Fruitcake is, quite possibly, the most ridiculed treat and longest-running joke in the culinary world. So, imagine our surprise when Beatrice Bakery Co. (a small bakery in Beatrice, Nebraska) reached out to us and asked us to help change people’s minds.

Our biggest challenge in increasing Beatrice Bakery’s sales was changing people’s opinions on what good fruitcake could taste like. To do this, we needed to 1) build brand awareness behind Beatrice Bakery and 2) convince people that fruitcake can and does taste good. Like, really good.

Our targets were broken into two groups: A) Women 65+ in the states of CA, NE, FL, NC, IL, TX, OH, and MI and B) Nebraskans between the ages of 35-65.

Building off existing radio, video, and photo assets provided to us by Beatrice Bakery, we framed Beatrice Bakery and Grandma’s fruitcake as gourmet, handmade treats. To do this, messaging honed in on the handmade aspect — hand measured, mixed, sorted, baked, and decorated — to show buyers how much time and care went into every ingredient. Next, we focused on the ingredients themselves and how they differed from Beatrice Bakery’s top competitors. This meant focusing on the bourbon, brandy, and rum included in Grandma’s Fruitcake and calling out the citron that wasn’t.

In addition to the handmade feature of Beatrice Bakery’s fruitcake, we also focused on the 100-year-old recipe and the fact that Grandma’s fruitcake is a bestseller that’s “beloved across all 50 states.” These two points establish a rich heritage and expertise when it comes to baking fruitcake and reinforce the gourmet quality Beatrice Bakery sells.

To reach our two targets, the holiday campaigns included targeted social and display ads, radio ads in the state of Nebraska, and auxiliary emails produced by Beatrice Bakery’s in-house marketing team.

The overall results included 2,002,803 impressions, 28,003 clicks, and a return on ad spend above our targeted ROI goal that proved consistent as we scaled aggressively. Not too shabby for the country’s most ridiculed, but surprisingly popular, treat.