The early bird catches the worm / Although a host of brands jumped on the viral ‘seemingly ranch’ tweet, Heinz was particularly well placed to exploit the meme having sold Kranch sauce since 2019. Heinz also ran with the idea beyond a photoshopped image or a few funny tweets, which is an example of Rethink’s ‘Go then grow’ strategy, says global CCO Aaron Starkman. In a LinkedIn post promoting the campaign, he defined ‘go then grow’ as ‘a rethinkism we’re really proud of that our clients know well and are on board with’. ‘The key is, if there’s a culturally relevant moment that aligns well with the brand, you press go. No qualitative or quantitative testing. Just put out the idea you think will hit, see if people react like you think they will and if they do, start to grow in terms of scale, mediums and investment. Usually, it starts with something as simple as a social post.'
Contagious covered another recent example of the strategy for Coors Light, when the brand and Rethink created a mock-up of a Coors Light can featuring a black square in the corner, in reference to the Coors Light digital signage damaged by a foul ball at a baseball game. This freedom to act quickly allows Rethink and its clients to be culturally fluent and capitalise on viral moments to build mental availability.
In an interview with Contagious in 2021, Paul Feldwick, former global brand planning director at DDB Worldwide and author of Why Does The Pedlar Sing? spoke about the importance of the unplanned elements of creating famous brands. ‘The unplanned elements include agility, willingness to take risks, structures and cultures that enable creative responses to the unexpected, resilience and energy in the face of difficulties,’ he said.
The Taylor effect / It’s not every day that Taylor Swift is pictured with your product (albeit tenuously), and Heinz was right not to miss out on its chance at the Taylor effect. When the Empire State Building lights up in red and white to commemorate a snack you were pictured with, you know you’re influential. Whether you like it or not, there is evidence of Swift’s influence on popular culture everywhere. The mere rumour of Swift and Kelce’s romance inspired a TikTok trend of Swifties (Swift fans) annoying the football fans in their lives by claiming that Taylor Swift put (the very established and well-known) Travis Kelce ‘on the map’.
The day after Swift attended her second Kansas City Chiefs game, NBC Sports told NBC News that the ‘game drew added national attention due to the attendance of pop star Taylor Swift’ and that it was the most-watched pro football game of this season so far. Citing preliminary Nielsen data, the network identified that, compared to an average of the first three weeks of Sunday Night Football, the biggest demographic gains were among girls 12 to 17 (53%), women 18 to 24 (24%) and women older than 35 (34%).
According to Fanatics, the NFL’s official ecommerce partner for jerseys and other apparel, Swift’s appearance helped drive a 400% spike in Kelce jersey sales. Dr Marcus Collins has written in more detail about the effect – and what it teaches us about influence – in an op-ed for Forbes.
