We all know the elephant in the room when advertising yellow mustard… ketchup. From the beginning, my team and I went back and forth on how to give mustard some spotlight - should we go head to head with ketchup? Never mention it at all? Or position mustard as ketchup’s best friend, two sauces that complement each other - better together. We chose the latter. We aimed to steal a portion of ketchup’s share of the condiment market without making consumers choose one over the other.
French’s - Join the Revolution
The ask: Bring new life to a brand that isn’t standing out in its category.
The insight: In a cluttered world, it is more important than ever for French’s to entertain - not sell.
The strategy/solution: Engage younger consumers in unique ways, on a low budget by utilizing humor, guerrilla advertising, and shock value. Click here to read the full creative brief our team wrote outlining our strategy.
BIG IDEA: Anytime Americans want ketchup, they need mustard too.
Right when the conversation surrounding the yellow splatter paint starts to dwindle out, French’s will claim ownership of the activation with 3 larger than life guillotines in the 3 American cities. Each guillotine, complete with French’s branding, will be placed on a public street with high foot traffic, hopefully engaging some of the same people who saw the original yellow splatter paint a second time.
The same morning the guillotines appear, French’s will release a short-form video on TikTok and Instagram Reels. This video will be geo-cached to the three cities, revealing that French’s is inviting the three mustard-loving cities to “Join The Revolution”. This will explain why those cities were chosen for the activation and reveal the purpose of the two experiential advertisements.
The campaign launches overnight, with red objects around Tampa, Washington D.C., and Philly (the three American cities whose favorite condiment is mustard) showing up the next day covered in yellow paint splatter.
Without any branding or announcement, people will wonder who is responsible for the yellow “graffiti”, hopefully resulting in organic social media coverage of the ads.
Copy for TikTok & Instagram captions
After Tampa, Washington D.C., and Philly join the revolution, French’s will extend this invitation to the rest of the country with a Hulu spot and out-of-home advertising.
To expand the call to “Join The Revolution”, a series of print advertisements placed out- of-home will appear in other American cities. These ads will serve as personalized invitations to each city to join the revolution that they have already seen on social media from the first two weeks.
At the same time, the Hulu spot featuring Marie Antoinette will air on Hulu nationwide, further ensuring that Americans coast to coast receive the invitation to join the revolution.
The Team: Katie Fuller, Emilie Hofele, Gabriella Spina, Brynne Rozzi, Angela Ren
As the Hulu spot and print advertisements continue to air and make impressions, the TikTok and Reel featuring Ken “Pinto Ron” Johnson will be posted, serving as the first of many videos in a series highlighting people who have made joining the revolution their own.