The consumer trend to healthier snacking has impacted the packaged dip category. While hummus dollar and volume sales increased by 1.5%, the shift had a negative impact on Marzetti Veggie Dips, which are often viewed as a more indulgent snack, with the brand seeing X%* dollar sales and X%* volume loss in 2018.
Not only that, but our sales were down during the 2018 Super Bowl period, which falls into special occasion snacking (during holidays and events) that our research showed shouldn’t be impacted by this trend.
So, we saw an opportunity for Marzetti to earn back its fair share of dip sales. With Marzetti Veggie Dip sales down due to competition perceived as healthier, the Super Bowl represented an occasion where consumers free themselves to indulge, plus one that’s very dip-friendly. It was a party that we could rightfully join and one that was sure to be a good time.
Our objective to win the party:
But, earning a place on consumers’ gameday party tables wouldn’t be easy. Especially in the cluttered Super Bowl space with a budget of only $X* – a mere 5% of a :30 Super Bowl TV spot cost.
To win the party, we needed to show up when our consumers were preparing for the Big Game – during party- and recipe-planning mode – with an important message they couldn’t possibly ignore.
*Exact numbers in confidential section.
We activated upon the following strategies to achieve our objectives:
Join a trending (and humorous) consumer conversation
A social listening analysis revealed that people actually talk about dips A LOT – more than 1,000,000 related-mentions in one year. One of the top trends in the dip conversation? Double dipping.
It turns out that people are very opinionated when it comes to double dipping. From consumers to foodies and culinary experts, everyone has something to say on the matter – some defending and others criticizing the act. It’s a huge debate.
The Big Game meant more dip and more people dipping. Unfortunately, that also meant people would get caught up in the moment and dip dangerously. We fully expected to see a rise in all types of dipping fouls. Double-dipping, aggressive dipping, community dipping, ruined recipes, dip spills. And, the most dangerous dip practice of all, not choosing Marzetti Veggie Dips. Truly unacceptable.
It was the perfect opportunity for us to join the conversation.
Bring the right message to the party
So, we took it upon ourselves to make sure everyone would stay safe during the Big Game. We developed a clever, amusing PSA-style social media campaign urging consumers to please, please #DipResponsibly, telling cautionary tales of those who didn’t.
With three different :15 videos, we tackled Double Dippers, DIY Dip Makers (those who try and fail, to make their own dip, ruining the dip and the party) and Aggressive Dippers. We also created :06 social GIFs that took on “ranch hands” (those messy dippers who get dip all over), or took subtle stabs at some of those “healthy” dip buyers (those who buy dip that no one likes). All content made it very obvious that the most dangerous dip practice is not choosing Marzetti Veggie Dips.
Two weeks out: Be there at the right time and place
Informed by social listening and Google Trends, we flighted the campaign to align with dip conversation spikes, two-weeks out from the Super Bowl, when we knew our audience would be most receptive to our (humorous, but very important) message. Across Facebook, Instagram and YouTube, we targeted those in the Super Bowl planning mindset as well as those open to pre-made dips using third-party and contextual party-planning data, to make sure they would #DipResponsibly on gameday Sunday.
We also extended the campaign beyond social media. Programmatic video let us unlock additional opportunities to bring our humorous campaign to our audience through behavioral, contextual and search targeting, while streaming audio allowed for laugh-out-loud funny audio spots at scale.
With a wink and a nod, we effectively spread the word to #DipResponsibly and won the Super Bowl party with a snacking strategy that our consumers couldn’t ignore and that made them consider our Veggie Dips for game day.
Objective: Increase dollar sales by X% and volume sales by X%* vs. the same time in 2018
Results: Marzetti Veggie Dips exceeded our dollar sales goals by 233% and volume sales by 140%, indicating that consumers paid close attention to our very timely, important and clever message to make sure their Big Game parties were a success. The client has attributed our marketing efforts as a key contributor to helping achieve the objective.
*Exact sales and volume numbers/goals and ROI/budget are confidential and included in the confidential section for judges only.
