Branded entertainment has gained popularity in the U.S. as both a marketing strategy and consumer touchpoint. Nowadays, content is everywhere. But the power of branded content is not always executed in an effective way and can get lost in marketing clutter.

While there are no regulatory rules surrounding branded content in the U.S., new users typically face a learning curve and are unsure about how to invoke bottom-line results from entertainment. Hellmann's, however, has been actively producing branded content for 8 years. The brand has garnered an expertise in the field, and along with this, the ability to recognize content as the building blocks of integrated campaigns - and the means by which to illicit genuine emotional connections with consumers. This is why, when planning their centennial birthday, Hellmann’s decided to champion their multiplatform campaign – including digital, social, PR and an event - around content created with celebrity chef Mario Batali.

Moreover, while many food brands use chefs to enhance marketing, the talent very often comes across as inauthentic. In contrast, Hellmann's understanding of their audiences and priorities enabled the brand to create a deep-seeded, collaborative partnership with Mario Batali – resulting in authentic, inspiring equity for both parties.

Challenge: A century after creating the mayonnaise category, Hellmann’s was a victim of its own success. It seems everyone from FMCG competitors to trade private labels were introducing their own mayonnaise brands, eroding Hellmann’s premium positioning and special place among its users hearts. Hellmann’s need to re-establish its special leadership status among the hearts and minds of category users and drive share growth.

Strategy: To leverage once-in-a-lifetime event of turning 100 as an opportunity to reassert its relevance as research revealed that Hellmann’s had both a functional and an emotional purpose. Functionally, it blends foods together to make them more delicious than they would be apart. Emotionally, it brings the family together through special, memorable meals like picnics and big family dinners. We also noticed an interesting cultural trend: the rediscovering of traditional recipes. For example, in the recent movie “Julie & Julia” a young aspiring writer aims to cook all of Julia Child’s 524 recipes in a year. Hellmann’s was a brand uniquely qualified to bring together the old and the new: Hellmann’s Anniversary campaign could bring people together over meals that bring fresh ideas to traditional recipes.

Execution: We used brand entertainment in the form of building a program around Mario Batali as the host of Hellmann’s 100th year long birthday program in person, on TV, online and in social media. He was the perfect person to remind that while recipes and food trends change all the time, the reason we come to together to share a meal never does – we are simply better together, than when we are apart, a fine metaphor for the functional benefit of Hellmann’s - it blends foods together to make them more delicious than they would be apart.

Our content strategy was to bring people together to celebrate Hellmann's 100th birthday party by providing new twists on traditional recipes, engaging them across multiple platforms and inviting them to join the party firsthand. Using celebrity chefs and integrations with popular shows The Taste and The Chew, we reasserted Hellmann’s relevance and encouraged engagement via calls to action. Content was distributed through our traditional social channels, digital media and in-store and promoted via PR. Facebook app invited fans to share recipes at a virtual table for a chance to win a seat at Hellmann’s birthday celebration.

The Hellmann's 100 Years program was a success both in terms of driving relevance and re-establishing brand leadership and in driving sales. The Mario Batali content drove sales at the in-store level, driving underlying sales growth by 11% in June, and 16.5% in July, far exceeding our client’s 5% target. Consumers were engaged at multiple levels, responding not only via social channels, but discussing their engagement with the broadcast integration, the in-store experience and a custom Facebook App. The App generated over 2 million story impressions and 226K unique users. In total, the campaign garnered over 1 billion media impressions and inspired over 3 million social interactions, far exceeding our goals. Most importantly, the recipes were downloaded millions of times, showing that families across the country have new ways to eat Real Food.