JMS Uncrustables Wins the digital Freezer Aisle, Generating +11x ROAS

The J.M. Smucker Company’s Uncrustables brand faced aggressive competition within the crowded frozen handheld category on Walmart.com. To drive new-to-brand growth and expand household penetration, Uncrustables needed to capture high-intent demand during critical shopping windows without overspending. 

Traditional manual campaign management created a significant structural gap: digital shelf volatility. A competitor's out-of-stock event on Walmart.com left category demand unfulfilled, presenting an immediate market share opportunity. However, in a standard campaign setup, this moment was invisible until days later. By the time manual bid adjustments occurred, the high-intent buying window had closed. Conversely, bidding aggressively without inventory protection risked wasting ad dollars driving clicks to out-of-stock SKUs. To win market share efficiently, Smucker’s and its agency partner, PSOne, needed an intelligent, event-driven activation engine that could connect digital shelf signals directly to retail media bid logic.

To bridge the gap between digital shelf reality and media execution, PSOne integrated Profitero+ Shelf Intelligent Media (SIM) directly into Pacvue’s bid automation platform. Operating as the central intelligence engine, Profitero+ supplied continuous digital shelf inventory signals, transforming media strategy from reactive monitoring into automated execution.

Profitero+ SIM monitored competitive inventory levels across the frozen handheld category; when competing brands went out-of-stock, Profitero+ signaled Pacvue to automatically increase Uncrustables’ search bids, capturing the moment shoppers were forced to substitute products. SIM also continuously tracked Uncrustables’ own availability across six flavor varieties. Bids were automatically suppressed for any out-of-stock SKU, preventing wasted ad spend on unavailable products.

This was all made possible because of an integrated Four-Partner Operating Model. 

• J.M. Smucker: Set brand growth goals, SKU priorities and category mandates for PSOne. 
• PSOne sets the direction to achieve the goals; PSOne uses Pacvue, which has a direct integration with Profitero+ digital shelf signals. Pacvue and Profitero+ close the distance between intent and outcome at a speed and scale no human team can match manually.