zatarains smoked sausage

To bring Zatarain’s Cajun Smoked Sausage into the center of gameday culture, we partnered with a curated trio of mid-tier celebrity and creator personalities — including dancer/TV personality Mark Ballas, podcast host Ashley Hesseltine, and reality TV favorite Michael Allio — activating them during peak tailgating season.

The goal: make Zatarain’s the must-have tailgate staple through entertaining, creator-led storytelling that felt culturally relevant, deliciously crave-worthy, and totally thumb-stopping.

This program combined influencer content, paid amplification, and on-the-ground tailgate activations to drive awareness at scale while testing what creative levers most resonated with fans.

audience insights:

  • Strong creator affinity — fans deeply engaged with personalities

  • Tailgate culture and humor resonated strongly

  • Some product misidentification → opportunity for clearer product cues

  • Cultural nuances (e.g., andouille pronunciation) created rich engagement threads

results:

  • 1.79MM total impressions

  • 508 total link clicks

  • $36.4K earned media value

  • 5.34% average engagement rate (well above CPG influencer norms)

  • $2.61 CPM across paid amplification (4–7x more efficient than typical CPG benchmarks)