Sriracha Tomatoes: CPG Marketing Case Study

The ask

Red Gold Tomatoes partnered with Huy Fong to create Sriracha Tomatoes—a spicy new take on classic canned tomatoes, salsa, and ketchup. With a wild new strategic partnership and a hot new innovation on their hands, Red Gold knew there was an opportunity to connect to a whole new audience: millennials. So they came to us to help them make some bold choices.

The outcome

Our campaign garnered quite a bit of attention. Sriracha Tomatoes launched well above expectations. We beat our previous benchmarks by quite a bit and got Sriracha Tomatoes on the minds of a new audience: millennials. As a result, we went on to work with other Red Gold Tomatoes brands, eventually becoming their retail agency of record.

600%

increase in website visits

69%

increased impressions over previous benchmarks

23%

increase reach over old benchmarks

How we got there

The first step we took was to create a media strategy that effectively separated Sriracha Tomatoes from Red Gold Tomatoes. Since the product was so different and ripe for new audiences, we knew we needed to control our messaging for our distinct audiences. And since we wanted to stand out from the crowd, we took a bold new path for Red Gold.

Heating up the timeline

We partnered with influencers outside of the food world to separate Sriracha Tomatoes from other food altogether. Red Gold had previously worked with food influencers, but we saw an opportunity to try something spicier. We engaged comedians, lifestyle bloggers, and a few foodies to make a big impact with a small spend.

Sriracha Tomatoes social creative and pizza

Making spicy content

On the asset side, we created branded meme GIFs for extra stopping power in feed. With language and imagery that wasn’t exactly expected from the family-friendly brand, we were able to grab the attention of marketing-averse millennials. Our client even said, “This makes me uncomfortable, and I think that’s a good thing.” And the more traditional Tasty-style recipe videos hit our target audience perfectly—and added some extra oomph to the sales push (our recipes were fantastic).