Legal-Ade allowed Country Time to directly connect with current/potential consumers, specifically offering direct legal assistance for kids if they got busted using its product (or any lemonade) while running a lemonade stand.

The ensuing conversation also allowed the brand to engage with consumers. This engagement directly leading to changes in laws across the U.S., making the brand relevant again for the first time in years.

Country Time is a classic American brand of lemonade but it had been dormant and off the air since the 80’s. During that time, the brand languished in irrelevance and decline, overtaken by newer, fizzier, pre-made, bottled competitors.

The summer of 2018 was do or die time for the brand. This was not a moment to just deliver a quick promotional boost, this was a moment to boldly restate our relevance. To get people re-engaged, we had to bring latent love for Country Time to the surface and etch a valued role for the brand only we could play.

The brand discovered that due to old, arcane laws, kids were getting busted and fined for running lemonade stands, an American rite of passage.

Knowing that lemonade stands were under attack, the team saw an opportunity to make Country Time relevant. How? By creating affinity - making Country Time a symbol of hope fighting the outrage of lemonade stands being shut down by the law.

So, Country Time took a stand and helped these kids by doing what everyone, from the U.S. President on down, is doing. It got them lawyered up.

Legal-Ade was created, offering legal representation, paying permits and fines for kids whose lemonade stands were shut down because of legal overreach.

Country Time isn’t just lemonade – it’s lemonade stand lemonade.

While the public may have forgotten about Country Time, it still had a deep affection for lemonade stands. This national tradition embodies the values of hard-work, entrepreneurship, and innocent fun, all strongly held ideals An affront to lemonade stands was an affront to kids and American values.

Lemonade stands was a space Country Time could own. Both contain something all-American, along with a bit of nostalgia. It also made an asset out of Country Time’s powdered form, differentiating it from its pre-made competition. Because who wants to pay a kid to make lemonade that’s already made? It also offered us a unique way into a big volume target of parents with young-ish kids.

Any kid whose lemonade stand ran into legal trouble was invited to contact Legal-Ade for help.

Because kids getting fined for running lemonade stands was unbelievable, the brand created proved it was true with a YouTube video featuring a real kid whose lemonade stand really got shut down. People were then directed to the Legal-Ade website. The video was shared widely and viewed over 6 million times.

By highlighting the issue, Country Time started a huge conversation in social media between the brand and the public. Through this conversation the brand spread word that any kid whose lemonade stand got shut down could go to countrytimelegalade.com and get their fines and permits paid.

The effort started in early summer. The conversation then took on a life of its own, lasting into fall.

The campaign, and word of Country Time’s stand, scaled nationally and even internationally.

Country Time saw its biggest sales and share growth in 7 years. With a clear brand role, people now had once again a reason to buy the brand.

The pre-launch goal was 500M impressions. The campaign more than doubled that, reaching almost 1.2 billion impressions. Of that number, 2.3% actively engaged with the brand.

Sentiment towards the brand was 98% positive. Affinity that led to purchase.

Legal-Ade was covered in over 225 broadcast news segments.

The campaign turned the paid media budget of $150k into over $10 million in earned media, amplifying our spend 3000%

Legal-Ade turned outrage into action, leading to changes in the law in Colorado, New York, Texas, Minnesota and other states, allowing kids to freely run lemonade stands. This effect is still spreading.

The brand is continuing the effort for summer 2019.