French's Mustard has been a part of summer since 1904. But in 2020, grilling season looked a little different. We needed to make sure French's stayed the flavor of the season. Our goal was to help them stand out in a flattening, commoditized category. So the next time consumers went to the mustard aisle, they picked French’s.
Our strategy was to own summer grilling in a whole new way. To sell a familiar flavor (mustard) and make it surprising. So we decided to leave the category and create something perfect for a hot summer day.
Enter Mustard Beer.
Teaming up with Oskar Blues, the brew was made with French’s Classic Yellow Mustard and tasty fruit purees, for a delicious result that had people lined up out the door at breweries.
For the homebrewers out there, we got them in on the action with an official homebrew recipe.
The beer was even available nationwide on Craftshack.com, so you could get it shipped straight to your door.
Mustard Beer was the hit of the summer and sold out online in 22 minutes flat, while getting 2 billion impressions, 23 million social impressions and coverage in over 900 media outlets. Including Thrillist, Paste Magazine, Adweek, The Takeout, Delish, Popsugar, The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon and many, many more.
Most importantly, it drove +6.4% growth in sales YOY –IRI sales data.
We’ll cheers to that.
