Brand Partnerships
Working with my team at HelloFresh, I spearheaded innovative IP partnership campaigns that transformed beloved entertainment properties into engaging culinary experiences. I oversaw complete campaign development from initial partnership concepts through photo and video production to final asset deployment across TV, OTT, digital, social, website, and menu integration.
HelloFresh x Friends
Campaign Overview
In 2024, HelloFresh partnered with Warner Bros. to recreate Rachel's legendary trifle from the beloved Friends Thanksgiving episode, celebrating the show's 30th anniversary. While Rachel accidentally combined her English trifle recipe with shepherd's pie (creating the infamous beef, peas, and onions disaster), we separated the two recipes so customers could enjoy both the proper English trifle and a delicious shepherd's pie.
The Creative Concept
The limited-edition meal kit provided everything needed to recreate the sweet and savory trifle along with a one-of-a-kind custom trifle dish designed to keep the recipes separate. This approach allowed fans to channel either their inner Joey and bravely devour the two recipes together, or keep them separated (like Ross and Rachel "on a break")
To ensure authenticity, we chose to shoot at The Friends Experience in NYC, capturing images that felt true to the beloved show's aesthetic and maintaining the nostalgic connection fans expected.
Campaign Performance
The Friends partnership achieved exciting results:
322 stories and 1.2B earned media impressions
Limited availability from November 4-7, 2024, with daily restocks at 9 AM EST on a first-come, first-served basis
"Friends Thanksgiving Trifle" generated over 26.8 million posts on TikTok alone
Widespread media coverage across major outlets including ABC News, Food Network, Good Housekeeping, and Elite Daily
HelloFresh x Marvel
Campaign Overview
For Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 theatrical release in May 2023, HelloFresh created authentic space-worthy snacks directly from the Marvel universe. The partnership featured Zarg Nut Bites (the crunchy snacks Drax famously munches throughout the films) and Mango Milky Fizz (making its debut in Vol. 3). We also created custom container for both of these snacks that came in the kit, as well as a series of themed recipes that appeared on the HelloFresh menu.
The Creative Concept
For our television spot, I led the creative direction showing how snacking on our Guardians recipes could transform even the dullest office days into something out of this world. We created an alien dimension of the office environment, collaborating with the makeup artists from the movie team to bring authentic alien characters to life.
Campaign Performance
The strategic partnership achieved amazing results across multiple metrics:
Over 350,000 Guardians Recipe Adventure meals were purchased by foodies and Marvel fans
Each kit drop was claimed in under a minute, with many reselling online for hundreds of dollars
The campaign resulted in 1.1B total impressions, including 100 earned placements and 675M+ media impressions
Generated 93 feature stories and more than 675 million media impressions
Drove a 4.1% increase in brand awareness on TikTok at 90% confidence level
Organic engagement included 27 million impressions, 47.2 million video views, and over 267,000 engagements across platforms
HelloFresh x Elf
Campaign Overview
For two consecutive holiday seasons (2022-2023), HelloFresh partnered with Warner Bros. to create limited-edition Buddy the Elf™ Spaghetti meal kits. The campaign transformed Buddy's whimsical breakfast spaghetti from the beloved 2003 film into an accessible HelloFresh experience, drawing from the film's famous scene where Buddy explains the four main elf food groups: "candy, candy canes, candy corn and syrup"
The Creative Concept
I oversaw the creative for these partnerships, making sure we captured the excitement and whimsical vibe of the movie in all of our photography. Making a dish like this look appealing is channeling, but we collaborated with our talented styling team and photographers to make candy covered pasta actually look good!
Campaign Performance
The strategic licensing partnership achieved remarkable results:
The limited-edition meal kits sold out in under 2 minutes each day orders were open
Media coverage resulted in the highest amount of earned coverage HelloFresh has ever received for a campaign, with 870+ total stories, garnering more than 1B media impressions
The campaign creative drove over 500K unique engagements across TikTok, Instagram, YouTube and social media efforts reached over 25MM people with over 50K hours of video content watched
Featured 150 national broadcast segments syndicated across all major networks (ABC, NBC, FOX, and CBS)
HelloFresh x Tinder
Campaign Overview
In November 2023, HelloFresh and Tinder launched "Forking Season," a clever play on "cuffing season" that capitalized on a key insight: 81% of Americans view cooking a meal for their partner as signaling a relationship moving from casual to committed.
The Creative Concept
I oversaw the creative direction for "Forking Season" as a tongue-in-cheek concept for food lovers, highlighting the intimacy of cooking together while reducing the pressure around this relationship milestone. I led the visual direction for this 360-degree campaign spanning organic social, paid social, CRM, limited-edition recipe boxes, and Forking Seasoning kits.
Key Components
Date Night Delights Recipe Series: Exclusive HelloFresh recipes including Beef Tenderloin With Cheddar-Gouda Fondue and Rosemary Fig Pork Tenderloin designed to make impressive home cooking achievable.
Forking Seasonings: Three original spice blends my team helped develop—Ignite (cinnamon, cloves, and ginger); Spark (saffron and salt); and Kindle (vanilla and sugar) with an interactive "relationship spiciness quiz."
Cultural Timing & Insights
The campaign leveraged a 96% increase in users mentioning 'Cuffing Season' in Tinder bios and the fact that 70% of respondents found cooking together "more intimate" than physical intimacy.
