Historically, National Chili Day (fourth Thursday in February) hasn’t been one of the more well-known food holidays and year-over-year had driven little social conversation…that is until 2020. The Edelman team was tasked with enhancing overall relevancy and conversation around National Chili Day while finding a unique avenue to drive awareness, consideration, and ultimately, purchase of BUSH’S Chili Beans around the timely milestone of National Chili Day.
STRATEGY & EXECUTION
Nothing beats a reunion with your favorite TV character, so on National Chili Day, there was no character better suited for this reunion than Brian Baumgartner (The Office's Kevin Malone). BUSH's Beans partnered with Brian to reclaim the unfortunate narrative about his TV character, Kevin's infamous cold open chili spill across the main office floor (See here).
In a peaceful, reflective moment in Brian’s own kitchen he walks us through the delicate, thoughtful steps—and secrets—that make his famous chili even better, namely BUSH's Chili Beans, because they’re the B-E-S-T, Brian explains. In a rewarding display of culinary pride, Brian beams over his beautiful bowl of chili, only to hear the pot drop at the very last second before the camera turns off.
Fully produced by Edelman, the video was paired with Brian’s Famous Chili recipe for web and released simultaneously on BUSH’s and Brian’s owned social channels on National Chili Day, followed by real-time media pitching to lifestyle and entertainment media outlets.
OUTCOME
From an SEO perspective, the National Chili Day landing page ranked for 41 new keywords, secured first page rankings, and 99 percent of backlinks were from authoritative sites. There was also a +137 percent organic traffic lift—an additional 18,000 visits—to BushBeans.com, and consumers spent twice the average amount of time viewing Brian’s Famous Chili recipe than other recipes on the site.