Early in the pandemic, we saw shifting consumer behaviors: CPG and alcohol sales were on the rise. But these increases were at risk as summer approached, with grilling among friends a likely victim of quarantine rules. This presented the perfect opportunity to bring the familiar flavor of French’s Classic Yellow Mustard to another American classic – beer.

The brief was to own summer grilling in a whole new way. To sell a familiar flavor (mustard) and make it surprising.

Our objectives were to drive cultural conversation around the French’s brand, drive brand sales and sell out of beer.

Flavor Pioneers are an adventurous bunch, so challenging how they normally thought of and used classic yellow mustard required a “French’s did what?!?” moment.

To quench that curiosity, we partnered with brewer Oskar Blues and developed French’s Mustard Beer. Giving consumers a surprising new way to experience two familiar, classic American flavors at the same time.

Our “Flavor Pioneer” target, is passionate about discovering and experiencing

new foods and flavor. To win with them, we needed to bring a sense of the unexpected to yellow mustard and permission to experiment with an old classic, thereby driving purchase through their new-found curiosity.

The strategic approach with French's has always been “Familiar, Yet Surprising.”

In a summer full of unknowns, we needed consumers to choose French’s Classic Yellow Mustard for their summer grilling moments by reminding them that American flavors are essential to the best summer experiences. Letting them enjoy the iconic flavor of French’s Classic Yellow Mustard in a totally unexpected and highly relevant way.

To get the word out we created a toolkit of imagery and video assets on the creation of the beer and also sent branded sampling kits to both press outlets and influencers.

Press and influencer efforts began July 29th and included kits with a sample of the beer and branded swag. We targeted Saturday August 1st - National Mustard Day - as the moment to begin selling French’s Mustard Beer.

In Colorado and North Carolina – two states not under stay-at-home orders -- we served the beer in Oskar Blues taprooms and sold for takeout. Given the unpredictability of the pandemic, we also stood up a partnership with CraftShack, an e-commerce craft beer marketplace, to sell 6-packs of the beer in over 40 states. For consumers not able to snag the beer for themselves, we created a home-brewing recipe, and added a home-cooking recipe as well: Mustard Beer-Basted Sausages & Onions.

We designed the cans, produced recipe videos, websites and created brewery doggie bags filled with home brew cards, coozies and coasters. We even made a taproom handle.

French's Mustard Beer was the hit of the summer generating 2 billion impressions, 23 million social impressions and coverage in over 900 media outlets. Including Thrillist, Paste Magazine, Adweek, The Takeout, Delish, Popsugar, The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon and many, many more.

The beer also sold out online in 22 minutes and in taprooms same day.

Most importantly it drove French’s sales +6.4% and category sales +13.5% YAG.

We'll cheers to that.