Objectives

In the brand's third year executing its 'love food more, waste it less' platform, Glad tied this year's efforts to the launch of its newest product FreezerWare and encouraged families to unlock the magic of their freezers to help save time, money and the environment. The team was charged with creating a campaign that would highlight the new product while reinforcing brand messages, leaning into social to engage with its brand-right audience.

Specifically the team needed to:

*Raise awareness for its new FreezerWrap product, positioning Glad as a simple solution to reduce food waste in the home for moms

*Increase Glad's social footprint by 10% and infuse the topic of food waste into existing online conversations

Strategy and Execution

While food waste awareness in the US is growing, the severity of the issue is still unknown to many. In fact, a recent national survey[1] found that less than 60 percent of participants understood that wasting food is bad for the environment. Food is now the largest contributor to landfills where over time it gives off methane, a greenhouse gas about 25 times more powerful in global warming as carbon dioxide.

The Glad Company recognized this as an opportunity to help raise awareness for the issue of food waste, offering Glad food protection products as a solution to help consumers reduce their food waste in the home. A consumer survey found that 93 percent of Americans are willing to consider storing food properly with wraps, bags or containers to help reduce food waste^[2].

To connect with moms and educate them on the dangers of food waste and small steps they can take to make a big difference, the team tapped chef, cookbook author and mom Ayesha Curry, NBA-player Stephen Curry's wife. As a busy mom, self-proclaimed foodie and avid user of Glad, Ayesha Curry was the perfect choice to serve as a natural and authentic voice for the brand. She has a passion for being in the kitchen and preparing meals to ensure she's serving the best to her family. Since establishing her food and lifestyle blog and YouTube channel "Little Lights of Mine," she has amassed millions of views and built a strong and engaging social community with more than 5.6MM followers, across platforms.

Leveraging Earth Day timing, the team lined up content and activities designed to take advantage of a natural conversation, putting Glad front and center of the story, including:

*Captured images of Ayesha in the kitchen showcasing her favorite ways to prep and protect fresh ingredients for some of her favorite recipes pulled from her first cookbook, which was slated for release in the fall, using Glad food protection products with a special spotlight on FreezerWrap

*Original tips and recipes from Ayesha that the team offered up to media and shared through social for additional awareness

*Secured a live cooking segment and sit-down on Access Hollywood LIVE, as well as online interviews with national outlets during which Ayesha delivered messaging on food waste in the US and provided her tips for keeping good food from going bad, which were syndicated via social

*Conducted a #Glad2WasteLess Twitter Party, in which Ayesha participated and raised awareness for food waste in the kitchen among participating moms

*Leveraged Ayesha's social channels to disseminate timely posts with relevant messaging throughout the program

*Cross-promoting the content via Glad's channels

[1] http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0159250

[2] Telephone survey of 1,000 American adults utilizing landline and cell phone exchanges fielded Aug. 23-28, 2013; conducted by KRC Research for Glad Food Protection.

Results

Glad's partnership with Ayesha Curry generated successful results, surpassing expectations and achieving all program goals.

Raised awareness for new FreezerWrap product, positioning Glad as a simple solution to reduce food waste in the home with 85 percent of placements including a product mention and/or one of our images of Ayesha in the kitchen utilizing the product, including her Access Hollywood cooking segment which garnered more than 3.8MM online impressions, during which the photos were featured as the set background on the nationally syndicated program

Increased Glad's social footprint and sparked conversation around food waste, leveraging Ayesha's social following to generate exceptional engagement across channels, including:

*A 37 percent increase in Instagram followers; the channel also had its top performing organic post in brand history during the program

*Exceeding its engagement goal on Twitter by 121 percent and by 2,900 percent on Facebook

Media