Honey Baked Ham Co.
The Honey Baked Ham Company is going all in on college football and the ACC and SEC. The company will invest in its largest non-holiday campaign in its 65-year history, a seven-figure promotion around college football that includes activations on ESPN and a tailgate tour to ACC and SEC football games. The “GameDay is a Honey Baked Day” campaign -- the company’s first foray into sports -- features four special Honey Baked Ham packages geared around college football tailgates, and the media focus centers on sports TV, with ads running on ESPN’s ACC Network and SEC Network feeds and brand integrations -- “Playmaker of the Game” and “Game of the Week” on ACCN and sponsored guest interviews on the SECN’s “The Paul Finebaum Show.” The media spend includes ads on Westwood One radio broadcasts as well from September to November, featuring ESPN’s
Laura Rutledge.
“When you think about what [Rutledge’s] been doing with the SEC Network, she’s really seen as a premier host,” Honey Baked Ham CMO Tripp McLaughlin said, but he also noted that Honey Baked also wanted to work with her because “she’s a mother, so she’s also appealing to our core target” audience.
Honey Baked usually reserves its media spend for the holiday season, as family gatherings and traditions are a cornerstone of its marketing approach, but as McLaughlin said, the company wanted to find its “next big holiday business.” “When you think about a 16-week football schedule out there, you’re running from August until November. It really just felt like the right kind of overall fit for us. So we’re really excited to be investing heavily outside the holiday periods.”
The 10-week tailgate tour of ACC and SEC teams begins Sept. 2 in Charlotte when North Carolina hosts South Carolina. Honey Baked declined to divulge any agency help it received for this deal.
For more on Honey Baked’s first foray into sports, read tonight’s SBJ Unpacks newsletter.
