Old El Paso x Digital Voices

The objective

Cementing a beloved food brand's position in family and cultural tradition

Old El Paso is a beloved sauce and food preparation company with a long-established history of bringing exciting Mexican flavors to the masses. In 1917, The Mountain Pass Canning Company was established by A.C. Powell in New Mexico. Powell was a farmer and grew his successful enterprise from an original seven acre farm. The company was one of the first to can tomatoes but it also produced pinto beans, corn, chilli and alfalfa, all grown on the expanding farm. Then in 1938, the Mountain Pass Canning company launched the Old El Paso brand, which was soon well known for its fiery Taco Sauce.

@oldelpasouk posts regular content on their organic TikTok profile, engaging their audience of 4k+ followers. Old El Paso's organic content mainly focuses on recipe ideas using their sauces, providing their audience with inspiration with TikTok native videos and trending audios.

Working with Digital Voices, an influencer marketing agency focusing on expanding the brand's reach into the right audiences, Old El Paso launched a new campaign highlighting the idea of 'Fajita Fridays' with the aim of cementing the brand's positioning and establishing themselves in the heart of family and cultural traditions.

The main objective for the campaign was awareness which was measured by monitoring campaign reach.

The solution

Making a big impact with creator-led native content delivered through Spark Ads

The campaign, focusing on increasing reach and cementing brand perception, ran for six weeks targeting the UK market with a wide age range (18-55+). The key driver of this campaign was Spark Ads.

Spark Ads are TikTok's native ad format which leverages organic content and delivers it to targeted audiences most likely to engage with the content. Given the broad appeal of Old El Paso's product range, and the objective being reach and brand awareness, more focused targeting was not a requirement for the campaign.

In terms of content, the campaign highlighted the significance of Fajita Fridays, through the lens of diverse creators in heartwarming and relatable scenarios.

These narratives reinforced the core message of the Fajita Friday experience as a unifying force, showcasing scenarios from going on a hike with the family to cooking at home with the kids. Ultimately, these stories cemented the brand's position as a cherished cultural tradition that families are committed to preserving.

Creators drove the campaign strategy, by choosing to work with highly engaging and relevant creators within the food and recipe space, the campaign targeted relevant audiences through native style content which they already love. Creators involved in the campaign included: Em Sheldon, AlfieCooks, Jacob King, StuartandFrancis, Lauren Griffiths, Elburritomonster, TolaandKev, The Ayodi Family, and Lifeatbluebell.

The results

Surpassing all targets with authentic content delivered to interest-based audiences

This campaign was hugely for building on brand perception and awareness for the popular sauce and food preparation brand.

During the 6 week campaign the featured content delivered high impressions at 29.2M (15.20% over their target), achieved video through rate of 8.18% (vs 2.17% planned), and exceeded their targets for 2-3s video views - delivering 2M vs 550K planned (+334% over). The campaign also exceeded the brand's goals in terms of cost effectiveness, with a CPM of £1.13 vs £1.30 planned. Overall, the campaign exceeded the brand's goals and delivered strong results which boosted their overall brand presence on the platform.

The key to the campaign's success was the ability to leverage Spark ads with creator content, enabling anchor links and invites within the creators organic post, which could then be boosted – using TikTok One to manage their collaborations from one cohesive platform. The hybrid approach played a key role in driving performance, boosting high performing organic content and allowed Old El Paso to capitalize on real time cultural moments and community driven trends, which informed the paid amplification of the content. This integration helped to maintain authenticity while scaling performance.

By leveraging interest based audiences across key verticals such as: food and cooking, fast food, spices and seasoning; the food brand ensured they were reaching high intent, relevant users.

In addition to the key metrics, Old El Paso also saw 99.38% positive brand sentiment across all campaign content

This is a TikTok case study and is solely for informational purposes. Past performance does not guarantee or predict future performance.