With only 1 in 4 people residing in a Mendocino Farms Texas trade area aware of the brand, the restaurant company needed to increase awareness and connect with its target audience: well-educated males and females willing to pay a premium for high-quality food.
Post-pandemic, consumers crave comfort, and engage most with brands that promote uplifting, nostalgic content and elevate their greater communities. Sixty-two percent of consumers are basing purchasing decisions on companies’ ethical values and authenticity, buying from purpose-oriented brands.
Based off these insights, Mendocino Farms tasked Jackson Spalding with tapping into another well-known brand’s following to build a purposeful partnership that would:
- Generate and increase awareness of Mendocino Farms in Dallas and Houston.
- Drive trial of Mendocino Farms in Texas markets.
- Grow Mendocino Farms’ Instagram and TikTok following by 5%.
Guided by the above, Jackson Spalding created a campaign fueled by the synergy between Mendocino Farms signature “Eat Happy” tagline and La La Land Kind Café’s purpose of normalizing kindness, activated through simple acts of kindness designed to spread joy. Creative collateral and messaging were symbolic of the restaurant’s mission to be more than a spot for good food while also supporting and enhancing La La Land’s initiatives in the Dallas and Houston markets.
To drive optimal visibility, we crafted an integrated partnership that engaged La La Land’s followers and guests both digitally and in store. Each tactic was aimed at introducing Mendocino Farms to La La Land’s fanbase and incentivizing consumers to engage with the brand through giveaways, exclusive promo codes, shareable coffee sleeves with on-brand messaging and more.
The following tactics took place over a two-week period:
In-store Activation, otherwise known as ‘La La Love Days’
- Distributed 1,500 branded note cards paired with a compliment and in-store promo cards for $20 off any Mendocino Farms purchase during La La Love Days. These were handed out to random guests at participating La La Land locations, aimed at making someone’s day through a random act of kindness.
- Rebranded La La Land’s signature blue ‘Butterfly Latte’ as the ‘Happy Day Latte’, tying in brand messaging and Mendocino Farms’ colors.
- Replaced all La La Land coffee sleeves with custom, co-branded ones featuring sayings like “Be Happy.”
- Donated 50% of in-store sales on grand opening day at two Mendocino Farms DFW locations to La La Land’s nonprofit, We Are One as well as passed out La La Land hats and Mendo water bottles to the first 50 customers.
- Additionally, Mendocino Farms created La La Land-inspired hats, featuring the saying, “Be Happy” and the two brands’ logos for Texas in-store team members. This ensured the partnership also translated to the guest experience at Mendocino Farms.
Social Media
- Spread love through a “Drive by Kindness” TikTok, sharing compliments with random passersby in Dallas and handing out a $750 Mendocino Farms gift card to one individual.
- Eat Happy with Others: We learned the “Drive by Kindness recipient of the Mendocino Farms gift card took our campaign theme to heart, spreading her own kindness by using it to purchase meals for Dallas-area homeless people.
- Gave away five (5) $100 Mendocino Farms gift cards on a joint-giveaway post across La La Land and Mendocino Farms’ Instagram accounts, which generated over 2.5K entries.
Influencer Relations
- Shared $25 La La Land gift cards with 12 Mendocino Farms Texas brand ambassadors as added value to their Ambassadorship to encourage trial of the Happy Day Latte, resulting in organic, non-paid shares on Instagram Stories.
Creative Deliverables
- Designed and facilitated production of:
- In-store posters
- Note cards
- In-store promo cards
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- Co-branded coffee sleeves
Total Partnership Visibility: Reached more than 1.6M individuals through the partnership. Additionally, Texas sales during the partnership period and following consistently met or passed sales goal, improving from the period prior to the collaboration.
- In-Store:
- Reached 30.6K Houston and Dallas residents with combined foot traffic at participating La La Land locations.
- Drove a 35.6% increase in Happy Day Latte purchases compared to the prior two-week period, comprising 6.83% of overall drink sales during its runtime.
- Note: In total, 72 gift cards have been redeemed at a physical Mendo location at a 4.8% redemption rate – the highest redemption rate Mendocino Farms has seen for a promotion of this format.
- TikTok:
- Secured over 1.5M views with 9.03% of viewers watching the full video.
- Increased Mendocino Farms’ follower count by 5%.
- Instagram:
- Reached 85.1k individuals, generating 96K impressions with a 19% engagement rate.
- Increased Mendocino Farms’ follower count by 2%.
