooks prioritising simple, balanced recipes
- Budget-conscious shoppers: value-driven households using noodles as a flexible base
Fluid Marketplaces’ strategy was deliberately upper-funnel, designed to build brand recognition at scale and direct users to a central landing page, thereby supporting downstream retail activity across Amazon and major supermarkets.
Amazon DSP was the core activation channel, enabling us to reach high-intent audiences and continuously refine targeting in real time.
YouTube supported efficient video reach, extending the campaign beyond Amazon environments, while DSP remained the primary performance driver.
Execution
Audiences were built and validated from the ground up using the following strategy.:
Food-led shoppers: high-frequency food shoppers and online grocery shoppers.
Retail proxies: viewers of Lee Kum Kee’s other Amazon ASINs, validated through volume testing.
Competitor conquesting: users browsing competitor noodle and Asian food ASINs.
Life-stage audiences: students preparing to leave for university or college, aligned with convenience-led meal needs.
Lookalike modelling: expansion from high-performing seed audiences once validated.
We then stress-tested these audiences against delivery volume, CPM, efficiency and CTR, eliminating underperformers and consolidating the strongest signals.
Beyond traditional food targeting, we conducted deeper analysis into content and cultural affinities, identifying genres and interests that consistently delivered efficient reach and engagement.
The campaign was delivered across both display and video formats.
Display activity launched first to establish reach and awareness through a suite of static creative assets deployed across multiple placements and sizes.
Video activity was introduced later in the campaign through high-quality 30-second and 15-second edits, quickly becoming a key driver of engagement across premium CTV environments, including Prime Video, as well as online video placements.
The strongest-performing creative featured the product being enjoyed, highlighting texture, colour and appetite appeal rather than packaging alone. Early performance signals allowed us to prioritise this execution, increasing visibility and driving stronger engagement.
The results
The campaign exceeded all forecast KPIs, significantly outperforming expectations for an upper-funnel FMCG launch and driving huge interest for Lee Kum Kee noodles in the UK.
Forecast vs actual performance:
- Impressions: 17.8M vs 10.4M forecasted
- Clicks: 192.6K vs 17.9K forecasted
- CTR: (clickthrough rate) 1.08% vs 0.17% forecasted
Performance improved steadily throughout the campaign, demonstrating the impact of ongoing optimisation.
Meanwhile, Amazon DSP emerged as the strongest performer, delivering:
- 2% average CTR
- CTR increasing from 0.09% to 9% over the campaign
- Video formats peaking at 17.5% CTR
YouTube supported cost-efficient reach, with skippable ads delivering 80% lower CPMs and 281% higher CTR vs non-skippable formats.
Although direct retail sales impact sat outside the campaign’s scope, this activity supported a broader launch ecosystem including retail media, PR, DOOH (digital out of home), in-store POSM (point of sale materials), sampling and experiential activity.
Takeaway
This campaign shows how retail media can deliver full-funnel impact.
By combining:
- Insight-led audience design
- Continuous optimisation
- And Amazon DSP’s targeting capabilities
Lee Kum Kee achieved exceptional engagement at scale, delivering a launch campaign that outperformed expectations in a highly competitive FMCG market.
Our work
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