Millennials are a significant opportunity for Hellmann’s – they’re the “foodie” generation, but buy less mayo and do not buy it as frequently as other cohorts. Millennials see sustainability as a core concern, but don’t make the connection between food waste and sustainability. As a result, food waste isn’t a top-of-mind issue for them, and they don’t believe they create food waste. Yet, they waste the most amount of food than any cohort.

Hellmann’s purpose is to champion real food and believes that real food is too precious to waste. To continue our fight against food waste, our challenge was to reach and engage the group that creates the most food waste – millennials.

Their insight was that foodie culture and convenient availability of food has resulted in food being seen as disposable and valued less by millennials.

Millennials’ obsession with food and all things food-related has resulted in food fulfilling emotional needs, not just functional needs. Millennials now prioritize the feelings that food gives them, the social clout it can bring them, and the entertainment it brings them. This attitude and the abundant, convenient availability of food results in food being seen as disposable and valued less. As a result, food waste becomes an issue that’s largely ignored.

In summer 2020, isolated millennials became obsessed with Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Players were deeply engaged in the game, building communities, trading items and visiting friends virtually. Our strategy was to meet millennials in a space they were already engaged in – Animal Crossing. Millennials weren’t just obsessed with Animal Crossing. They were also frustrated with the food waste happening in the game – it cost them virtual money! It was the perfect opportunity for Hellmann’s to speak to them about food waste.

Animal Crossing had a built-in food waste problem and a perfect opportunity for Hellmann’s. It seemed like their audience cared about virtual food waste more than they did about real-life food waste. To highlight the virtual food waste that was occurring right in front of their eyes as a metaphor for real-life food waste, the idea was to create a virtual food drive on Animal Crossing.

They created the first ever branded 5-star Animal Crossing Island and asked their audience to bring their spoiled food. For every spoiled item players dropped off, Hellmann’s donated a real meal to a food bank, turning virtual food waste into real impact. Merch, signage and décor around the experience helped educate participants on food waste. Key to their success was providing a brand experience that was deeply entrenched in the game and authentic in tone and nature.

Hellmann’s was successfully able to reach and engage their millennial target audience in conversations about food waste: 66.1M total impressions, 54.8M total reach, 6.8M total engagements and an engagement rate of 46.7%, 5,000 direct messages requesting a tour in 5 days, with 1,100 arriving within the first 10 minutes and15,000 people mentioned Hellmann’s account and hashtag, sharing their gameplay. 84% of attendees said the Hellmann’s Island experience motivated them to reduce food waste. Hellmann’s surpassed their goal of 25,000 meals and donated 100,000 real meals to food banks.


According to rand power scores, Hellmann’s reinforced its position as the brand that “helps to use food that otherwise would go to waste”, increasing by 7 points since 2019. The business experienced a significant impact: penetration increased 109 bps to 51.2% and underlying sales growth in 2020 was 4x that of 2019.