A multigenerational family is seated around a formal Thanksgiving table. The room and its occupants are bored and are all wearing beige. The host walks in the dining room and sets down three cranberry jellies on a platter. Then an original dance track begins, with a low-voiced command to “wiggle.”

The beat drops, the jellies wiggle and jiggle and the guests imitate them. As the song builds, so does the intensity of the jelly wiggle, and the responsive movement from all the family members. We end with the family erupting in joyful chaos because of the cranberry jelly. Then, a hard cut to a product portfolio end card with the campaign line: POWER YOUR HOLIDAYS.

As part of our foundational brand work with Ocean Spray, we had repositioned them from a juice company to a cranberry company, showing cranberries as an essential source of disruptive power and flavor.

Thanksgiving is a big moment for the brand culturally, and the most crucial time of year for the company’s sales.

And the brand was losing ground with millennials, right as millennials were taking over holiday hosting duties in their extended families. We needed to make the brand relevant with this audience and lift sales during this critical time of year.

We chose to do it with the product that made Ocean Spray famous 90+ years ago: the canned cranberry jelly, which many people viewed as a vestige of a different time and an antiquated way of eating.

The campaign received over 4.5 billion PR impressions, making cranberry jelly the most talked-about product in pop culture for the holidays.

From TikTok to Twitter, Ocean Spray saw over 236k engagements. Brand mentions were up 77% YoY, with positive mentions up +399%, and all mentions staying 94% positive/neutral. The spot also had one of the highest completion rates on YouTube (+40% above benchmark).

Sales for cranberry jelly increased 27% YoY. Sales increased cross-portfolio too: Juice was up +6% vs YA and Dried Fruit +11%.

Ocean Spray experienced unprecedented lifts across nearly all aspects of the brand, and the industry and public reacted intensely to the work. From ranking on top ad lists to reactions from the public, there was a consistent theme. As one critic said, “If this is the future of advertising in a world of too many things fighting for your attention, I’m all for it.”

Cranberry jelly has been an American Thanksgiving staple for over 90 years. It’s a jellied fruit product that comes in a can. When you remove it from the can, the cranberry jelly retains the ridged shape of its container. It’s both a beloved tradition and a commonly-mocked food at the American Thanksgiving table.

It’s strange and unnatural-looking. It’s also delightfully bright red, sweet and tart. It goes great as a side to the traditional meal of roasted turkey and mashed potatoes.

Millennial consumers, who we needed to recruit, have been raised on more natural foods than previous generations and are suspicious of anything in a can. That makes canned cranberry jelly a difficult sell for them.

This generation is also in the process of creating their own meaningful holiday traditions, so selling the jelly as something traditionally important would not be effective with this audience.