Like many other CPG categories during COVID, the Frozen Breakfast category saw historic growth in penetration. Eggo was no exception to this growth, with new buyers taking Eggo’s penetration to its highest. Our 2021 challenge? Keep those newly acquired buyers, retaining household penetration among parents and fueling their love for Eggo.

Households with kids were our biggest buyers, spending about 25% more in the category. To keep attracting them to our frozen aisle, we had to create warmth around a brand that, until then, was very focused on the functional promise of taste. We knew we had to give parents a new reason to return to Eggo. We set out to achieve the following:

• Maintain the record-high household penetration achieved in 2020 during COVID among HH with kids 6-12.

• Fuel positive emotion between Eggo & parents as measured by increasing social conversation’s positive sentiment by +50%.

Our strategy was to connect with parents via messages tailored to the level of pressure they were feeling in real-time, helping them get that small win in the morning and shifting Eggo from a fight (L’Eggo MY Eggo) to something everyone can agree on (L’Eggo WITH Eggo).

Parents know breakfast is important, but mornings are hard! A 2018 Kellogg’s study found working parents grapple with as many as 43 tasks around the home before setting off to work. This turns into #MorningStress, so by the time they hit the breakfast table, parents are exhausted.

Add to all of this a Pandemic. Suddenly parents were wearing several hats throughout their day, feeling like, in order to do it all, they had to sacrifice doing it well. Conflict became part of their mornings more than ever. That’s why helping parents find a small moment of harmony in the morning was so important.

We created the L’Eggometer, a first-of-its-kind, data-led barometer that measures the pressure parents are facing every morning based on real-time data. An algorithm tracks the use of specific keywords on Google (search queries, emojis and hashtags related to parents’ morning stress) and Twitter (interpreting parents’ mood through social conversation). The output is aggregated to provide a clear understanding of the pressure parents were feeling.

Our agile team met for weekly L'Eggometer pressure reads along with stress trigger and message ideation. The result was the creation of relevant social content released every #WaffleWednesday, tuned in to what was happening in parents’ lives in real-time.

On high-pressure weeks, we released tips to help parents make mornings better. And on low-pressure weeks, we celebrated parents' ability to L’Eggo of morning stress. On extremely high-pressure weeks, we released the ultimate pressure-releaser: free Eggo waffles, 1 million to be exact, which is many mornings saved.

With the L’Eggometer’s real-time data and our agile response, we inspired parents to L’Eggo! Eggo not only retained the household penetration among families with kids 6-12 it gained in 2020 but grew penetration in HH with kids 6-12 an additional +0.6pp.

Eggo’s results are even more impressive when compared to the Frozen Breakfast category, which also grew in 2020 due to COVID, but did not maintain HHP levels in 2021 – with its losses mainly coming from homes with kids.

Before the L’Eggometer, social conversations around Eggo were happening but were overwhelmingly neutral at 78.5% of “meh” mentions. Not anymore. This campaign fueled positive emotion between Eggo and parents, with positive sentiment jumping from 14.7% to 40.5%, an increase of +175%; 3.5 times goal, and neutralizing the “mehs”.

And, we helped make mornings better by releasing 1,000,000 free waffles, consolidating our position as “a brand that makes mornings easy.”