Yankee Candle (Man Candle Collection)

Client Overview

Yankee Candle engaged our agency over a 10 year period to promote their family of brands (candle, home fragrance, car, accessories and gifts) through public relations. Additionally, our team was often tasked to handle influencer relations, digital advertising, social media marketing, and event marketing and activations throughout that time.

From advising and promoting new product launches to supporting new store openings our agency was a strategic partner that helped facilitate the company’s growth and international expansion both instore and online through eCommerce.

Man Candle Promotion Campaign

Challenge

Although females between the ages of 25-55 are the core customer base for Yankee Candle, our strategists worked alongside the YC scent team to develop a line of scents, names and graphics geared towards a new audience – men. Working with the insight that many men enjoy candles but were highly unlikely to purchase them on their own and/or enter a Yankee Candle store to purchase for themselves, we created a national campaign focused on gifting through their core audience and promoted through social media, influencers, digital advertising and public relations. We coined the phrase “Man Candles” to compliment the scents which included “First Down,” “2×4,” “Man Town,” “MMM, Bacon!,” and “Riding Mower.”

Strategy

The Zozimus social media team executed the campaign by:

• Strategically launching the campaign on Father’s Day
• Working with over 12 social media influencers in advance of the launch to promote “Famous Dads” by having them call on their fans to share what makes a man in their life (dad, brother, uncle) famous for a chance to win a “Man Candle” gift basket.
• Tracked Twitter conversations to find influencers talking about and craving bacon. Sent those influencers ‘Mmm, Bacon!’ Candle as a surprise gift.
• Supported the launch with digital advertising through social media and paid advertising
• Mobilized PR team when product went viral
• Worked with Jimmy Fallon to produce a skit on his show for a man candle called “Mid-Life Crisis”
• Product was featured on GMA, TODAY, Time, WSJ, Live with Anderson Cooper, CNN, and Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.