Edelman has just completed its 44th year promoting the iconic Butterball Turkey Talk-Line. I want to thank our clients at Butterball for their support for allowing us to continually evolve our work for them.
Here is what I learned from this year’s programming:
- The Power of Collabs—Our Thanksgiving Hosting Pants produced by Hedley & Bennett were a smash hit. This proved to be a top-class partner for Butterball, a producer of aprons, knives, and other kitchen products. The blue and yellow pants were even modeled by me with my usual shirt and tie (just for Facebook, don’t worry). Our team organized three weekly giveaways in the month of November. We seeded the pants with food, entertaining and lifestyle creators to drive unboxing videos and social conversation and partnered with David Henrie of Wizards of Waverly Place to maximize reach. In all, we drove stories in F&B outlets such as Allrecipes and Food & Wine, lifestyle outlets such as Parade and SheKnows, and entertainment outlets such as Access Daily and E! News.
- Expertise Matters—Our Turkey Talk-Line experts did over 100 interviews in local markets including Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Los Angeles, Nashville, NYC, Phoenix, Portland, and Tampa. The interviews were substantive, on turkey preparation, hosting tips, and calling 1-800-BUTTERBALL. These experts also were booked on national outlets such as ABC News, AccuWeather, CBS News, CNN, FOX LiveNOW, Inside Edition, MLB Network, NBC News Daily and News Nation.
- Morning Shows Seeking Happy Topics—We booked Turkey Talk-Line expert Bill Nolan on TODAY, where he spent seven minutes with hosts Carson Daly, Savannah Guthrie, and Willie Geist on best practices for thawing, roasting, checking for doneness, stuffing, carving, and serving. Butterball was on TODAY three times, Good Morning America twice, CNN three times.
- Washington Events Work—Star turkeys Gobble and Waddle were selected by Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, then greeted by Fox and Friends host Steve Doocy at the Willard Hotel, and ultimately pardoned at the White House by President Trump. This led to further coverage on CBS Morning, FOX & Friends, and USA TODAY.
- Timely Research Essential—Our team executed a Butterball Togetherness Report on how food brings people together around the holidays. We paired this with consumer information on pricing for the Thanksgiving dinner. Butterball executives were booked on Bloomberg News, CNN This Morning, FOX News, Good Morning America, News Nation, and Yahoo Finance.
Great brand PR programs can be the leading force multiplier for brand marketers. It now requires surround sound, living in culture with crazy ideas such as Hosting Pants that connect to Gen-Z, plus genuine expertise, sharp research findings and clever events. I am so proud of our team headed by Lindsay Garrison. This is indeed the best of Edelman.
Richard Edelman is CEO.
