Hellmann's debuted a loveable mascot, Mayo Cat, on the Sphere in Las Vegas during the Super Bowl.
Hellmann's is the dominant leader in the mayonnaise category. While Hellmann's has high household penetration, many people do not realize Hellmann's can be used as an ingredient in a variety of dishes and not just as a condiment. Therefore, the Hellmann's business objective in 2024 was to increase consumption during the football season using the Super Bowl as the launch moment.
As in previous years, there would be a multi-channel media plan to support the Hellmann's Super Bowl spot and give the consumer a 360-degree experience. Hellmann's planned to double down on culture and lean into best-performing tactics across video and social media to bring "Make Taste Not Waste" to life with a new creative character.
Hellmann's leveraged newer-to-Hellmann's tactics like Top Feed, Top View, Branded Effect, and AR to entice consumers and recruit them to the brand. Online and digital video ads contained engaging add-ons like QR codes and/or end cards to seamlessly facilitate engagement and/or purchase for consumers.
To take advantage of football seasons, Hellmann's diversified its audience mix in 2024 to build brand love among home chefs and further drive its growing football credentials. Hellmann's was already present in nearly one in two households in the U.S., so it wanted to drive consumption among adults aged 25 to 64, "quick and easy cooks" (home cooks that seek quick and easy meal ideas), and re-engage its college football audience.
The campaign strategy was to build brand love for Hellmann's at the intersection of food, culture, and sports. The creative mechanism featured a talking cat, Mayo Cat, voiced by actress Kate McKinnon with a cameo by comedian Pete Davidson, igniting a Hellmann's craze by using Hellmann's to transform leftovers. In the pre-game phase, Hellmann's leveraged Mayo Cat to drive buzz in captivating, emerging platforms. During the game, Hellmann's used Mayo Cat to promote interaction via engaging media placements. Post-game, Hellmann's and Mayo Cat owned the leftovers conversation on assorted media.
A first for Hellmann's was using the Sphere in Las Vegas during the Super Bowl week to bring Mayo Cat to life and inspire consumers to "Make Taste, Not Waste." Hellmann's worked closely with the Sphere Entertainment team to design, film, produce, and edit the 90-second spot featuring Mayo Cat herself. The proprietary technology brought innovation to the new ways of thinking and shooting film to make the best use of the multi-faced ExoSphere surface.
For video, Hellmann's partnered with Paramount to integrate video inventory into Walmart Media Connect, using Walmart data on Paramount CTV inventory programmatically. This pilot program targeted Walmart buyers during party planning, creating an industry-leading full-funnel approach that Hellmann's continued following the Super Bowl.
For social media, Hellmann's used Top Feed, Top View, shake-to-reveal, Branded Effect, and AR to engage consumers on TikTok and Meta, capturing attention and building brand love.
Hellmann's wanted to use its influence to reduce food waste, a mission inherently tied to product usage. The brand was uniquely positioned to be a staple in the kitchen before, during, and after the Super Bowl by inspiring increased consumption of Hellmann's while adopting anti-waste behaviors.
Hellmann's was the first Unilever and first condiment brand to advertise on the Sphere. The Sphere activation delivered over 3.7 million impressions across vehicular, pedestrian, aviation, resort, attractions, monorail, residence, and convention traffic across the 390-minute rotation.
Hellmann's ran the first TikTok Top View with a shake-to-reveal effect for Unilever U.S. and outperformed TikTok's consumer packaged goods benchmarks across click-through-rate (3.98 percent), engagement rate (4.47 percent), and average watch time per person (5.59 seconds).
Mayo Cat outperformed TikTok's benchmarks for Branded Mission and Branded Effect for engagement rate (6.4 percent) and video views (37.8 million views).
