Objectives

In 2017, to support the launch of Hidden Valley's new brand positioning, "Ranch Out" and help take ranch beyond a dressing, we inspired people to celebrate their love for ranch, by opening the first-ever Hidden Valley online merchandise store; The Hidden Valley Ranch Outlet (www.flavourgallery.com/collections/hidden-valley-ranch).

To feed people's passion for America's favorite dressing throughout the year, we executed a campaign with two key pulse periods, driving culturally relevant connections to ranch fans. First, we capitalized on the foodie holiday, National Ranch Dressing Day, followed by a second wave of activity during the popular gifting holiday season in December, offering two unique moments for ranch lovers to get involved and Ranch Out with Hidden Valley.

Strategy and Execution

We wanted to put a stake in the ground for Hidden Valley and draw attention to the brand on National Ranch Dressing Day in unprecedented ways for the brand. Hidden Valley has a hugely passionate fan base and people find new ways to use ranch to elevate the flavor of foods, even integrating ranch fountains at weddings and creating ranch-themed costumes for Halloween and special occasions. We know that ranch is so tightly woven into the fabric of American pop culture, so we needed to find a way to marry creativity with engagement, and an online store launch on a widely-known food holiday was the perfect platform. Since Hidden Valley's audience was already creating ways to express their love for ranch, we wanted to launch a collection of apparel and branded swag that fans would love; from statement tees and socks, to Christmas tree ornaments and phone cases. To continue the ranch party for all, we made a ranch fountain and a mini ranch keg accessible and available for purchase online and an exclusive run of hand-made bedazzled bottles.

Leading up to the food holiday (National Ranch Dressing Day on March 10) and then again during the traditional holiday season (between Thanksgiving and New Year), we began to generate awareness and excitement around the Ranch Outlet by engaging key audiences in a variety of ways. Knowing the brand's strong fan base, we outreached to media, consumers, and celebrities with slightly differentiating tactics, including:

• Embargoed media materials and assets – Hidden Valley shared eye-catching merchandise visuals with media to give them a sneak peek of the items before launch. This first look delighted editors because they were given the opportunity to see the ranch swag firsthand, which included photos of top ranch-inspired items like the ranch fountain and ranch keg. Select food editors and ranch enthusiasts also received curated care packages that included these buzzworthy items for them to test as they worked on their stories.
• Celebrity seeding – The brand knew they had a handful of celebrities who have professed their love for Hidden Valley on social media in the past. Remembering their ranch superstars, we created celebrity care packages (just for the National Ranch Day) and sent each a personalized gift. Packages ranged from custom tees, totes and notecards, to bedazzled bottles engraved with their name to encourage them to share their experience on social and drive fans to the Ranch Outlet.
• Leveraging a timely news hook – For a few consecutive years, Hidden Valley has played up March 10, National Ranch Dressing Day, as the day to have fun with ranch, and use it on anything (and everything). This year, they wanted to make it the biggest celebration in brand history, and used the food holiday to call on fans nationwide to gear up for their Ranch Outlet. By launching a second line of Ranch Outlet items in early November, it gave fans ideas for fun gifts and décor at holiday gatherings.

Results

National Ranch Dressing Day and the Holiday Ranch Outlet were an enormous success for Hidden Valley, ultimately becoming the biggest earned media campaign in the brand's history. The campaign delivered a 300% ROI and surpassed expectations and achieved program goals by:

• Generating engagement among their fans and media after unveiling the online store with buzzworthy items, becoming a trending topic on Good Morning America at the launch and becoming its own Twitter moment on the day of the Holiday Hidden Valley Keg announcement
• The earned media impressions goal for the launch of the outlet (22 million) was quickly surpassed, reaching over 141 million impressions with100% positive/neutral sentiment. The Holiday Ranch Outlet pulse generated an additional astounding 1.6 billion impressions
• Securing top-tier media placements on outlets like HuffPo, Delish, Mashable, TODAY, BuzzFeed, Food & Wine and late night TV mentions including The Late Late Show with James Corden, Jimmy Kimmel Live and Saturday Night Live
• Owning the food holiday by blowing out competing brands in the category with news of their Ranch Outlet
• Driving more than 103,600 visits to the Hidden Valley Ranch Holiday Outlet in the first few days of launching the holiday merchandise

Media