Butterball Comfort Calendars
Butterball’s Turkey Talk-line is the expert advice hotline for all things Thanksgiving. In addition to dishing out turkey tips, Talk-line Experts often provide emotional support to stressed callers.
To provide hosts with prep and pep, we created a daily calendar with turkey tips and reminders to take time for themselves — a physical version of the same support the Experts have provided for over 40 years.
created at Edelman
Earned media campaign details:
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Part 1: Butterball’s Turkey Talk-Line was fresh off its 40th anniversary. How do we earn media buzz and excitement around year forty-one?
Part 2: Coming out of years of social separation, how do we remain culturally sensitive and supportive?
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Lean into the unexpected story: Everyone knows about their world-class cooking advice, but Talk-line Experts also found themselves providing something a little surprising: emotional support, encouraging words, or just a listening ear to their callers — who are usually stressed out hosts just trying their best. We combined decades of both cooking and emotional support advice into one place — a desktop daily calendar full of hand-illustrated uplifting messages, reminders to protect mental well-being and those classic, time-tested turkey tips.
Acknowledge realities (not glaze over them): Whether first- or twentieth-time host, after years of social separation, traditional holiday celebrations are more stressful than before. Butterball cannot deep fry stress away (yet), so we wanted to create a way for holiday hosts to pencil in time for themselves, not try to pretend everything is perfect. During a time when emotional and mental health dominated the social conversation, each new day reminds us to stretch, go for walks, and take deep breaths – some even have interactive stress-relieving activities — and support is always just a text or phone call away.
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Sweet (and savory) Success — earned media coverage in digital publications, newspapers, radio shows.
Comfort Calendar 3-day giveaway — every morning, calendars were snagged in seconds.
Spoiler alert — one of our media contacts accidentally broke embargo because our Comfort Mailers were too “cuuute!!!” (photo in media section)
Partnership with Instacart, Spafinder and Headspa
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campaign concept + art direction, illustration art direction, select illustration, design
“The must-have accessory for the holiday season.”
— Foodsided
“Butterball isn’t just a company that cares about cook[ing] the perfect turkey. It also wants anyone cooking at home to feel supported.”
— Mashed
“...it’s an honor to offer our time-tested technical advice, emotional support and even a little levity in this fun, new format this holiday season.”
— Nicole Johnson, Butterball Turkey Talk-Line director
Comfort Calendar Pages
Meet your host, Apron
Inspired by classic Butterball blue aprons, each day has unique illustrations of Apron doing a variety of Thanksgiving-related activities.
New York Times Bestselling author-illustrator Andy J. Pizza made Apron’s comfy world come to life. I selected Mr. Pizza as our illustrator because of his incredible ability to visualize abstract concepts in a friendly, clever and often extremely adorable way. His illustrations brought personality, charm and character (literally!) to every page.
Social Content
Inspired by the “oddly-satisfying” trend, ComfortToks were behind-the-scenes videos from Mr. Pizza of his calendar creation process with daily tips narrated by an actual Talk-line Expert.
Butterball’s organic socials joined in, posting the corresponding calendar page on Stories. This allowed anyone to see the daily advice even if they weren’t able to snag a cal in the giveaways.
Daily stories would also mention our partners to cross-promote the brands.
Comfort Packages: Media Mailers
Apron sent out comfy-cozy care packages to all his media besties. Blue fuzzy socks, journal + pen, a classic recipe tin and two Comfort Calendars – one to keep, one to gift!
One of our contacts accidentally broke embargo (!) and posted their package a little too early because of how “cuuute!!!” it was.
TEAM: Creative director: Brandon Jessee / Copywriter: Jenna Jones / Producer: Miranda Jacoby
TEAM:
Creative director: Brandon Jessee
Copywriter: Jenna Jones
Producer: Miranda Jacoby