Jeni’s × Ted Lasso | Biscuits with the Boss

You can’t fully appreciate the depth of the emotional connection that people have with Ted Lasso without first considering the context in which the show premiered: August 2020, which, if you’ve suppressed it from memory, was a particularly dark period of the pandemic for a lot of people. And the show met a need much in the same way that Jeni’s has always aspired to do as a company: it made people feel good.

Just like the chaos of March 2020 was exactly the right moment for Tiger King to enter the public consciousness, the Great Despair of August 2020 was exactly the right moment for the radical optimism of Ted Lasso to become a cultural phenomenon, fueled by word of mouth.

The show became the light in the dark, something to believe in, a dose of hope when there wasn’t a lot of hope to go around.

Because of the role Ted Lasso played in peoples’ lives, the show earned an incredibly passionate and cult-like fan base—those who were into the show were into the show—and they would tell you about it and tell you about it and tell you about it again until finally you gave in and watched it.

When Apple approached us about a Ted Lasso activation for the 2021 Emmy Awards, we passed, in favor of favor pursuing a much bigger opportunity: a brand partnership between Jeni’s and Apple with a flavor to support the future release of a much anticipated Ted Lasso season 3.

Biscuits with the Boss—salted butter sweet cream with shortbread cookie pieces, inspired by the biscuits that Coach Lasso bakes for his boss everyday—was a flavor that only Jeni’s could make (underscoring our culinary credibility) and an authentic expression of fandom for a show that functioned as a mirror and reflected our core values back to us.

Supported by a three-phased campaign that began with seeding activity among A++ talent and influential Emmys voters before the 2022 Emmy Awards and climaxed in March 2023 just before the premiere of season 3 with a drop-day fan experience in our shops not unlike being at a soccer match, our strategy was to leverage shared media from talent, Lasso fans (our primary audience), and soccer fans (our secondary audience), combined with earned media from pop culture and sports outlets to drive awareness of the flavor and reach new audiences outside of the Jeni’s bubble.

Biscuits with the Boss was an unequivocal home run, rivaling—at times outperforming—our collaboration with Dolly Parton, which was unthinkable if you didn’t #believe.

Results

1.2B+ Earned media impressions

140M+ Shared media impressions

30k+ New social followers

16k+ New email subscribers

15k+ New buyers

13k+ New rewards members

Most pints of a flavor sold online in one day ever

Highest online revenue in one week ever

Most pints of a flavor sold in shops in one day ever

Highest pint sales day in shops ever

#1 flavor in shops for all of launch week

The Today Show had such a moment tasting Biscuits with the Boss on-air that other media outlets wrote about their reaction to “the next big thing.”

Role / Responsibilities

Project lead, brand partnership, strategic relationship management, campaign strategy, communications strategy, connection planning

Creative courtesy of the Jeni’s Art + Design Team.