What do you do with a century-old brand with no perceived point of difference, a rising price, and a formulation in opposition to contemporary food trends? You reframe what you’re associated with – “pleasure” food – in a way that’s desirable today.

We dug into the culture, trends, and consumer attitudes through interviews and social deep dives. What we found surprised us. There was a broad swath of young consumers who loved Velveeta, but many weren’t vocal about it out of fear of judgment.

There was, however, a subset who were unapologetic in their love. They invented Velveeta cocktails, made Velveeta art, and even painted their cars “Velveeta yellow.” For them, the outrageous cheesy deliciousness of the product unlocked “a mood” - a state of mind where all that mattered was doing exactly what brought them pleasure, with zero care for what others had to say. In short, they put pleasure first.

They reflected a broader cultural trend of people prioritizing passions and pleasures as a statement of who they were, because when they fully leaned into what brought them pleasure, it unleashed unapologetic confidence.

These findings unlocked our transformative brand proposition: Velveeta is more than just a food, it’s the key to an outrageously pleasure-first lifestyle, which we call La Dolce Velveeta.

We launched the campaign with films that reflected this bold mood and attitude, with stylish characters unapologetically consuming Velveeta wherever and however they pleased.

Our broader communications strategy immersed consumers in the feeling of La Dolce Velveeta at every touchpoint, flipping the traditional CPG media plan on its head and moving into lifestyle spaces Velveeta had never been.

We incorporated big impact, scalable OOH in leisure and nightlife districts to drive high reach and link ourselves with a pleasure-first life. We built authenticity with lifestyle influencers and attention-driving partnerships with PopSugar and TikTok. We drove engagement through a custom Snapchat lens, targeting both Pleasure Seekers to encourage trial and current Velveeta buyers. And we narrowed in our target and fueled lower funnel metrics through craveable banner ads aimed to spark the appetites of known Velveeta buyers.

We also drove new visibility with high-potential communities identified through MRI data, with a focus on four distinct subcultures - fashionistas, beauty junkies, bar-hoppers, and late-night pleasure-seekers. We activated each with a disruptive idea to get them talking, betting our story would spread through their community and beyond.

For fashionistas, we appeared in a double-page spread in Vogue magazine (a long way away from the expected media spaces for grocery store cheese brands). And we created a gold drip ‘lip cuff’, a predicted fashion trend for the year, crafted in partnership with a cult-favorite celebrity designer.

For beauty junkies, we launched a cheese-scented nail polish on Amazon.

For bar-hoppers, we introduced the Veltini, the world’s first Velveeta-based martini.

And for late-night pleasure seekers, we created the first-ever booty call food delivery service “The Foodie Call”, where people could text the brand and their booty call to order late-night pleasure food.