In September 2010, Bolthouse Farms embarked on its first ever advertising campaign to reinvigorate the billion dollar baby carrot business and change the way Americans look at eating vegetables. The ‘Eat ‘Em Like Junk Food’ campaign was designed to re-brand baby carrots as junk food by packaging them in chip-like bags and rolling out TV spots more typical of snack foods.After partnering with a world renowned ad agency and other carrot growers to maximize impact of the campaign, Bolthouse Farms faced the reality that they may not get credit for the campaign idea as well as that the intention of the campaign to make a meaningful health impact might be lost on consumers. Thus, the PR campaign was designed to position Bolthouse Farms as the mastermind behind both the campaign and a national healthy eating makeover, as well as to drive demand for the product.

The strategy we implemented positioned the campaign at the centre of the health food marketing debate and contributed to widespread media attention and customer demand for the rebranded product, ultimately driving an 11.3% median rise in baby carrot sales. The PR strategy also established Bolthouse Farms as an innovator in health food marketing.

For the corporate story announcing the campaign, we targeted USA Today for its immense readership and appeal to both consumers and business executives. Realizing the inherent element of controversy that the campaign could draw, we identified a journalist that would frame the campaign as an unprecedented move within the larger health marketing debate.

Because the television spots were the most visually stunning aspect of the campaign, we held those back from USA Today so that they could be offered exclusively to the Associated Press as part of a second story with corporate and consumer appeal.

Following the AP story, we issued a press release and issued samples of the redesigned baby carrots junk food packaging to consumer media and influencers which enabled us to gain additional coverage, as well as arrange meetings for Bolthouse Farms with celebrities who would become ambassadors for the health aspects of the campaign.

Widespread media attention to the baby carrot re-branding campaign contributed to an 11.3% median rise in baby carrot sales in the test markets carrying the junk food packaging. Increased sales, in combination with strong consumer interest and demand, resulted in many of the major grocery store chains agreeing to carry the new packaging national in October 2010, including Kroger, Wegmans and Walmart. National media attention also enabled Bolthouse Farms to negotiate for larger display areas and better store positioning for baby carrots.

The public relations campaign positioned Bolthouse Farms as an innovator in the agriculture and health food marketing industry, thus elevating the company’s corporate profile overall. The notoriety of the campaign also directly resulted in meetings for the Bolthouse executive team with numerous influential celebrities that may result in future business opportunities and/or partnerships for the company, including: Jessica Seinfeld, Jamie Oliver and Lauren Bush. The crowning achievement of our media efforts was secured in late spring 2011: a five page feature in the April issue of Fast Company, cementing the campaign’s status as an innovative and remarkably successful case study in disruptive communications and marketing.