Jolly Rancher // ‘Keep on Sucking’ // A new strategic model for modern communications

I led a total strategy transformation of a brand and business that well, sucked. In 2015, Jolly Rancher was stuck in a 4-year decline in a candy category with 4% growth. Transformational change across brand, comms, social, data and content strategy restored Jolly Rancher to growth for the first time in four years. And it gave Jolly Rancher an entirely new model built for the new generation of consumers with a media budget in decline. By design, we created a digital model where we could do more for less. The creative and comms idea won a Gold Effie, Gold Jay Chiat and was an APG finalist.

10% Growth, 11 Months.

Strategy informed how and where creative work was cost-effectively produced, down to the client creative approval process itself. This new model - and over 3,500 pieces of content - reignited sales, with growth of +10% following four years of decline in just 11 months, with sustained success today. You can read my paper here. You can also click on the case video to the right if you want to nerd out for 4 minutes.

Social strategy shifted from an ad model to a publishing model, built on social listening, as well as a test and learn process. At the center, was a cultural ‘suck’ calendar and content strategy that pre-determined tentpole moments, as well as leaving room to lean into spontaneous, but relevant, cultural moments.

Put simply, we aligned ourselves to sucky moments of the daily grind for today’s youth: Tinder dates gone bad, finals week, sucky sports teams, internships, hangovers etc.

Reese’s // ‘Not Sorry’ // The most unabashedly taunting creative and comms platform

When you’re the #1 candy it’s hard to grow. Just ask Bryon Sharp. Frequency and loyalty is notoriously hard to achieve. But that was the strategic challenge Hershey gave us: become a 2 billion dollar brand despite reaching household penetration saturation. Basically, Reese’s had already reached everyone without a peanut allergy. The answer was to get more people talking, thinking and craving the brand so they’d reach for more Reese’s.

The idea was to liberate people to indulge by inserting Reese’s into everyday moments and cultural milestones in a mouthwatering way.

After one year, the campaign resulted in 3.1% growth (triple the category) becoming the first ever $2B candy brand. It also grew ad recall nearly 50%. I’m confident the idea will live on to get to $3B.

You can check out the full case video to your left.

Reese’s // Halloween Candy Converter

Halloween is the Super Bowl of Candy. And this idea declared Reese’s the winner. A simple trick or treating insight that anything other than Reese’s is a massive disappointment led to a big idea that cost virtually no money.

We let people turn in their candy disappointment for a Reese’s. Our Halloween takeover cost $0 media dollars and during the event, earned 50% of social conversations and $2.8 billion in earned media.

Panera // ‘Food As It Should Be’ changed a category

The story of Panera Bread is a story of strategic transformation that turned a food brand - existing in a category driven by short term sales - into a category and cultural change agent.

‘Big Food’s’ shameless use of artificial ingredients and marketing initiatives that sensationalized unhealthy eating became Panera’s enemy. The founder’s commitment to deliver better food to the masses led to our strategic unlocking of 100% clean and the creation of the ‘no-no list’. We became a brand that celebrated the joy of eating real food people could feel good about. We set a strategic mission to champion, not just celebrate ‘Food As it Should Be’. We also challenged the food industry and competitors to do better. For years, our work transcended traditional comms to earn attention through brand acts.

The result? The stock market, food industry pundits, the category and culture took notice. And we saw nearly 7% increase in comps amid a category in decline 2%. Trust for the brand and its food went up, which made our bellies and hearts full.

Panera // ‘Respect Breakfast’… by respecting an egg and challenging the FDA

You know what’s crazy? The fact that drive-through, on-the-go breakfast sandwiches don’t use real eggs. Their eggs have up to 5 ingredients. That’s crazy. So when we launched Panera’s first breakfast brioche egg sandwich we had to talk about that. We set out to help Americans start their day with a healthy breakfast again, and hold the category accountable as clean food activists. We also were trying to get our fair share of a booming breakfast market, but had nowhere near the media budgets as titans such as McDonald’s or Starbucks. Strategy knew we couldn’t just launch an announcement ad, we’d also have to earn attention. So we petitioned the FDA to define a real egg to get people to take notice. That’s how you respect breakfast.