THE CHALLENGE

Progresso needed to stand out during its most important sales window: cold and flu season, when 40% of all soup is sold. The challenge was to make comfort food relevant in a moment when most people reach for medicine, not soup.

THE STRATEGY

Research showed that 81% of consumers turn to cough drops when they feel sick. Instead of competing within the crowded soup category, we moved into a new space entirely.

THE EXECUTION

Progresso launched Soup Drops, chicken noodle soup you can suck on in lozenge form. We saw an opportunity to hack the cough drop aisle by taking cues from people’s sick day habits and designed a soup flavored “drop”. First we had to capture the distinctive flavor of Progresso Chicken Noodle Soup (down to the flecks of parsley) in a lozenge. Then we packaged Soup Drops in miniature soup cans with a bold, thumb-stopping tagline that made the world giggle. We released the drops during National Soup Month (aka the peak of cold & flu season) with influencer, social surprise and delights, and media outreach driving to a direct-to-consumer website. By the end, we sold out of Soup Drops three separate times, the last time in under 8 minutes, ultimately landing us in cultural conversations spanning social to the late-night TV circuit.

THE OUTCOME

Progresso dominated sick season, a critical sales window, with a groundbreaking culturally-forward new product. These cheeky drops were conversation-drivers and attention-grabbers that served as an entry point to the Progresso Soup portfolio, ultimately driving sales for the brand. 

• +196% increase in top-of-mind awareness
• +47pt gain in brand association as “soup on consumers’ minds”
• +27% increase in consumers agreeing Progresso is “my soup brand of choice”
• 12.83B earned media impressions, including coverage on SNL and The Tonight Show