KIND first partnered with Donna Kelce, America’s #1 Football Mom, around the 2023 Super Bowl. For the first time in history, two brothers were playing each other in the Big Game and KIND and Donna partnered to spread the message that no matter who wins or loses the game, kindness always wins. Months later, Donna found herself at the pinnacle of pop culture when her son, Travis Kelce, began dating Taylor Swift. Suddenly, Donna was sitting next to some very notable football fans each Sunday – from Blake Lively to Hugh Jackman, and of course, Taylor. With the spotlight on Donna, KIND took the opportunity to seize the limelight with her yet again.
The goal? To drive beyond cultural relevancy and amplify an insight that we knew Donna embraces: that no matter what, all parents stay “snack ready.”
Whether driving carpool or sitting at soccer practice, parents know that staying “snack ready” means always having nutritious and delicious snacks stowed away in their bags to tackle even the busiest of days. This universal parenting truth was the inspiration behind our social-first reactive campaign and what better person to share this relatable truth with America than America’s Favorite Mom, Donna Kelce.
To tap into the loudest conversation on social media at the time and “play” into America’s biggest obsession, the Kelce family, KIND launched an exclusive, limited-time offering, Donna’s Purse Snacks. Donna’s Purse Snacks: an ode to Donna and all parents like her that always carry nutritious and delicious snacks with them on-the-go.
In three short days, we worked to make Donna’s Purse Snacks come to life with a focus on launching the limited release as soon as possible to leverage the cultural and social relevancy (at the time, news headlines were popping up every other hour). With time being the greatest challenge, the cross-functional teams executed across departments to bring the idea to life: packaging, design, manufacturing, e-commerce, social, and PR teams quickly got on board to get Donna’s Purse Snacks ready for their big game debut.
Added pressure? The limited-edition product had to be ready in just three days for the next game Donna was attending.
While the production of Donna’s Purse Snacks was in motion, we went to the place where we knew could reach KIND and Donna’s fans in real-time – on social. We teased the launch on KIND’s Instagram and dropped only 149 Donna’s Purse Snacks, which fans could pre-order on kindsnacks.com. We challenged fans to guess why 149 (her son’s numbers added up) which led to additional engagement and frenzy around the launch.
The morning after launching, Donna was on the Today Show to share the launch. Within 24 hours of the first launch announcement on social, the limited release was sold out.
KIND again saw an opportunity to continue engaging fans given the high-level of engagement. We decided to drop a surprise second release of Donna’s Purse Snacks. From TikTokers rooting for fans to sell Donna’s Purse Snacks out to several media interviews, Donna’s Purse Snacks immediately became a fan-favorite with everyone eyeing to get their hands on one, leading to the second drop selling out in less than one hour – 44 minutes!
To keep the momentum going past the sellout of Donna’s Purse Snacks, we dove into one of social’s most viral trends, the What’s in My Bag, and worked with Donna to create her own spin on the trend showcasing her new purse snacks! The video performed so well that we knew we had to share one more surprise with our followers and gave one lucky winner a signed Donna’s Purse Snack by Donna herself.
As America’s #1 Football Mom, it was a no-brainer that fans would also love her snacks.
As a social-first campaign, Donna’s Purse Snacks was the #1 play of the year not only for social platforms but for earned media and e-commerce performance as well:
Donna’s What’s in My Bag video broke several records for KIND’s social including:
Overall, Donna’s Purse Snack's four posts garnered 4 million views across Instagram and TikTok.
For earned media, Donna’s Purse Snacks garnered 1 BILLION impressions from over 70 earned media placements with over 50% of coverage coming from top-tier media outlets including:
Our real-time response social playbook also led to high-performing results on kindsnacks.com:
