THE 14TH ANNUAL SHORTY AWARDS

The Shorty Awards honor the best of social media and digital. View this season's finalists!

Industry

See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Auto See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Beauty See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Business to Business See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Consumer Brand See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Education See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Entertainment See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Financial Services See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Fitness, Health, & Wellness
<br>See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Food & Beverage
See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Gaming See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Government & Politics See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Hospitality See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Insurance See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Live Events See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> News & Media See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Non-Profit See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Pets & Animals See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Pharma & Healthcare See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Real Estate See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Restaurants See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Retail & E-Commerce See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Social Activism See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Sports See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Technology See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Television See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Travel & Tourism See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Wine, Beer & Spirits

Strategy & Engagement

See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Brand Partnership See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Call to Action See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Community Management See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Creative Use of Technology See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> CTV/OTT See previous winners and honorees for Insights and Trends here.</a> <a href=https://shortyawards.com/16th/"https://shortyawards.com/category/16th/data-visualization">See previous winners and honorees for Data Visualization here.</a>"> Data & Insights See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Earned Media See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Event & Experiential See previous winners and honorees here.</a>""> Gamification See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Humor See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Innovative Media Buying Strategy See previous winners and honorees here.</a>""> Integration with Traditional Media See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Internal Communications See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> LGBTQ Community Engagement See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Micro-Influencer Strategy See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Multicultural Community Engagement See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Music & Dance See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> On a Shoestring See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Organic Promotion See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Paid & Amplification See previous winner and honorees here.</a>"> Physical and Digital Convergence See previous winner and honorees here.</a>"> Public Service Announcement See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Real Time Response See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> SEO & SEM See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Social Commerce See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Storytelling
From the 16th Annual Shorty Awards

French's Mustard Skittles

Winner in Art Direction, Images

Finalist in Earned Media, Consumer Brand, Brand Partnership

Audience Honor in Art Direction

Entered in Food & Beverage

Objectives

In 2023, McCormick saw an opportunity to expand beyond sandwiches and hot dogs.

Our charge for the year was to get consumers to see the versatility in French’s Mustard and grow brand awareness in a culturally relevant way. We needed to deliver a pr-able idea beyond paid media placements that would get America tasting and talking.
 

Strategy and Execution

For years, we excelled at showing consumers how French’s Mustard is the perfect condiment for sandwiches, hot dogs and hamburgers. We instilled mustard usage habits from cookouts to kitchens. Old habits, die hard.

To break these habits, we had to push the boundaries of mustard and how consumers perceive us. Mustard can be squeezed and spread. But what about being bitten into? Carried around? We had to think outside of the bottle.

The vision was clear. We needed a radical and culturally relevant new host food to stretch and showcase the versatility of mustard and get people talking.

We needed something that consumers were already buying and a partner that had strong brand loyalty. A flavor pairing that made people curious and a partner that would drive undeniable intrigue.
Enter: SKITTLES.  With its vibrant colors and established fan base, Skittles was the perfect partner to help us make bite-sized tangy candy with a name that people recognize on every candy shelf.

We got to cooking with Skittles and launched a nationwide campaign starting with embargoed outreach to national media and influencers for collaboration. Paid media and social support. For National Mustard Day we hit the road in a custom French’s Mustard SKITTLES VW bus to hand out to consumers in 3 key East Coast cities. For consumers who couldn’t taste test at one of these events, we held an online sweepstakes. Demand for our tangy creation was so high that fun size packs and limited-edition merch were reselling on eBay.

Results

Our goal was to tap into culture and get people talking about the versatility of French’s. We earned +5.1B earned media impressions, surpassing the +800M goal (644% over the 2023 KPI and 491% over the 2022 KPI.) The activation also led the brand to record-breaking consumer engagement with earned social media impressions at 265M garnered across Instagram, TikTok and X (formerly Twitter) and in 1PD data acquisition. Our landing pageviews hit 662K, a 4992.31% increase from the 2022 activation for Mustard Donuts (13K pageviews). French's Mustard Day 2023 produced the most successful email opt-ins at 66K. 

Media

Entrant Company / Organization Name

Fitzco, McCormick & Company

Entry Credits