Olive Garden Zesty Italian Dressing
Bringing Olive Garden Home
Overview
By introducing a new flavor through creators’ own kitchens and amplifying their content with paid social, our partnership with The Marzetti Company generated ≈18M impressions and ≈70K paid social engagements for Olive Garden Zesty Italian Dressing.
THE CHALLENGE
Consumers know and love Olive Garden dressings from the restaurant experience. But that love wasn’t consistently translating to at-home purchases. When shopping for zesty Italian dressing, many turned to competitors or private-label alternatives.
Then came something new: Olive Garden Zesty Italian, a dressing available only in stores, not in the restaurant.
The goal was to make sure consumers who already love Olive Garden dressing knew they had a new option full of robust, zesty flavor. It also had to empower consumers to explore new possibilities in their own kitchens with a unique and robust flavor from a trusted brand, highlighting the dressing’s versatility and ability to elevate everyday meals beyond the salad in an approachable way.
Services
- Analytics - Performance Tracking and Reporting
- Community - Influencer Partnerships
- Content - Content Optimization and Publishing
- Content - Graphic Design and Static Content
- Content - Influencer and User-Generated Content
- Content - Strategy and Planning
- Media - Campaign Planning & Buying
- Media - Performance Monitoring
- Strategy - Goal Setting
- Strategy - Influencer Collaboration
- Strategy - Platform Focus
THE STRATEGY
Consumers already trusted Olive Garden dressing, but they knew it from the restaurant. A store-only flavor needed a different type of introduction to motivate purchases.
We focused on one idea: introducing an exclusive in-store only Olive Garden flavor made just for the home kitchen.
We collaborated with a lineup of known and loved creators to inspire their audiences to try the dressing in their own kitchens - just like this piece of content from @cucinapalermo_rita.
The restaurant built the trust. The creators carried it home.
THE EXECUTION
Working alongside The Marzetti Company, Dooley led the full campaign: strategy, creative and campaign direction, influencer management, paid media amplification and measurement.
We developed an inclusive, scalable campaign idea designed to come to life authentically across diverse creator voices, family dynamics and summer occasions.
A broad mix of creators carried it across audiences, with macro creators delivering reach and mid and micro creators driving engagement.
Every choice was made with one goal in mind: make the dressing feel at home in every kitchen it showed up in.
Press play for @dinnerswithbridgett’s Zesty Italian recipe!
THE IMPACT
The campaign exceeded its goals for both reach and engagement. The estimated ad recall of this campaign was significantly higher than previous influencer content.
A broad mix of creators carried it across audiences, with macro creators delivering reach and mid and micro creators driving engagement.
paid social impressions
exceeding the goal by 11%
paid social engagements
exceeding the goal by 41%
saves and shares
across Meta and TikTok platforms
estimated ad recall rate
27% higher than previous influencer content
WHY IT MATTERS
A trusted name gives a new product a head start, but it doesn’t finish the job. People still need to see where it fits in their own lives. When Olive Garden launched a flavor its restaurant had never served, creators showed it where it belonged: at home.
Brand love gets a new product noticed. Inspiration gets it into the cart.
Launching something new? Let’s talk.
What's New?
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Introducing: The Creator Collective
We've launched the Creator Collective, our curated network of vetted local and regional creators. Creators apply to join the Collective, and our team reviews every application. Once they're in, the relationship goes beyond one-off brand deals. Members get first access to paid opportunities, in-person meetups, virtual sessions with our team, and workshops built around what creators actually want to learn.
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