Although Kikkoman Soy Sauce is a fixture on nearly every Asian restaurant table in the U.S., few know anything about the company — leaving its product line vulnerable to competitors.

To defend the brand’s equity, we targeted foodies: people who love to eat, cook, and learn the backstory behind different foods.

Acknowledging our target’s desire for more information, we partnered with Oscar-nominated director, Lucy Walker to tell Kikkoman’s story in a 24-minute documentary, Make Haste Slowly.

Beyond its soy sauce and its iconic red-top teardrop bottle, there is a deeper story that could not be told in a typical spot.

The integrated campaign that supports the film includes: a two-minute trailer, TV, online, print, and OOH. In addition, we partnered with Next Iron Chef and The Daily Meal to create unique branded content experiences. Each supporting element highlights a different facet of what makes Kikkoman unique.

With a 24-minute documentary detailing the history of Kikkoman from Academy Award Nominated director, Lucy Walker in hand, we created a multi-media campaign to drive awareness and interest in the film.

A combination of television, print, out-of-home, digital, a new YouTube channel, social media presence, influencer outreach and video seeding launched the documentary and additional content to the foodie audience.

A traditional broadcast buy on the highly rated Food Network kicked off the campaign through a sponsorship of Next Iron Chef. Our partnership culminated in an on-air integration featuring Kikkoman as a secret ingredient in a heritage-themed challenge and launched the film with a first-ever 2:00 trailer in the season finale of the program.

From there, a mix of influencer outreach, unique branded content on sites like HULU and The Daily Meal and paid video seeding helped drive exposure.

Make Haste Slowly generated a total of 125M impressions offline and online and 4.5M paid and organic video views.

Make Haste Slowly outperformed similar campaigns for appeal (79% v. 57%) and differentiation (75% v. 61%).

Make Haste Slowly attracted a younger, more diverse audience.

It caught the eye of a younger, under-34, audience (78% ad recognizers v. 65% non-recognizers). And also drove a more diverse audience to Kikkoman’s site (30% more diverse v. previous months).

More importantly, it created a positive halo for the brand. The campaign increased the brand’s emotional connection from 58% to 69%, among their most vulnerable customer: its light users.

After viewing the Make Haste Slowly content, 8 out of 10 KikkomanUSA.com visitors felt more favorably towards the brand and its products.

And its impact reached far beyond the target, resonating with consumers in Canada, France, Argentina, and Japan. In addition, it was picked up by the press, including: Adweek, Gothamist and the Huffington Post to name a few.