Picked one off from Michael Smith at Sports Business Journal, who did a great job documenting the pivot and opportunity Duke’s Mayonnaise created off last week’s trophy mishap with the University of Wisconsin. The play had everything; good nature, increased sales and awareness, a cause play, and even a longer tail merch opportunity. Think of what could have been done if NIL was in play. Well down by all, read away, and watch the video if you haven’t seen it.
Duke’s Mayonnaise CMO Tom Barbitta was on his way out of Bank of America Stadium to start his three-hour drive home when his phone started blowing up with text messages and links to social media. The Wisconsin QB had dropped the crystal Duke’s Mayo Bowl trophy and it shattered on the locker room floor. Barbitta didn’t know at the time what a good break that was.
Barbitta’s goal with this title sponsorship all along was to make mayonnaise cool. “Marinades are cool, rubs are cool, hot sauces are cool,” Barbitta said. “Mayonnaise isn’t very cool. We felt like this bowl game would be a chance to disrupt, to reposition the brand. … What ended up happening was a storybook kind of thing. We broke a trophy, we broke our website and we broke Twitter, all in one afternoon.”
Barbitta had been brainstorming for ways the brand could distinguish itself since Duke’s signed on to become title sponsor of the Charlotte bowl last June. He thought about a mayonnaise bath to replace the Gatorade bath on the winning coach. He thought about squirting Duke’s in the postgame locker room celebration like champagne. But the Carolina Panthers understandably didn’t want to deal with the cleanup.
Wisconsin players captured the moment when the trophy shattered after the game, and a Bleacher Report tweet with the video had 1.7 million views on Instagram as of this afternoon. The QB who fumbled the crystal football, Graham Mertz, made amends by taping a bottle of Duke’s Mayo onto the base of the original trophy. Fans picked up on that and began crafting their own trophies on social media with the Duke’s bottle on top. Think that might turn into a promotion for the 2021 game?
Charlotte Sports Foundation Executive Director Danny Morrison has a pet saying: If you’re going to fumble, fumble forward. This was the best example of “fumbling forward,” he said.
Throughout the month of December, Duke’s saw a 22% uptick in organic impressions on Twitter, including a 53% increase on gameday (Dec. 30). Barbitta said it will take several more days to calculate the full impact for the brand. Duke’s and the bowl worked with The Richards Group on advertising, GRP on media buying, Bespoke Sports & Entertainment on activation, Luquire George Andrews on PR and Littlefield Company on social.
That makeshift trophy also went on a $28 T-shirt, produced by Homefield Apparel, and proceeds from sales will go to the Second Harvest Food Bank in Charlotte.
