Actor Kevin Bacon enjoys a variety of bacon-based treats at Applegate's Bacon Bar.
Promoting the mission
The marketing and promotions teams at Applegate intend to ramp up their efforts around the bacon category in the near future. The top three attention getters will be Sunday Morning Bacon, Turkey Bacon and the new No Sugar Bacon, what they consider their top three. “It’s a very important category for us,” Glenn says.
For the past couple of years, Applegate has done an event activation at the Sundance Film Festival in Utah with a café. According to Balice, the biggest draw with celebrities – not necessarily known for eating indulgent foods – has always been the bacon bar.
Glenn and her team plan to make the bacon products part of the family gatherings and parties that come with the holiday season through some fun activations and a mobile tour on the East Coast. Still in the planning phases, it’s a way for Applegate to take its bacon portfolio on the road.
“It would be an East Coast tour doing winter festivals and tree lightings and whatever in different communities, probably a few retail stops thrown in, and then it would end up in New York City probably around mid-December,” Balice says.
Balice adds that events like the mobile tour and café at Sundance are more than just handing out food. They’re vehicles to educate consumers on the things that set Applegate apart from other brands. “Again, hitting those points on high animal welfare and humanely raised because we think it really does matter,” she says.
Glenn agrees that Applegate’s dedication to its mission to change the meats we eat for the better remains the focal point of the events. “We’re continuing to promote higher animal welfare and a lot of the more specialty types, we’ll continue to pursue that in the bacon space,” Glenn says. “And again, try to reach those consumers that are looking for something a little bit more special, that are paying a little bit more attention to nutritionals.”
Sbriscia expands on the point and notes again the importance of animal welfare in Applegate’s overall mission and purpose when executing events like the mobile tour highlighting no nitrates and nitrites, no antibiotics ever, no crates, no ractopamine, no tail docking or teeth clipping and piglets getting more time with their mothers. Educating consumers on farm practices means as much as getting product into their hands.
“I think it’s an opportunity for us to continue to educate the consumer on Applegate humanely raised and what differentiates our product,” Sbriscia says of the promotional events and tours. “So that’s also something with our campaigns that we’re really leaning into.”
