Situation:

While Americans are loud and proud when it comes to their love for condiments like ketchup and mustard ("I Just Really Love Ketchup" t-shirts, ketchup tattoos, and headlines like “The Healthy Case for Putting Mustard on Everything”) mayo lovers often enjoy their beloved condiment in silence because of its polarizing reputation. In fact, mayonnaise held just 12% of share of voice vs. other condiments in media conversation from August 2018 to August 2023. This silence is deafening for Hellmann’s, who wants its fans to be as exuberant as other condiments’ fans.

Brief:

Use superfans to supercharge a positive conversation around Hellmann's

Objectives:

Tap into the virality around Will Levis’ mayo-coffee habit to generate more widespread conversation around mayonnaise and Hellmann’s

Grow positive media sentiment in conversation and coverage mentioning ‘Mayonnaise’ and/or ‘Hellmann’s’

As the only athlete invited to the National Football League (NFL) draft event not to be picked in the first round, quarterback and mayo fan Will Levis was publicly embarrassed. Given the love he had shown us in the past through a viral video where he added mayo to his coffee, we decided to return the favor during his greatest time of need. We were proud to swoop in and be the first to offer him a very tasty deal – signing him to a lifetime supply of Hellmann’s mayonnaise contract.

To make the most of this one-of-a-kind deal, we created a mock sports press conference usually reserved for big announcements via YouTube, featuring Will Levis himself taking Q&A from reporters while pouring mayo into his coffee, sipping nonchalantly on his signature coffee drink, and then dolloping the condiment all over his muffin.

Will's TikTok video clip putting mayonnaise in his coffee exposed him as the mayo superfan Hellmann's needed, informing our strategy: transform the secret and private world of mayo-fandom into a public movement. We tapped into the very public cultural conversation around Will Levis using mayo in an unexpected way, serving as a poster child for all mayo-lovers hiding in the shadows to bring their love into the public, too.

While simple in theory, the strategic roll out was nothing short of comprehensive, implementing a mix of targeted earned media and social tactics to maximize talk value and bring Hellmann’s to the forefront of conversation among mayo-lovers, sports-lovers, and everyone in between. To go viral, we needed to draw an inseparable link between Hellmann’s, mayo pride, delicious game day food and football culture via Will Levis.

We executed a creative contract with a football star and filmed content that brought the earned moment to life. Our team crafted and executed a targeted media strategy: top tier media were offered interviews with Levis under embargo, and on launch day, top tier media across lifestyle verticals, sport, ad and local were targeted with pitches, driving a second surge in coverage as our embargoed interviews went live.

Our team and Levis shared collaborative Instagram story and in-feed posts to release the press conference to our respective mayo-and-sports loving social media audiences, and leveraged high-quality PNGs of the "conference" for syndication, leading local news channels and social media users to quickly republish our announcement.

To maintain momentum, we honored Will’s season in which he became the Tennessee Titans’ starting quarterback with the ultimate tribute – immortalizing him with a bust made of mayonnaise, which we revealed in another collaborative post.

4.7 billion impressions, 600+ media placements

16% YOY sales growth in Kentucky and Tennessee, two key markets linked to Levis' football career.

87% Top 2 Box Hellmann’s favorability, 85% Top 2 Box Purchase Intent

Social performance surpassed the average engagement rate for organic posts by 5x and reached more accounts than any other post from the brand in the previous six months.

98% of the media coverage surrounding the announcement was positive.

Positive media sentiment around 'mayonnaise' grew (+ 9%) in the two months following the campaign vs. the two months prior , and media sentiment around Hellmann's shifted notably, from 23% to 46% positive (+100%) in the same time period.

Our campaign undoubtedly proved just how loud and proud mayo-lovers can be. And it successfully put Hellmann's right at the center of that love fest.