In the U.S., many consider the unofficial start of summer begins later this week, with the July 4 holiday (the actual first day of summer was June 21).
That means the start of the high season for outdoor grilling and backyard parties. Arguably, it’s one of the “meatiest times of the year,” Sabra’s new chief marketing officer Jason Levine says in an interview with PRNEWS.
Since one of the takeaways in our lead story is to test assumptions, we searched for data to test Levine’s comment. He’s right. When temperatures begin to rise in April, the Beef Demand Index, which measures consumers’ willingness to pay for the available supply of beef, also jumps, usually reaching the year’s highest levels, according to the Cattleman’s Beef Board and National Cattlemen’s Beef Association. Incidentally, beef demand in 2018 was particularly strong in the summer months, these two groups note, partially due to a robust economy.
But veganism and the vegetarian lifestyle are growing too, right? We tested that assumption, too. True, the percentage of vegans and vegetarians in the U.S. has jumped from one percent of the population in 2014 to six percent in 2017, according to GlobalData.
Testing Assumptions
So you’d think Sabra, a brand synonymous with varieties of hummus, the vegetarian staple made with ground chick peas and sesame seeds, might lie low in the beefy summer season. The biggest opportunity for Sabra might be November, when beef demand tends to decline, owing to Thanksgiving.
But Sabra did its homework. Its research discovered anxiety in hosts and vegan/vegitarian guests as barbeque season beckons. Vegans, the research shows, worry about what they’ll eat at barbeques. 47 percent of hosts are anxious about creating tasty vegan dishes; 46 percent “panic” when a vegan plans to attend their barbeque. And 57 percent of those with dietary restrictions admit they’ve snuck food into barbeques and summer parties.
Sabra took this semi-serious issue and created a humorous campaign to, er, spread, across platforms. It announces that the “Vegans are Coming”...to your summer barbeque. You best be prepared.
Hoping to arm backyard barbeque hosts with everything they need to feed vegan and vegetarian guests, Sabra set up a Vegan Hotline (1-866-Code-Vegan), a site (codevegan.com) and free Sabra Vegan Rescue kits, complete with vegan recipes and humorous stickers (“I Eat Plants”). Celebrity endorsers, from noted veggie Mayim Bialik to NFL star Richard Sherman, are featured on the hotline. One of the effort’s standouts is a campy two-minute video extolling the virtues of Sabra hummus (of course).
An edited version of our interview with Levine follows.
PRNEWS: Tell us about the research for this effort.
CMO
Sabra
JASON LEVINE:Anecdotally, and on social media, we were hearing and seeing a lot of people express concern or confusion that a loved one had recently “gone vegan”—from worry about their health to... confusion over what to feed a vegan. As a result we suspected that BBQ season would be tricky for many Americans.
At the same time, we also read about a 600 percent increase in people identifying as vegan in recent years.
We partnered with OnePoll to pull some of the first data we’ve seen on what happens when vegans and meat-lovers get together...for gatherings with friends and family. [Some of the data is in the graphic. The sample size was 2,000 people.]
We were certainly pleased to see that (71 percent of) both BBQ hosts and guests with special diets appreciate enjoying hummus at a BBQ. We know that everyone is talking about burger alternatives of late but hummus, which has always been vegan, goes exceptionally well as on a grilled flatbread or with veggies at a BBQ and … is fantastic on a burger too.
PRNEWS: How did you decide to go with humor? Was that a data-based decision?
Levine: BBQ season is fun, getting together with friends and family should be all about enjoying...Sabra takes making fantastic hummus very seriously, but we try not to take ourselves that seriously in the process.
We decided to use humor and overdramatize the problem as a way to provide comfort and positive encouragement, along with the reminder: it’s really not that hard to feed a vegan. In fact, vegans and omnivores enjoy many of the same foods.
PRNEWS: What will some of the metrics of success look like for Sabra on this campaign?
Levine: Having joined Sabra two months ago, I am blown away by the passion of Sabra’s core consumers for this beloved brand. Yet, only ~30 percent of Americans are eating hummus with regularity. Our goal is to begin to elevate Sabra into the consumer mindset by inserting the brand, and the category in general, in more culturally relevant conversations.
Success looks like putting ourselves out there more often and helping more people discover ways to enjoy hummus.
In many ways, we built success into the program from the start by selecting partners and celebrities who resonate deeply with today’s consumers.
We ran through all of the prepared rescue kits within the first few days so went into production on more immediately. We will be measuring impressions and engagement as well as sentiment. But we won’t spend too much time counting… we already are gearing up for what comes next. Our greatest success will come when everywhere you turn, Sabra seems to be there waiting for you to enjoy and share.
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