Hood Baileys™ Coffee Creamers

Client Overview

Our agency provided public relations services to Hood for over 8 years. During that time we represented many of Hood’s family of brands (Hood Cottage Cheese, Hood Ice Cream, Hood Sour Cream, Hood Eggnog), its wholly-owned subsidiary brands like Heluva Good Dips as well as a number of their co-licensed brands like Lactaid, and Baileys™Coffee Creamers.

Baileys™ Coffee Creamers Campaign

Challenge

Over the course of a year, our agency and BAILEYS™ Coffee Creamers executed a highly-successful, strategic public relations campaign to increase national brand awareness and drive sales. This PR campaign focused on targeting key national consumer and trade media outlets to gain consistent exposure to the brand’s primary consumer—all in an effort to increase market share for the line.

Strategy

• Establishing a comprehensive blogger ambassador program to build brand advocacy
• Engaging with key media outlets and contacts at targeted events
• Identifying key partnerships that align with the brand to secure third party credibility and continue to build awareness
• Positioning the brand as an innovator in the coffee creamer marketplace
• Building on momentum established over previous two years

Solution

Blog Ambassador Program

Our agency created and managed the first-ever BAILEYS™ Coffee Creamers Blogger Ambassador Program that was composed of 13 highly-influential bloggers who created engaging content targeting the brand’s demographic.

The program generated 104 blog and social media posts, reaching an audience of 4,114,570.

Each blogger created a total of 3 recipes that highlighted the product’s versatility and variety. In addition to being posted on the blogger’s site, the recipes were also promoted heavily through social media.

The program yielded exciting new content that we were able to leverage throughout the year. The recipes were included in pitches and were a perfect addition to the BAILEYS™ Coffee Creamers recipe section on the website.

Food Fete – New York City

To support the release of the new Spring flavors, Macadamia Brittle and Bourbon Vanilla Pound Cake (Limited Edition), our team and BAILEYS™ Coffee Creamers engaged with more than 80 influencers at an exclusive, invite-only media event – Food Fête New York City.

BAILEYS™ Coffee Creamers met with editors from publications like Everyday with Rachel Ray and GQ.com who enjoyed hot coffee, the two new creamers, and custom made BAILEYS™ Macadamia Brittle cupcakes.

Feedback for the new flavors was very positive and excited influencers took social media to talk about the new flavors, generating over 132,000 impressions during the event.

Food Fête New York City allowed BAILEYS™ Coffee Creamers to increase brand awareness, strengthen media relationships and discuss the product’s versatility.

St. Patrick’s Day Promotion

To support the BAILEYS™ Coffee Creamers Search for America’s Best St. Patrick’s Day, our team developed and executed two highly-successful initiatives. Combined, the two initiatives garnered more than 445k impressions.

Media Mailers: We conceptualized and sent branded tote bags to radio DJs in 6 markets to generate excitement around the promotion. The tote bags included premium BAILEYS™ Coffee Creamers thermoses, personalized letters to DJs, press kits and Starbucks gift card. The efforts resulted in coverage in local and trade outlets, generation over 45k impressions.

Mini-Blogger Program: Our team vetted and managed a mini-blogger program that consisted of 6 bloggers. Every blogger created a recipe inspired by their city using The Original Irish Cream. The mini-blogger program generated over 400k+ impressions.

Media Tour – New York City

Our team and BAILEYS™ Coffee Creamers met with 8 media outlets over 2 days in June, including O, The Oprah Magazine, Real Simple, Cosmopolitan and Sirius XM during the NYC Media Tour. The deskside meetings and “coffee breaks” introduced media to the brand’s new Holiday Flavors and generated immediate brand awareness and social media exposure in addition to potential press opportunities.

Offered as a “sneak peak” at the upcoming Holiday Flavors, the coffee breaks and desksides had a VIP feel as editors had the chance to sample flavors not yet available. The beverages were served with the delicious BAILEYS™ Coffee Creamers Cookie Cheesecake Swirl Bars made by partner blogger Grandbaby Cakes. As an immediate result of the tour, we secured 2 media placements in top-tier outlets – Woman’s World and CloserWeekly.com, reaching over 1.5 million readers.

Media Tour – Los Angeles

Our team and BAILEYS™ Coffee Creamers met with 8 media outlets over 3 days in September, including BuzzFeed, “The Ellen DeGeneres Show,” E! Online, “Good Day LA,” The Hollywood Reporter and 3 iHeartMedia local radio morning shows. The deskside meetings and “coffee breaks” introduced media to the brand’s new Holiday Flavors as they were rolling out into the Los Angeles market. These coffee breaks were instrumental in generating immediate brand awareness, social media exposure, and strengthening media relationships in the LA market. The beverages were also paired with delicious BAILEYS™ Coffee Creamers Cookie Cheesecake Swirl Bars to continue to push the new product announcement. As an immediate result of the tour, we secured social media posts from two top-tier outlets including E! Online and radio morning show host Bruce Scott of KOST 103.5.

National Coffee Day

To celebrate National Coffee Day on September 29 and support the Let’s Do Coffee contest, our team created and managed a mini-blogger program that consisted of 5 lifestyle and food bloggers who shared contest details with their readers and created custom recipes. Each of the posts encouraged readers to embrace the special moment of having coffee with friends and family, close or far away by entering the contest.

The program generated 146,328 impressions including blog and social media posts.

BlogHER Food

In November, our team conceptualized and executed a multifaceted, interactive booth activation at BlogHer Food in Chicago, IL, that included a fully-branded coffee bar with a variety of toppings, our blogger partner, local Chicagoan Jocelyn Delk Adams from Grandbaby Cakes on site, and the BAILEYS™ Coffee Carpet to encourage social media participation. The BAILEYS™ Coffee Creamers booth was the talk of the conference. Bloggers were buzzing about Grandbaby Cakes’ Cookie Cheesecake Swirl Bars made with the new Frosted Vanilla Cookie flavor and the premium branded Thermoses we were giving away. Overall the event further extended brand presence among top food bloggers and set the team up for a successful 2016 blogger ambassador program by capturing over 75 leads for potential blogger partners.

Campaign Results

By the end of the year-long program, we exceeded all goals, reaching more than 183 million consumers through more than 180 placements. In addition to securing noteworthy coverage, we continued to build and strengthen close relationships with top key publications that mattered to the brand.