In 2024, Nature Made aimed to deepen brand connection with our audience beyond traditional media channels. Our Pickleball activation was driven by a desire to intersect with culture, enhancing our brand's reach and relevance.
Put simply, our goal was to encourage consumers who want to feel good about taking care of themselves to talk about our brand and integrate it into their daily routine by connecting with them in a culturally relevant way. To achieve this, we needed to align to a space that was highly relevant and shared our values.
We set our sights on Pickleball - the fastest-growing sport in the US, +158% over the last 3 years, and 36.5M active players. It’s a multigenerational audience that aligns with our target. 68% of people who played Pickleball in the last year have purchased a vitamin or supplement in the last 6 months.
Our mission was to bring the sport and vitamins together, so we went all in on all things Pickle! We leaned into the growing interest in Pickleball to drive relevance with our core consumer and insert the brand into the cultural conversation around pickle-flavor with our first-ever limited-time Multivitamin gummies offering.
To be successful we set out to increase our organic social reach and engagement during the month of the activation and deliver a target of 600M earned media impressions.
As a vitamin and supplement brand that had never entered a sports partnership, we went right to the source, partnering with USA Pickleball™ to become the “Official Vitamin” of the sport. This set the foundation for our activation, giving Nature Made credibility and presence at key Golden Ticket and Select Series events as a sponsor.
We then launched our first-ever limited-time only pickle-flavored Multivitamin gummies on NatureMade.com and sampled it in-person as a sponsor of the US Open Pickleball Championships in Naples, FL, giving consumers the opportunity to determine whether they were #ProPickle or #NoPickle. We even created a Pickle mascot to engage with event attendees, taking pictures, handing out prizes and generating buzz on social by infiltrating FYP's with TikTok trends.
News of the pickle-flavored gummies was amplified when we enlisted USWNT soccer star and self-proclaimed pickle-lover Alex Morgan to try it. We also designed branded merch that was gifted to other well-known creators along with the gummies, encouraging further trial and content creation.
To connect with our community and give back, we adopted local courts in key cities across the country, donating equipment in need. We also ran free mini clinics to encourage sport participation, offering Nature Made products and merchandise in return.
America was #ProPickle and a pickle-flavored Multivitamin gummies frenzy was born, exceeding reach and engagement metrics on social and overdelivering on earned reach.
“Pickle” became the #1 searched term on NatureMade.com and our limited-time only gummies restock sold out in under 1 minute. Daily search interest in Nature Made also increased during they key activation period of April.
