Founded over 30 years ago by two heart surgeons who saw their patients struggle to eat better, Dr. Praeger's creates food that adults and kids alike love—made with vegetables. Their mission is simple: you don't have to compromise on taste or spend time you don't have on shopping, planning, and prep when Dr. Praeger's is in your freezer.
The brand operates in two competitive segments: plant-based burgers and better-for-you frozen snacks. In the plant-based space, they compete alongside brands like Impossible, Beyond, and Daiya in a category facing headwinds like increasing competition and high price points. In the better-for-you frozen category—a growing segment as consumers seek healthier, quick snack options—Dr. Praeger's has found success with their Littles line and recently launched new Pizza and Taco Stars and Broccoli Cheddar Bites designed to appeal to any shopper.
Prior to partnering with Aisle, Dr. Praeger's faced three main pain points that limit their retail marketing effectiveness:
Driving in-store trial: Getting consumers to try their products is instrumental to success, especially as the plant-based category faces increased competition and rising costs.
Measuring retail marketing success: Historically, focusing on print and social media with mostly store-generated digital rebates and coupons, and provided limited visibility into campaign performance and consumer behavior.
Capturing UGC and customer testimonials: To cultivate genuine social proof and user-generated content, it's essential for customers to actually try the products and share their honest and authentic feedback. Without a systematic way to connect trial with testimonial generation, Dr. Praeger's struggled to drive the volume needed to compete effectively on retail platforms like Target.com.
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“My role spans across several areas of key marketing initiatives that help build brand awareness and drive growth, including managing social media strategy and execution, overseeing influencer partnerships, and curating user-generated content to foster community engagement. We need a solution that can tie all these efforts together with measurable retail results.” - Kateryna, Associate Brand Manager at Dr. Praeger's
Dr. Praeger's partnered with Aisle to drive buzz around their new Pizza Stars innovation launch—a notoriously difficult task for retail brands trying to generate awareness, trial and convert those experiences into authentic social proof and user generated content
Their team leveraged Aisle to identify first-time shoppers and drive trial of Pizza Stars at Target. After purchase, they configured a 7-day follow-up with a repeat reward structure combined with an SMS-based review request, creating a seamless flow from trial to advocacy that transformed their innovation launch into measurable retail sales and authentic social buzz.
This approach allowed Dr. Praeger's to overcome the typical challenges retail brands face when launching new products: generating genuine customer testimonials, building social proof, and creating organic word-of-mouth marketing that drives ongoing discovery and trial.
"This was a big launch of an amazing tasting product— we wanted consumers to know how good they were, and reviews were the most efficient path to awareness! By connecting retail trial to authentic reviews, we turned the excitement and social buzz around Pizza Stars into measurable momentum." — Ryan Boudreau, Founder, Good Eye Kid
The reviews generated aren't just quantity-focused—they're authentic, detailed testimonials from actual customers who try the products through Aisle's trial programs, providing valuable social proof for prospective buyers.
Unlike their previous retail marketing efforts, leveraging Aisle offered their team clear attribution and tracking, allowing Greg (Director of Analytics and ecommerce) to demonstrate concrete ROI that justifies continued investment and platform scaling.
This impact was critical for the Pizza Stars launch. Innovation products typically struggle with a cold start—shoppers hesitate to try new items without existing credibility and reviews, but getting those first reviews requires actual consumers. The boost in reviews gave Pizza Stars instant credibility and the social validation needed to attract new Target shoppers and those shopping on Target.com.
For Dr. Praeger's, Aisle has evolved from a trial-driving tool to a comprehensive platform that solves the fundamental challenge of innovation launches: building the authentic social proof that new products need to succeed at retail.
