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Saucy Spoon Baked Beans can at a summer picnic spread

Agency of Record

Faribault Foods | Saucy Spoon Baked Beans

We're helping a brand-new bean brand outsmart, not outspend, the category giant by pairing irreverent branding and creative with a laser-focused media strategy.

  • Strategy
  • Creative
  • Media
Collage of Saucy Spoon Baked Beans branding, packaging and campaign creative

Background

For years, the baked bean aisle and the category's advertising share of voice have belonged to one dominant leader—Bush’s Best. So when Faribault Foods, a longtime leader in ingredient beans, came to us with an appetite to launch a bold new side-dish brand, we said, "Get my spoon."

We jumped in well before launch, starting with audience strategy, naming, branding, and packaging, then built the media and creative plan to go big in 2023. We continue to serve as their agency of record to this day.

The Challenge

Launch a brand-new baked bean brand into an aisle one player has dominated for years, and give both retailers and shoppers a real reason to make room for it.

Our Approach

We built Saucy Spoon from the ground up and gave it a cheeky, pro-bean voice across social-first creative and influencer partnerships. Then we concentrated media in the highest-opportunity markets and channels, backed by a nimble creative refresh process to keep the brand top of mind and drive action at the shelf.

Results

Saucy Spoon is now the #2 baked bean brand in most of its distributed markets.

Branding and Packaging

Built to stand out in a sea of sameness, Saucy Spoon's visual identity is anchored in one simple idea—that the side dish is the main attraction.

Group pack shot of the Saucy Spoon Baked Beans can lineup
For naming, our goal was to evoke both bold flavors and bold attitude in a simple, memorable name that stands out on the shelf. After multiple rounds, we landed on “Saucy Spoon”—who doesn’t love a side dish with a side of alliteration?

Audience Strategy

We focused on Millennial family meal decision-makers looking for a little bold flavor in their day. Our audience work shaped the brand, packaging, and creative direction, becoming the inspiration for our media targeting.

  • Saucy Spoon audience strategy creative, image 1 of 4

  • Saucy Spoon audience strategy creative, image 2 of 4

  • Saucy Spoon audience strategy creative, image 3 of 4

  • Saucy Spoon audience strategy creative, image 4 of 4

CTV and Google Creative

This campaign looks to build brand recognition and reach a broad audience by showing ads to people most likely to remember them.

  • CTV

    They promised us “smell-o-vision” decades ago, and we’re still waiting. Until then, we’ll have to convey Saucy Spoon’s bold flavors through color and dance.

  • YouTube Pre-Roll

    Everyone’s finger hovers over that “skip” button on pre-rolls, so we had a little fun with the format and injected some ASMR. Companion copy: You can hit SKIP, but the sights and sounds of Saucy Spoon will stay with you.

Meta Creative

We set out to create intentionally social-first creative—ads that didn’t look like ads, and content that was inherently shareable. This creative was developed with Meta’s Andromeda in mind, optimizing for variety in format and message to support our brand awareness goals.

  • This and Saucy Spoon

    Reel

  • Tattoo

    Story

  • Beanisms

    Carousel

Influencer Partnerships

We partner with a wide variety of creators to build advocacy for Saucy Spoon. These influencers helped establish brand awareness and trust within their communities, while making our paid media creative more diverse and higher-performing.

  • Tini

    Recipe content is still some of the highest-performing content on social, but when the dish is already in the can, what do you do? For @tinikeyounger, a chef and creator who’s made both the Forbes 30 Under 30 and Time100 Creators List, it’s all about the pairings.

  • Ayo Cheetah Guy

    Baked beans. Rap. Cheetahs. Of course. Before you start asking yourself “what in the why?”—this video has 3.8 million views on TikTok and got Saucy Spoon’s name out in front of an audience that appreciates all things bold and full of flavor.

  • Beans Factor

    space150 found a young athlete on social media nicknamed “Beans,” pitched an NIL contract, and the rest is history. Saucy Spoon is the proud sponsor of Beans Factor, Division 1 golfer.

Media Strategy and Analytics

We kept outsmarting, not outspending, by continually reprioritizing markets as retail distribution grew and showing up in high-reach, high-impact channels. A full-funnel suite of proxy metrics connected media to retail preference and purchase.