In March 2019, Cub Cadet launched the Ultima, a zero-turn residential riding lawn mower that became the No. 1 best-seller its first year on the market. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the No. 1 spot was lost to larger competitors with war chests dedicated to advertising and reaching overzealous homeowners who now fixated on their lawns.

By 2023, as the lawn care equipment category and consumers’ lives returned to pre-pandemic normalcy, Cub Cadet needed the Ultima to reclaim its category-leader status or risk being cut from the company’s portfolio. With only a fraction of the paid media dollars of its rivals, Cub Cadet also needed creative thinking to make up the awareness gap.

In order to boost unaided awareness, increase brand consideration and accelerate profitable sales of the Ultima, we established a mutually agreed upon criteria to guide our thinking and ensure a great fit.

Inspired by the award-winning zero-turn riding mower, the Ultima, we created limited-edition footwear designed and engineered for the ultimate lawn mowing experience. We even partnered with Omar Bailey, former VP of footwear for YEEZY, to design the first-of-its-kind shoe featuring a water-resistant upper that's immune to grass stains, a laceless "EZ-on" closure, a LED light-up tongue, and a step-out heel frame (as a nod to the Ultima’s tubular steel frame).

The Ultima served as the centerpiece of a campaign that intentionally reflected how the most loved footwear companies would market and release a new signature shoe. This enabled us to create enormous talk value for a four-year-old mower that hadn’t changed since its initial release.

Our media relations strategy focused on outlets most likely to reach lawn-care lovers and sneakerheads, as well as the all-important outdoor power equipment trades. We timed our launch announcement to take place a few days prior to Father’s Day, which made for a timely and compelling hook, especially for local broadcast outlets.

In addition to distributing a press release via Businesswire, we conducted media outreach, offering our video content and a suite of editorial photography (similar to what major sneaker brands capture to support their launches).

We also developed a B-roll package for local broadcast that included footage of both the Ultima lawn mower in action as well as the lawn-mowing shoes.

To tease the launch, we created a hype video and a making-of video to generate excitement on paid and organic social.

For the launch of the Ultimas, we partnered with NTWRK, the site of choice for consumers seeking rare and novel sneakers. On June 22, 20 pairs of Ultimas were awarded through a live sales event on NTWRK. (Consumers entered for the chance to buy a pair.) Throughout the course of a 15-minute livestream hosted by two influencers — Kylie Mar and Franklin Session — the Ultima and Cub Cadet were depicted in a highly unexpected context before a large potential-growth audience.

The event drove more than 2.5 million impressions in the app, and livestream saw over 380 comments on 1,900 entries to score the shoes.

Simultaneously, we sent pairs to both lawn influencers, who created custom content around their new lawn shoes, and sneaker influencers, who covered the drop.

Ultimas shoes outperformed almost all key performance indicators, amounting to Cub Cadet’s most successful brand activation of all time.

Earned media, at over 18x the estimated impressions, was achieved in top-tier consumer media outlets extending brand visibility to new and younger audiences while also dominating endemic news outlets.

Positive sentiment almost doubled YoY during peak mowing season, amidst the biggest sales event of the year.

Additionally, the program generated:

· 465 million total impressions (427MM earned media impressions) across all channels, including earned media, social, influencer and the NTWRK paid partnership

· 800% increase in influencer impressions compared to the previous most successful brand act

· 163% increase in brand mentions on social media compared to year-over-year

· 181,000 engagements with brand social media posts