How Butterball Launched a Regional Campaign with Dedicated Shopper Marketing for Success: Session Recap from Commerce Media Brand Summit 2025

2026, CMBS. Keynote Case Study: New Product – How Butterball Launched A Regional/Retailer Campaign With A Dedicated Shopper Marketing Plan For Success

Announcer: Right now, though, this is a really cool discussion. Alex Hale with Butterball is gonna be jumping up here in just a moment. But I talked with him f-four or five months ago maybe, and he was telling me this really amazing story with his company, which he's gonna be sharing with you today.

And I'm really excited to bring him up here to be able to talk about new product and how Butterball launched a regional retailer campaign with a dedicated shopper marketing plan for success. He's gonna break this thing down in a very cool way. So I want a humongous round of applause now that y'all got some food in ya.

Let's bring Alex up to our stage, please. Thank you.

Alex Hale, Integrated Marketing Communications Manager, Butterball: Hey. Alex Hale with Butterball. I'm our integrated marketing communications manager. You may know Butterball from Thanksgiving. We are more than Thanksgiving. We are the Bubba Gump of turkey. If you can turkey it, we found a way to. So sausage, burgers, ground turkey, and so on. Today, we are going to talk about Thanksgiving, though because we think we changed it forever last year.

So we think we've transformed it for many consumers and unlocked a new possibility for them. We're gonna start with a little audience participation. Did you know we have a turkey talk line? Show of hands. Who knows? Okay, this is pretty good. It's about right. We're a little far from Thanksgiving, too, so you may have forgotten.

But we really do have a call center in Naperville, Illinois, and it's not staffed with people who like to cook or people who are passionate about it. It's staffed with experts. They are nutritionists, dieticians retired chefs, college professors who teach culinary arts. They are real experts, and we call them experts.

And every year, one question gets asked more than any other of hosts, and we answer a lot of burning turkey questions, sometimes literally burning. Any guesses for what was the most asked question of the turkey talk line? And it's, every year it is. Can I cook it from frozen? Okay. I don't know what it's saying.

I heard, "Can I cook it from frozen?" Can I cook it from frozen? So technically, yes. The answer is, "How do I thaw this thing?" And if you're asking, it's too late, most likely. And you have a bowling ball, and what we have to tell you to do is go to the store and buy a fresh one. It we actually hold the trademark for National Thaw Day.

It's the Thursday before Thanksgiving, and that's when you move it from the freezer to the fridge. So it's a, we recommend seven days in the fridge. And that creates a ton of stress. So it begs the question what if we could do something about that? What if we could tackle that problem, plus all the ones that come with it?

And there are some others It's messy, it's stressful, and it takes a lot of time out of your day. It pulls you away from the people you care about most and into the kitchen, where you are locked up in front of the, of, in front of a, maybe a bathtub full of brine. We've heard all kinds of crazy stories where people are trying their hardest to prep this really intimidating, could be 20-plus pound bird.

So we said what if we could tackle those problems and all of the ones that come with it?" That was our core insight, and it led to a product called Butterball Cooked from Frozen Premium Whole Turkey. It is the two-step turkey. You unwrap and roast, and in five hours you've got a perfectly golden brown turkey every time.

You can't fail. The can't fail fowl. We had all kinds of internal names for this. And we asked people, we asked our consumers, we said, "Would you be interested in it? It's probably gonna cost more." And they said, "Yes. This is not fun, and you've made it so much easier for me to make Thanksgiving fun, and especially to make hosting fun."

And we know, one thing we know a lot about Thanksgiving hosts, the biggest barrier to hosting is confidence. And so if we can instill hosts with confidence in what they're doing, they're going to wanna host, and they're going to be more interested in buying a Butterball whole turkey if that's the one that helps solve the problem.

It wasn't even just first time hosts, 'cause me I've never hosted Thanksgiving. Not yet. I hope to one day. But I can tell you this, if I went to the store and saw this one that's two steps, and this other one that involves thawing a week in advance, and a lot of thought and concern and cavities and giblets and gross, I would choose this one.

So we saw, we certainly saw a rise among newti- new hosts and first time hosts, novice hosts as we like to call them, but we also saw it among those who are expert, who have a routine around how they prepare Thanksgiving because it meant that they could spend less time in the kitchen and more time with those they care about.

So we figured out this product, but the problem we faced is that innovation at Thanksgiving is really hard, and this will resonate for anyone here that's had to innovate around a seasonal item or something that's got a short window. And that's just it. Time is really short. We've got 21 days to land that plane, to get it out on shelf, convince consumers it's worthwhile, it's worth paying more for, and to sell out, because our retailers, our customers, don't wanna carry it with them.

It's really hard to sell a whole turkey in July. We just... there are people to buy them, but not that many. The other challenge here is it's risky for hosts because we're asking them to change something about something they've done before, or to take a chance on a new product they've never used before.

So there's a little bit of a risk there around what many view to be the most important part of the meal, the part that success hinges upon. Every year we interview and we find that people will gauge whether or not Thanksgiving was a success based on how the turkey turned out. So it's a big risk.

We're asking a lot, but we had a solid insight, and if anyone can innovate around Thanksgiving, it's Butterball. So we took a shot knowing we had that. And we started modestly. We did not blow it out. We wanted to just, let's start with some anchor accounts here. And in particular, we started with Kroger was our largest initial account followed by Publix, and then Walmart gave us a couple of DCs.

And so we've got some built-in RMN tactics there, which we were excited to take advantage of because we would have to. This wasn't something that we could necessarily blow out nationally. It was very regionalized. And th- that created some very real challenges. The other piece of the equation that was really challenging is finding the right person.Alex Hale, Integrated Marketing Communications Manager, Butterball: It's a very specific shopper profile and we know who's gonna host Thanksgiving probably as well as you do. It's just... I don't know who's gonna do it this year. We've gotta find someone that's planning to host, so they not just are open to hosting, but they're actually going to do it.

There's lots of people that attitudinally are open to hosting and enjoy having friends over, but that doesn't mean they're hosting Thanksgiving. They're willing to spend a little bit more, so this was a three to three X cost over a frozen turkey. And they're willing to deviate from tradition if they've hosted before.

So true real anecdote, I asked my stepmom if she'd be interested in this product. I said, "We've got this amazing new whole turkey. It's gonna change it for you." And she said no. I know how to do this. I'm a pro. I have a routine, a system, and I can do it myself, and I like to do it myself." So it's not for everybody, and we knew that.

But from our survey work, we knew it was for an awful lot of people. From there, we built out our objectives list. Number one was sell out by Thanksgiving. That's it. That was it. That was our objective. We could not have these lingering into February and March. They had to get off the shelf, or we knew we wouldn't be able to do it again the next year.

So the retailers were nervous. This was a big ask, right? So we needed to sell out by Thanksgiving. That was the biggest thing. And in order to do it, we took a layered omni-channel approach. And this is something that I haven't heard today. We started with national PR. Even though it was a regionalized product, we started with national PR, and I think that was really important to build awareness.

I'll talk a little bit more about it in a minute. We built consideration through geo-targeted offsite advertising and trial through account specific shopper marketing, some of which lever- leveraged our RMN partners. Others were using other other a- ad offerings. At the end of the day though, we felt it was critical to execute a full funnel approach here.

We needed to build awareness so people understood this, what this product was, and then we needed to show them where to find it and why they should, and we had to do all of it very quickly, very accurately. There wasn't a lot of time for adjustment and improvement. We needed to nail nail it right out of the gate.

And you can see here, we started with that PR campaign in October to build buzz, build awareness, build excitement. We launched geo-targeted advertising at the start of November, and then we shifted into some of our more account specific shopper marketing tactics. What you can't see is that we really- Pushed our spends up until the Sunday before Thanksgiving because we know that's when most of the people are completing that major shopping trip.

We also know that this is a great last-minute solution. We know that from our phone calls. "I forgot to thaw the thing. What do I do?" Go to the store. We've got a solution for you. Cook from frozen. In the days, the immediate days before Thanksgiving, we really blew out our digital advertising here because we could.

At the bottom there are some stills from an awesome spot we prepared and ran on CTV. You gotta look it up on YouTube. It's totally worth watching. That national PR campaign was massively successful. Six point six billion impressions for more than eight hundred local news, radio, and national media mentions.

We couldn't pay for that if we wanted to, so it was just unbelievable, and I really attribute it to the fact that we were answering a real question. It was really based in a true consumer insight. And it was different, it was unique, and it unlocked hosting for so many people. And you can see some of the different places where we earned coverage.

My favorite was Jimmy Fallon. He's a big Butterball fan. He talked about it in his opening monologue, so that was really fun to see that it even resonated with him, right? And then of course, we kicked over to geo-targeted advertising. So this was a combination of CTV. We worked very closely with Smart Commerce to build a shoppable ad program.

Paid search was a big part of our plan because we could bid on keywords like, "How long does it take to thaw a turkey the day before Thanksgiving?" You really don't need the answer at that point. You need a turkey. Social media influencers as well that could show people just how easy it is to prepare.

And that carting value may not look all that impressive, but you have to think, this is a really big, important emotional purchase. It's the kind of thing I wanna go to the store, touch, feel, see firsthand, compare it next to the other traditional turkey. I'm gonna do that purchase in store. So we really saw a disproportionate volume of e-commerce sales there too, which we were really excited to see.

And then lastly, we moved in store. So we did everything we could here. We looked at every RMM playbook for our accounts where we had earned distribution. We worked with some other partners to get cart cards, bunker signs, floor talkers. We wanted people to be able to find this product. That came with challenges though, because it was such a short-term launch, and it was only available for a few weeks.

Some of these tactics require scan-through to be able to kick 'em on. So we sent shoppers to seventy percent of every Kroger store and every DC that we were available to buy that first turkey and make sure it was out. And in so many cases, we found that it hadn't been put out on the floor yet. So that was our chance to go and fix that and get it out there 'cause we didn't have that much time, and we were driving people there.

So it was all very day by day. Another thing we did, another example of what I would-- I'm pretty proud of our creative thinking. We wanted to sample it. It's really hard to sample a turkey that takes five hours to cook. So we said, "Okay, probably can't do that. But could we have somebody next to the case talking about it, explaining the product's benefits and value?

Could we show them how easy it is?" No, you have to serve food. So we found a gravy company, and we sampled their gravy. And it was a great gravy company to work with. It was Better Than Gravy, so it was a similar ease and convenient-oriented product. And we sampled their gravy next to our turkey and shared the cost.

Everybody was thrilled. It was great, and it gave us the chance to have a human being in the store the Sunday before Thanksgiving talking about this product and bringing it to life for people.

The ultimate results, we sold a lot of turkeys. We were so proud. We almost met our goal of a hundred percent. That's a big, lofty goal. We were in the nineties for most of our retailers, and we cleared them out by Christmas. So for our first-year launch, we were thrilled. The most amazing thing, though, was we grew the category.

It was such a strong product and strong insight that we actually unlocked hosting for people who otherwise might not have bought a whole turkey for Thanksgiving. Fifty-one percent of cooked from frozen buyers were households who didn't buy any type of seasonal turkey in the last three years. That three-year part is important.

It helps eliminate rotational households where this year Aunt Edna's hosting it, next year Uncle Ted's hosting. So that was really exciting to see and just an awesome proof point to bring back to our customers. We saw larger repeat orders placed. We've got growing distribution again this fall.

We're picking up some new retailers in New England and the Midwest. And of course, not trying to win awards, but we did, which was great. We won a PRSA Anvil Award of Excellence for Best Integrated Campaign, and we're even adding on just a little bit more. We're gonna add the cook from frozen whole turkey breast.

All the ease, just less turkey. Now, it wasn't perfect. Nothing is, and there's still work to do. And these are a couple things I wanna throw at you all because I think you might be the right people to help us solve some of these or at best commiserate with me if you struggle with either one. Random weight.

Haven't heard a lot about PLUs, and I think that's because it affects a very unique category of products. Somehow bananas figured it out. You can go buy bananas anywhere in America, and it's four-zero-one-one. If you want organic bananas, it's nine-four-zero-one-one. Butterball turkeys, we got five random digits at every retailer in America, sometimes multiple, and it makes it very challenging to connect things like coupons, digital offers, online purchase and it cr-- it-- I've, I think, potholes in the path to purchase ultimately.

So that's one that we're really trying to figure out. The other is identifying those accurate intent signals. Like I said earlier, just because I like to host does not mean I'm going to host Thanksgiving. So we're looking for what are those real-time behavioral signals in the week before Thanksgiving or two weeks before Thanksgiving "I just bought a roasting pan.Alex Hale, Integrated Marketing Communications Manager, Butterball: Probably gonna buy a whole turkey," things like that. So it's hard for us to find those, and I know that we did not run this as efficiently as we could've and will as time goes on and better data becomes available. So that's something we are still trying to crack the code on. Let's find those people that are looking for things like tablescapes, who are buying extra dining room chairs, the people who are really going to host Thanksgiving so that we can reach them and show them how awesome this product is.

Okay, big takeaways. The things I would love for you to leave with. Number one, if you build a deep, intimate understanding of your consumer's needs and pain points, you're gonna build the right solutions. This question has been the most asked question since 1982 when we started the Turkey Talk Line every year.

Unfortunately, it took us that long to think about how to solve the problem, which we could have thought of it sooner, but it was right in front of us, and it was amazing how successful this program was because the product answered such a real core challenge and unlocked, like I said, hosting for so many people.

The second point is you've got to look at all channels. I know we are at a commerce media summit, and so that should be the focus, but this program would not have been successful with commerce media alone. We needed that earned campaign to boost awareness, especially over such a short window of time where we didn't have the chance to optimize and adjust very quickly.

And we didn't expect it to be as big as it was, but it was massive, and it ended up really driving some of that account-specific marketing and driving success. And the last piece is when they tell you, "No, you can't sample a whole turkey," call the gravy company. You gotta think outside the box.

Send people to physically buy products from the stores when Kroger says, "You gotta have seventy percent scan through before we'll do it." Which is a good thing. That way, you're not advertising for products that aren't there, but we wanted the product to be there, so it gave us the chance to do those store checks and make sure everything was out there.

So those are the big takeaways I wanted to make sure I left you with. I also would be wrong to take credit for everything here. Couldn't have done it without our partners, so we did this with Edelman for all of our earned media. VML handled our national paid advertising, and ProPak, our friends out of Dallas, helped us with the in-store shopper marketing and account-specific programming.

Butterball Cooked from Frozen. Buy one this Thanksgiving.

And I think I blew through that, so

Announcer: Yeah, we got any questions here? Outside of how to thaw the turkey. I know that's burning, but-

Alex Hale, Integrated Marketing Communications Manager, Butterball: A week before.

Audience: I'm very impressed. I'm very impressed with your PR. I think that you hit, like- You hit the nail on the head when you said that you were providing a solution because that's, I think, where the...

It's hard. It's hard to do that. And I love the gravy thing. Oh. I was like, I wrote that down. I'm like, "Oh, we can't... We sell medicine." I'm like, "We can't sample medicine, but ooh, what else can we do?"

Alex Hale, Integrated Marketing Communications Manager, Butterball: Is there something? Yeah.

Audience: Okay, so I'm gonna-- My question, pretend it's not coming from an e-commerce.

Pretend it's coming from senior leadership. Did you get a return on your ad spend? Did you... 'cause it sounds like you maybe invested a lot, and you had- We did ... limited distribution. So was, in part of your learnings that you over-invested and you'd pull back? Or do you think that you leaned in the right way because it now has earned you distribution?

Alex Hale, Integrated Marketing Communications Manager, Butterball: That is an awesome question. We knew we needed to over-invest, and we did. We did probably spend more than someone in leadership might have recommended we spend per product, but it earned us the distribution that we needed to continue to grow, especially at our big, heavy anchor accounts, Walmart and Kroger.

So yes, it was necessary for this product launch to over-invest. And I won't tell you the ROAS, but it, the metrics we were getting back were... the, it's not something you'd wanna run year-round, but we had a short window. We needed to move them and that was what we had to do.

Announcer: Cool. We got time for one more quick question.

Alex Hale, Integrated Marketing Communications Manager, Butterball: Yeah.

Audience: Was there anything you did at the earned level to capture intent to make then the later parts of the funnel more effective and help you find those hosts or those people who maybe really resonated with the PR that they saw?

Alex Hale, Integrated Marketing Communications Manager, Butterball: Yeah, I think one thing that we did was we introduced a new product locator on our website, and that's where we instructed media to drive our stories to, right?

We wanna help you... Earned media, yes. We said, "Link to our product locator," because that's the next question, right? Is how do I find this? Where do I get this near me? Smart Commerce is, was at the time, the only provider we could find that could build a locator that supported random weight products by matching up the name with the e-commerce name.

So it's a matching system rather than based in the UPC code. I'm getting very technical. But that's a, that was a real challenge we faced, but that helps people find it near them, and then that Smart Commerce product locator also facilitated purchase. So you could add it to your cart from the locator, which we were really excited about.

Made a very positive en-enhancement to the campaign.

Announcer: Cool. Awesome. Thank you so much, Alex.

Alex Hale, Integrated Marketing Communications Manager, Butterball: All right. Thank you all.