Marzetti Caramel Dip
Turning Seasonal Demand into a Record-Breaking Week for Marzetti Caramel Dip
By pairing upper-funnel social investment with a clear seasonal message, Marzetti Caramel Dip shifted shopper behavior, driving intentional purchase, record revenue, and category growth during peak apple season.
The Challenge
Marzetti Caramel Dip is the category leader during apple season, but historically, most purchases happened in the moment and were driven by proximity to apples in the produce aisle.
As shopper behavior continues to shift online, the Marzetti team saw a growing risk. Awareness was limited outside the store, digital touchpoints were not shaping purchase intent early, and impulse alone would not sustain category leadership.
The goal was to turn Marzetti Caramel Dip from a last-second add-on into a planned, must-have seasonal favorite and do it at scale during the most important sales window of the year.
Services
- Strategy - Goal Setting
- Content - Strategy and Planning
- Content - Graphic Design and Static Content
- Content - Content Optimization and Publishing
- Media - Campaign Planning & Buying
- Media - Performance Monitoring
- Analytics - Performance Tracking and Reporting
- Community - Influencer Partnerships
- Strategy - Influencer Collaboration
- Content - Influencer and User-Generated Content
The Strategy
Marzetti Caramel Dip already had strong middle- and lower-funnel performance through in-store displays, search, and onsite retail media. What was missing was upper-funnel momentum.
Together, we focused on one core shift: build awareness and consideration before shoppers ever reached the store.
To do that, we:
Unified the season under a single campaign message to strengthen recognition
Prioritized platforms already showing organic momentum and amplified them with paid media
Reintroduced TikTok as a reach and discovery engine while cross-posting to extend impact
Balanced brand-led, audience-led, and influencer-led content to maximize relevance and scale
Partnered with creators to bring credibility, personality, and reach into the campaign
Actively engaged the community to spark conversation and unlock organic user-generated content
All decisions were made with one constraint in mind: make every dollar work harder.
At the center was nationally recognized comedian Trey Kennedy — selected not as a foodie, but as an entertainer with a proven ability to capture broad, top-of-funnel attention. His role wasn’t to sell caramel; it was to make fall itself feel familiar, funny, and irresistible — with Marzetti Caramel Dip naturally woven in. Click here to watch his Reel.
“Dooley turned our internal creative strategy into social media gold, finding fresh ways to connect with consumers through creators, influencers, organic content, and paid amplification. They were the rare combination of smart and fun to work with, plus they delivered amazing results. So much so that we put a ring on it and named them social AOR for all our dips and dressings products.”
Luke Oppliger, Head of Creative & Content @ The Marzetti Company
The Results
The impact exceeded expectations, both in awareness and in sales performance.
Marzetti’s highest revenue week for caramel dip in the history of the product at Kroger
11% year-over-year increase in incremental sales during peak season
12 million impressions, exceeding the original goal by 20%
5.5% average engagement rate, compared to category benchmarks of 1 to 3%
3.1% lift in total sales, attributed across channels
1% category sales lift, driven by Marzetti’s performance
10.7% increase in incremental dollars, attributed across channels
Influencer and community efforts played a major role:
A celebrity influencer partnership generated nearly 4 million impressions
Influencer collaborations drove 7.5 million incremental impressions
Community management efforts resulted in six pieces of organic UGC, delivering value typically associated with paid partnerships.
The Impact
Beyond the metrics, the campaign created internal momentum.
The Marzetti team shared that they were “blown away by the results,” particularly by the scale of awareness, the sales lift, and the ability to partner with a high-profile creator in a way that still felt authentic to the brand.
With a record-breaking season behind them, the team is already looking ahead to how this approach can scale even further next year.
Want to turn seasonal demand into measurable growth? Let’s talk.
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