Silver: Best Use of Influencer Marketing 2015

The irreverent, up-for-anything target audience of Frank’s RedHot is reflected in the hot sauce’s broadcast ad slogan, “I put that $#! on everything.” As it tried to expand its reach beyond the Northeast and the Midwest, the company didn’t tone down the tagline. Instead it referenced it as the unifying theme of its national awareness campaign.

Frank’s and agency MSLGROUP invited fans to upload onto Twitter or Instagram photos that showed the most outlandish things they put the sauce on, accompanied by the hashtag #IPTSOE (the initials of each word of the slogan). A dedicated website, www.iptsoe.com, aggregated all the content to make it easier for fans to view.

Frank’s encouraged entries with a sweepstakes: Everyone who uploaded content was eligible to win one of four Frank’s RedHot-branded prizes: a jet ski, an ATV, a motorcycle, or a tailgate-ready pickup truck. And to help spur fans’ creativity, Frank’s enlisted six popular Vine and Instagram personalities to share their own #IPTSOE photos (hot sauce as face paint, anyone?). Regional radio spots and posts on Facebook and Twitter amplified the message.

The dedicated website drew more than 57,000 unique visitors, and the campaign garnered more than 3,100 user-generated photos. The 20 million earned impressions and 50 million total impressions exceeded the goal by 600%. The engagement rate exceeded expectations as well; while Frank’s had hoped for 1.5%-3% across its social media platforms, the average engagement rate hit 3.86%-5.86%.

Hopefully no one engaged with the hot sauce quite as much as the winner of the branded truck, whose winning photo showed her pouring it into her bubble bath.