Hormel BLACK LABEL^® Bacon Campaign Reveals that Consumers want their Gifts to Smell Like Bacon

One of the most pleasing scents is that of bacon frying. And the most exciting sight might be a wrapped gift. So, what if a company were to combine those two triggers? It might culminate in sensory overload.

That is what creatives from Hormel Foods had in mind when they developed the Black Label^® Bacon Wrapping Paper campaign for the 2021 holiday season.

Strategy

This was not the company’s first time playing with the idea of applying the bacon scent to a non-edible product. In October 2020, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the company launched the Black Label Breathable Bacon mask, which offered an “irresistibly breathable, heavenly aroma that you can keep all to yourself.”

Then in March 2021, Hormel, a Minnesota-based company, launched its Make It campaign, which was the brand’s largest marketing effort since its creation in 1963, according to Black Label brand manager Samantha Hovland.

Around late summer 2021, Hormel and its creative partners began considering marketing for the holiday season, an important time of year for the company

“Food is at the forefront,” Hovland said of the holidays. “Gathering is at the forefront. Even amid these COVID-19 times, this year at Thanksgiving more people were getting together [as compared to 2020].”

The idea for the wrapping paper was based on the premise that “everything is better wrapped in bacon,” said Hovland.