CASE STUDY
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FMCG / LIVE COMMERCE
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BORGES
Making Oil Move:
Borges Streams and the Demand Wave
For me, Borges is not just a brand; it is a part of Spanish history that began in 1896. For over a
century, they have shaped the Mediterranean table with high-quality olive oils, olives, vinegars,
and pasta. However, I noticed that in today’s digital market, this heritage was being overlooked.
To the new consumer, the brand seemed "new," which really meant it was being ignored. My goal was to
revive this legacy. Instead of using standard ads, I set up vertical live streams with a charismatic
chef who cooked live with Borges' various ingredients. By pairing this content with quick discounts,
I created a buying frenzy that revitalized the brand.
01 // THE QUIET SHELF
Strong Product. Weak Story. Stronger Competitor.
The focus was clear: olive oil first (all main lines, including new ones), olives in cans/glass,
then pasta and grains. On paper, the portfolio looked serious. In the marketplace reality,
it stood in the shadow of a louder competitor that had already claimed the “Mediterranean”
mental slot.
02 // BUILDING THE WAVE
From Flat Listings to Live Vertical Screen
We didn’t start with a banner. We started with a format. Vertical streams, tuned for
smartphones,
with a recognizable chef cooking simple, slightly surprising dishes: some everyday, some
pre-holiday. Every stream had to answer one basic question:
“If I have this bottle of Borges at home, what else suddenly becomes possible?”
FIG 1.0 // STREAM WAVE EVOLUTION
≈ 150 viewers
Phase
First contact. Audience is mostly “who are these guys?” and coupon hunters.
≈ 600 viewers
Phase
People start recognizing the chef and the brand tile in the app. Chat gets warmer,
not just transactional.
≈ 1 800 viewers
Phase
People now come not only to watch but to “hunt” — they know discounts appear
during cooking gestures.
3 500+ viewers
Phase
Now people repost clips, share screenshots, and buy boxes of oil and olives.
Off-platform demand starts echoing.
The format flipped the logic: Borges stopped being “one more bottle in a long list” and became
an event. Streams were not added on top of the shelf; they redefined how the shelf was
experienced for a chunk of the audience.
03 // THE TRICK: DISCOUNTS THAT FOLLOW GESTURES
Every Pour Is a Signal
The core mechanic was simple and brutal. Whenever the chef grabbed a bottle of Borges oil to
pour into a pan or dress a salad, I fired a short-window discount on that exact SKU.
A few seconds, sometimes with discounts up to 98% — on purpose.
It did three things at once:
• made people watch the stream like a game, not a TV ad;
• moved inventory that had been stuck for months;
• created a story people wanted to share outside the platform.
FIG 2.0 // TRIGGER TIMELINE (SINGLE STREAM)
Opening
Mid-Show
Final Dish
P1 — Warm-Up
Short olive oil “flash” discount right after intro to train viewers that the
show is interactive.
P2 — First Dish
When oil hits the pan, a deeper cut on a key line. Add-to-cart spikes in chat.
P3 — Side Product
Olives or pasta join the scene; people start adding “boxes, not jars”.
P4 — Finale Wave
Heaviest discount, sometimes up to 98%, designed to clear specific stuck SKUs
and create “I can’t believe this discount” screenshots.
Why It Worked
The discount was no longer a static coupon code in a banner; it became a real-time
reward linked to a human gesture. People tuned in, waited, reacted and bragged
afterwards. That’s how “unknown Mediterranean brand” turns into
“those crazy streams where we bought oil in boxes”.
What It Did to the Portfolio
Old, slow SKUs disappeared from the warehouse. New lines entered the market already
connected to recipes and a face. And the competitor’s previously safe territory
suddenly had a noisy neighbour.
04 // INVENTORY AS A RESERVOIR
Watching the Tanks Drain
On the backend this all looked very non-romantic: pallets, boxes, and slow-moving positions
that had been sitting there too long. The streams turned that into visible movement.
FIG 3.0 // INVENTORY RESERVOIRS
Olive Oil
primary focus of
streams and discounts
Olives
rode on the wave of
oil-driven interest
Pasta & Grains
cleared “stuck” items
through bundles
Before streams
After stream cycle
From the outside it looked like a fun cooking show. From the inside it was a controlled drain
of slow inventory and a way to give new lines their own story the moment they appeared on the
shelf.
Format Design
LIVE
Vertical live streams with a recognizable chef, simple but unusual recipes and a clear
role for each Borges line: olive oil in front, olives and pasta following.
Gesture-Linked Discounts
DEPLOYED
Short, sometimes extreme discounts tied to on-screen actions:
when the chef pours oil, the price drops. This turned attention into a game and
accelerated stock movement.
Inventory Drain
ACHIEVED
Slow SKUs stopped blocking the portfolio. Both online and offline shipments increased
as people began actively looking for the brand beyond the marketplace itself.
STREAM: AWARENESS
Brand Awareness Uplift
From “barely noticed” to a 300%+ increase in searches and mentions around the brand and
its key lines on the marketplace.
STREAM: LIVE REACH
Viewers per Stream
The audience grew not just in size but in involvement: people started posting about the
streams in their own feeds and chats.
STREAM: INVENTORY
Slow-Moving SKUs
Boxes of oil, olives and pasta that had been “sleeping” turned into rapid outbound flow.
The shelf stopped being quiet, and the competitor stopped being lonely.