Red Gold Tomatoes: CPG Case Study

THE SETUP

Seventy-five years of one audience

Red Gold Tomatoes is a Midwestern family business built around family farms. In its 75th year, it had a very clear customer: households cooking for families, reached through channels the company had used for decades.

Growth meant reaching people outside that definition, and the marketing that had worked for two generations was not going to do it.

The Huy Fong partnership gave them the product to try. Sriracha Tomatoes was a new line of spicy ketchup, tomatoes, and salsa, and it was a departure from anything Red Gold had made.

It also came with a built-in advantage. The audience Red Gold wanted already had a relationship with Huy Fong sriracha. The rooster sauce had the affinity the tomatoes needed, which meant the campaign was not introducing a taste so much as connecting one brand’s following to another’s product.

The constraint was that Red Gold still had to sound like Red Gold to everyone else. Sharpen the messaging without compromising the elegance, and push it into channels the company had barely used.

Our work drove a 600% increase in website visits.

The Solution

Separate the two brands at the media level

The first move was a media strategy that pulled Sriracha Tomatoes away from Red Gold entirely. The product was different enough, and the audience new enough, that controlling the messaging separately was the only way to reach both without diluting either.

Then we went outside the food world. Red Gold had worked with food influencers before with some success, so there was appetite to push further. We engaged comedians, lifestyle bloggers, and a few foodies, which delivered a large impact on a relatively small spend.

On the asset side, meme-style cinemagraphs conveyed how spicy each product was and gave the work an edge the brand had never had. Tasty-style recipe videos did the commercial work, adding weight to the sales push.

Program highlights include:

A media strategy separating Sriracha Tomatoes from the Red Gold parent brand
Influencer partnerships with comedians and lifestyle bloggers alongside foodies
Paid search and paid social in channels Red Gold had rarely used
Branded meme GIFs and cinemagraphs conveying heat level
Tasty-style recipe videos supporting retail sell-through
An integrated plan running in tandem with Red Gold’s existing campaigns
A follow-on campaign across Red Gold’s base product line

THE STRATEGY

Borrow the affinity that already existed

Two brands came together here and both got something out of it. Huy Fong reached grocery shelves it had not occupied. Red Gold reached an audience that already trusted the rooster.

That existing affinity is what made a small budget work. We were not building recognition from zero. We were connecting a following that already existed to a product it had not seen yet.

Channel choice followed from the same logic. Social feeds become echo chambers, which is a problem when the goal is new audiences. Staying inside the food influencer universe would have reached people already saturated with food content, so we went where those feeds do not reach. Not just foodies need to eat.

The creative pushed further than a family brand normally would. Language and imagery nobody expected from Red Gold is exactly what caught an audience that avoids marketing. The client’s reaction to the first round was the tell. They said it made them uncomfortable, and they thought that was a good thing.

Underneath all of it was an integrated plan that crossed channels and worked alongside campaigns Red Gold already had in market. That coordination was new for them, and it meant their existing assets did more work.

THE RESULTS

A new audience without losing the old one

The initial Sriracha campaign exceeded expectations, and Red Gold came back with a larger campaign across its base products.

600%

Increase in website visits

69%

Increase in impressions over previous benchmark

23%

Increase in reach over previous benchmark

Why it matters:

Influencers outside the food category created engagement a food-only program would have missed
The cinemagraphs generated significant social chatter and the recipe videos drove real traction
The parent brand kept its core audience while the new line reached a different one
Red Gold expanded into their base product line, and Envisionit became their retail agency of record