As football has evolved into the national sport, its audience has grown beyond generic sports lovers to incorporate die-hard fantasy loyalists, casuals only in it for the game day party spread and everybody in between. The divisions between these cohorts — and the foods that bring them together — are at the heart of a brand new campaign from Hellmann’s, the Unilever brand that has worked to turn out to be synonymous with football culture and has seen continued sales momentum.
A 15-second spot encompasses a handful of parents — including a brand new boyfriend who cluelessly exclaims, “He touched it down” and “Oh, great fumble” — which are united not by football fandom, but by food made with Hellmann’s.
“We thought it was a fun solution to address the insight that there is many differing types of football fans, including the boyfriend who’s invited to a watch party and has no idea what is going on on, nevertheless it’s okay, because he brought the Buffalo chicken dip,” said Brent Lukowski, senior director of marketing for U.S. condiments at Unilever.
Developed by VML New York, the “Do Dip” campaign will run into December across national TV, streaming and social, with amplification by NFL team partnerships, in-stadium activations and retail media.
Cultural entry points
Over the last five years, Hellmann’s has focused marketing efforts around football due to the brand’s natural place at tailgates and watch-party spreads. But in several cases, its campaigns have used football as a place to begin for forays into fashion, fragrance and beyond.
“We’re always mining our audience data and understanding more about our goal consumer. We found that there are various different dimensions of football fans. There are many cohorts that make up the general football fan group,” Lukowski said.
The brand in September launched “House of Hellmann’s,” an all-denim fashion collection that was released in collaboration with a player known for his fashion sense, New York Football Giants linebacker Kayvon Thibodeaux. Previous efforts include partnering with mayo-loving NFL quarterback Will Levis for the world’s first “parfum de mayonnaise” and giving a recipe-focused spin to school football’s Heisman Trophy.
Each effort has a definite set of KPIs with which to measure success.
“If it’s more about attempting to do something buzzy and turn out to be top of mind, we’ll have impressions targets, attempting to garner coverage, excitement and conversation on social in addition to business metrics: household penetration, sales growth in an outlined period, market share gains,” Lukowski explained.
Hellmann’s lately has worked to increase campaigns from top-of-the-funnel awareness plays down the path of purchase all the way through to retail touchpoints. That was the case with its efforts around its last Super Bowl ad, which reunited Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal for a riff on the movie “When Harry Met Sally.” The brand partnered with Roku and Walmart to run shoppable ads showing off the way to make the turkey sandwich from the buzzy big game spot.
“The opportunity was a really unusual one, since it brings together audience data with partners like Walmart and Roku, and enables us to have our ‘When Sally Met Hellman’s’ campaign launch transcend the overall communications message throughout ‘I can now buy this at Walmart with a pair clicks,’” Lukowski said.
Purpose-driven and social-first
While Hellmann’s tapped into popular culture nostalgia for its most up-to-date Super Bowl spot, previous big game campaigns tied into the brand’s sustainability focused “Make Taste Not Waste” platform. And even when the platform has not appeared in ads, it has been a component of the brand’s on-the-ground-efforts at the Super Bowl and inside NFL partner stadiums. Hellmann’s for the past two years also partnered with Food Recovery Network and supported the organization’s efforts to divert salvageable food to charities.
“Every yr, after we set out our football strategy, we discover the lead objective for the program given the particular business need and the longer-term business strategy,” Lukowski said of “Make Taste Not Waste.” “We evolve the message depending on what’s critical for the business at that time limit… and we’ll proceed to adapt based on what we’d like to perform.”
Adapting to changing business realities, consumer behaviors and organizational priorities is a key focus of marketers, especially those which are a part of CPG giants like Unilever. Hellmann’s parent company has made waves this yr by planning to shift 50% of ad spend to social-first marketing. For Hellmann’s, the recent strategy reinforces how the brand has looked to capture attention around football culture.
“We know that there’s a unique role that several channels play in any effective campaign, and we now have seen really strong performance inside those social channels, each from a brand perspective, as well by leveraging creators to assist land our message and connect with communities in a very relevant way,” Lukowski said. “We’ve definitely seen success as we have shifted our strategy to include a few of these channels which are really resonating with consumers today.”
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