Pork Rinds and Crunch Time Make A For A Fun Promotion…

It’s not easy to cut through the cluttered college landscape these days if you are a consumer product. It can be expensive if you don’t have set goals, NIL makes it tricky as doe sthe transfer portal, and sometimes even the biggest spend misses becuase the product doesn;t resound with the audience. Then you have brands that hit the right timing, understand the spend, and things seem to be a hit. We saw that with Scooter’s Coffee a few years ago, and some others as well. The one that we found recently that seemes to literally have the goods is the The Crunch Time Hero® award created by yes, www.PorkRinds.com. The award has virality, the buy in from players, even a cause marketing tie to it with a budget that makes sense. Fans can vote for the bigger payoff,  “Crunch Time Hero® of the Year” by sharing posts on @eatporkrinds and every share strengthens the bid and triggers a $3 donation for pediatric brain cancer research and support through PorkRinds.com’s partnership with the Archer Foundation.

How did it all come about, and how’s it going? We asked Mark Singleton, VP of Sales and Marketing at Rudolph Foods group, to give us the scoop.

It is a very cluttered space in snack foods, how did you come up with this niche of an idea?

1. The Crunch Time Hero® campaign was the result of us trying to get a Pork Rind Bowl for over a year. As we did research and analyzed the opportunity (cost, impact, community, potential civic or charity partnerships) we focused on our main goal of trying to get more people to eat more pork rinds in more places.
   1. About halfway through the effort, we pivoted to a college football award, raising money and awareness for our Archer Foundation along the way. We just felt the weekly cadence of awards would benefit our brands and our charity more.

What has been the response from the winners and the football community thus far?

The response from the media and the players has been unbelievable. Our friends that have supported Pork Rind Appreciation Day® (PRAD) really latched on to help us create opportunities for people to be Crunch Time Heroes® both on the field and off the field.

• The team raised $25,000 supporting pediatric brain cancer last year, and we’re hoping to get even more donations this year.

You are doing this with a very tight budget, is there a plan to use the winners in the NIL space at all?

• Each weekly winner is a paid NIL deal alongside the award.
  • Our weekly Crunch Time Heroes® post in collaboration with @eatporkrinds and @archer_foundation on Instagram and have two weeks to rack up shares, with each share or repost counting as a vote for Hero of the Year.
  • The Hero of the Year will be granted an additional NIL deal and will join us at the Super Bowl’s Radio Row as a spokesperson for the Archer Foundation alongside the charity.

How is the award amplified weekly? Can you walk through the announcement strategy and rollout each week?

• We’re firing on all cylinders to get the word out for this campaign and the special cause we’re celebrating.
  • As part of our social posts, we’re partnering with Peighton Tubre, a rising digital sports creator with 1.6 million+ followers across social media platforms. She interviews each weekly honoree and collaborates on every player post.
  • We’re also partnering with Barstool Sports, having a weekly read on the variety sports talk show The Yak, and reposting our player video to the corresponding Barstool viceroy account (i.e. @barstoolvandy for Miles Capers/Vanderbilt) each week.

What has been the biggest surprise with the award and its reception thus far? and the biggest challenge?

• The biggest surprise so far in the award has been how many people we’ve been able to help and the incredible bravery and courage of these families.
  • We hope we can get even more people to get on board to help these great families with DIPG.

For the company overall, is this a one off or is it a front porch to see how it plays out and then expanding down the road?

• We are never going to stop supporting the Crunch Time Heroes® of this country.

Where can fans learn more about PorkRinds.com and Crunch Time Hero® of the Week?

1. Find your rind and learn more about Crunch Time Hero® of the Week at www.PorkRinds.com.
   1. Keep up with all of the Crunch Time Hero action and share the weekly Crunch Time Hero post @eatporkrinds on Instagram.We’re also @eatporkrinds on all other major social media platforms.

Sometimes we overthink things, or go just for the buzz without substance. Here is a great example of a brand that checked the boxes, is executing and mesuring goals, and is giving back through the play of some elite athletes. Well played by all.