Kraft Real Mayo’s velvety-smooth texture makes any one-note dish creamier, more lively and more satisfying…because it adds moisture. The problem? Everyone hates the word “moist.” As a controversial condiment who’s used to being misunderstood, our objective was to redeem the true meaning of “moist” and get it the recognition it deserves as a deliciously good word.
Every year, Merriam Webster brings national attention to one word - The Word of the Year. From 2016’s surreal to 2022’s gaslighting, we found that Merriam Webster bestows this honor based on searches. So, we decided to hack it and get “moist” that honor. We invited the internet to #SearchMoist
To execute this hack, we called on the trolliest internet trolls to do what they do best. We put out a rallying cry on social and jumped directly into existing conversations around the word “moist,” where we advocated for the term and called on Millennials to help make “Moist” 2023’s Word of the Year. We even served social ads that hacked voice assistant devices to “Search Moist on MerriamWebster.com.” Then we partnered with Twitch speedrunners to livestream a Search-A-Thon where more than 45K viewers tuned in to help search moist…over and over again. We even canvassed the streets to boost searches in real time and turned the moment into content that inspired others to embrace “moist.”
If that wasn’t enough, we dropped an 8 ft, 2023 lb jar of Kraft Real Mayo in front of Merriam Webster’s historic office. The stunt sparked the moistest conversations across North America, with major news coverage from outlets like Fox, CBS, NBC, ABC and online publications like Food and Wine.
The campaign concluded when Merriam Webster announced their Word of the Year…authentic. The internet shared our disappointment with comments like “Justice 4 Moist!” and “Moist 2024!” when we posted our reaction to the news.
With 544 placements and 100% positive sentiment, 381M+ earned impressions, a 75% increase in Google searches for “moist”, and over 20k+ unique searchers, our results ultimately proved that the internet was finally embracing this deliciously good word.
