Panda Express is already the go-to destination for American Chinese comfort food. And chocolate is a universal comfort food. This campaign was created to celebrate our role as a place people turn to for warmth, familiarity, and joy, in honor of National Comfort Food Day.
In order to break through we knew this had to be a bold celebration of why we all love comfort food - and connect to our mission. The idea was to create limited-edition Panda Express chocolate bars that were the perfect counterpoint to the satisfying flavors of people’s favorite Panda Express entrées; whether it's iconic Orange Chicken or hearty Beijing Beef. We sought to create an edible work of art that's as thoughtfully crafted as it is delicious, appealing to both loyal Panda fans and discerning chocolate connoisseurs. Due to its reputation as a luxury chocolate brand, Compartes was an unexpected partner to help elevate the collaboration and Panda Express, while also expanding our reach within holiday gift guides. Like us, it’s also an LA-based, family-owned heritage brand, which deepened our connection through a shared mission: to bring moments of happiness and joy to diners nationwide.
Our goals were to strengthen our brand equity as the go-to destination for American Chinese comfort food, familiarity, warmth and joy; own the comfort narrative; and generate mass national press coverage to drive store-level foot traffic and sales on National Comfort Food Day. Specific goals for PR included 30+ placements and 1.5B impressions.
Our approach had multiple layers of execution, including embargoed pre-seeding to top-tier press, a one day in-store giveaway, holiday gift box sold on Compartes.com, and influencer gifting, all in collaboration with Compartés Chocolate. This one-of-a-kind culinary partnership blended the comforting emotions from a Panda meal plate with the decadence of chocolate to create a special, all-in-one sweet and savory treat for the coziest time of the year. The four exclusive chocolate bar flavors included:
We worked closely with the expert chocolatiers at Compartés to create the bars, and the flavors went through a rigorous testing process. This process also extended to the packaging, which is something that Compartés is known for. We collaborated to make the four beautiful chocolate bar wrappers, as well as a four-piece gift set that included all of the bars in a novelty box. In conjunction, on National Comfort Food Day, December 5, guests would receive a Fortune Cookie Bar with the purchase of any 2-item Panda Express plate at participating locations.
In the lead up to National Comfort Food Day, we executed a two pronged influencer approach, tapping both paid partners and earned influencers to spread the news by offering samples ahead of the official launch. We also coordinated with top tier media outlets to offer advanced tastings under embargo for reviews, collab features, GWP, and holiday stories. Efforts were spearheaded by our PR agency, FINN Partners, and Compartés’ PR agency, Dreamday.
The primary challenge we experienced was related to scale and inventory. The gift boxes sold out within one week, and though we would have loved to roll this out to all diners nationwide, it was only available in select markets.
Our efforts were wildly successful! On launch day, we received 48 media placements garnering 1.32B impressions, surpassing the campaign PR goals in less than 24 hours. National Comfort Food Day, all gift with purchase bars were sold out within 10 days. The online store was also sold out within a week. Within media and social coverage, the sentiment was overwhelmingly positive, characterized by genuine enthusiasm and authentic firsthand reviews—a direct result of our targeted early seeding strategy. Reviews anchored the collaboration as a celebration of community and delicious indulgence, as well as emphasizing the unexpected culinary craftsmanship of the partnership and the unique, 'fun' nature of the collaboration. (insert donation numbers/stats)
At the close of the campaign we exceeded the placement goal by 230% (with 99 stories) and the impression goal by 75.3% (2.6B earned press impressions). We also amassed significant buzz on social with 1.9M influencer content views, 121.7k total influencer content engagements, a $0.01 CPV, and a 6.4% engagement rate (3x the industry average of 2%)
Our results far exceeded all benchmarks along with our expectations.