How Dave's Killer Bread Turned a Canceled Tour Into Promo Kitting Gold

By Brendan Menapace

Let’s say you were the owner of a bread company, and you had a big tour planned to unveil your new product to customers all across the U.S. And then, the unthinkable happens and every travel plan is put on hold for the foreseeable future.

This isn’t a tough reality to imagine. Not much of a thought exercise at all, actually. And by this point you probably can think of a few solutions, one of which is “pivot the experience and create an at-home kit.”

And, you’d be correct. But, after all of the digital ink we’ve spilled on this topic, it’s good to see a quantifiable success from taking this course of action. This success story comes from Dave’s Killer Bread, which was launching its new organic burger buns.

Unfortunately, the nationwide tour planned around National Grilling Day on July 22 didn’t happen, but the company went online to encourage people to sign up for its “Toaster Talk” newsletter. From there, the company sent a call-to-action to register to receive a free hamburger bun kit.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CF94XdPgaCd/

Within 43 minutes, Dave's got 10,000 participants out of 70,000 newsletter subscribers. Additionally, according to Event Marketer, 21,000 people who signed up for the newsletter late got a coupon to purchase the products at a discounted rate.

Thanks to @KillerBread @sirkensingtons @TillamookDairy @Applegate for all these amazing coupons and some killer buns 🤣 #DKBgrillout pic.twitter.com/6hDfjnnIVI

— 💜💙 (@LittlebMom13) July 17, 2020

And with the same reach as the tour, Dave’s sent burger kits to customers in 48 states and Washington, D.C. The kit contained one of two new products, coupons from partner brands, cheese and more, shipped in a printed box.

To keep everything online and word spreading, like all good promotions are these days, the box also included another call to action. Once customers grill their “killer” burger, they post a picture to social media with the hashtag #DKBgrillout.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CDADLmLhPnG/

People love taking pictures of their food for social media anyway, so this was hardly a stretch.

This is yet another example of a company turning lemons into lemonade with some quick thinking and ingenuity. Dave’s could have easily thrown up its hands when it canceled the tour and cut its losses. Instead, there was someone within the marketing department who knew the value of a mailed kit and the ability to get people to sign on for marketing materials with the promise of free stuff without having to even leave their homes. And who doesn’t love free food?