Objective

On the heels of NFL Pro Jason Kelce going super nova for ripping his shirt off to celebrate his brother’s playoff touchdown against the Buffalo Bills with beer in-hand—we thought to dial up the rowdiness.

More food + beverage brands were advertising during Super Bowl 58 than ever before, with commercials costing $7M.

Frank’s needed to take the moment to provide the perfect hot sauce and recipe in a way that could generate pre-game sales AND drive continued awareness through the Big Game.

With 7 in 10 Gen Zers known to scroll through social media while watching TV, the brand strategically activated the Jason Kelce Super Bowl idea across TikTok, Instagram and Facebook, from start to finish. Everything coincided with a sweepstakes allowing fans to join in by sharing their own beloved Game Day food combos with Frank’s.

Getting a W would come down to:

[ 1 ] Driving pregame purchase of Frank’s RedHot before the Super Bowl.

[ 2 ] Encouraging people to make Frank’s Buffalo Chicken Dip for their party. Activate fans to share what they put Frank’s on during the game for a chance to win cash prizes.

Strategy

So, we teamed up with Jason to:

• Show off Frank’s branded Buffalo Chicken Dip recipe with the same showmanship—err, shirt tearing—he went viral for.
• Prove out the tagline “put this $#!T on everything,” having Kelce consume every food + beverage with a national ad buy in the Big Game, slathered in Frank’s, released as different brands aired in-game—on social.

Fast Company dubbed this “a marketing miracle.” Why? We had less than 13 business days before Super Bowl to make it happen. Two days to come up with the idea. About 48 hours to broker the partnership between Frank’s + Jason Kelce—and only two hours the week of the Super Bowl to capture and turn out all content.

Did we mention we were brokering conversations with 35+ other brands with their own Super Bowl plans to join us and extend our efforts in social? That’s navigating legal, making sure every brand is okay with what the interplay may look like and more.

Jason Kelce may have had such a fun time that he even wore his custom Frank’s T-shirt around Vegas, picking up organic press. So, we kicked it into a higher gear to produce merch versions of the shirt for consumers to buy same-day.

Yes we did.

Results

Spending 1/7th of what brands with in-game spots shelled out, executed over 13 business days, Frank’s RedHot:

• 69% YoY increase in retail sales
• 5.2B earned-media impressions (3B earned-media impressions within 24 hours of campaign launch (260+ placements). 
  • Notable placements in TODAY, People Magazine, Cosmopolitan, Men’s Health, Parade, Delish, and more.

• 60% increase in Frank’s email list subscribers
• +10 point lift in purchase consideration at Frank’s largest retailer, Walmart; 11% growth in positive brand awareness and familiarity among Gen Z.

Collectively, across social channels. Brand’s reporting 9x YoY increase in social media exposure around the Big Game. The numbers reflect impressions related to organic posts of brands/people talking about Frank’s!

• 2023 Big Game (Social Media excluding Owned Content)
  7,261,860 impressions
• 2024 Big Game (Social Media excluding Owned Content)
  64,011,880 impressions 

Media