Del Monte wanted to boost its Thanksgiving sales but didn’t have any budget remaining for traditional television, radio, or print advertising. Del Monte’ tasked TOP Agency with planning and executing a creative way to bring Del Monte green beans to the top of consumer’s minds during the Thanksgiving season without the need for top-tier paid media.

To create news that a broad range of mass media outlets would cover in the two-week lead-up to Thanksgiving, TOP Agency created the Del Monte Green Bean Index — a ranking of which U.S. states love green bean casserole the most. Leveraging our in-house market research team, we conducted a survey of 2,000 U.S. residents in under 48 hours, resulting in an individual ranking that could be pitched locally in each state (with Kentucky ranked #1 nationally). Because we knew that the story could work well on local TV, TOP Agency’s in-house video production team also filmed and edited ready-to-go video B-roll of Del Monte product and recipes.

The result was something any client would be thankful for. The campaign generated more than 200+ media hits across the country including top CBS radio affiliates and was the lead story on Yahoo! News. Del Monte saw an 11% sales lift over the previous year all without spending a dime on any other marketing efforts.