Primal Kitchen may have risen to glory as the clean-eating choice of Keto and Paleo fans, but it is determined to expand into trend-setter territory. In partnership with Pinterest, the Kraft Heinz-owned brand is debuting a new experiential and digital collaboration with Colorful Kitchen Pop-Ups in three cities. Ana Goettsch, Primal Kitchen’s head of marketing, tells CPG Insider how she hopes buzz from the activations will translate into in-store results.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
CPG Insider: Why focus on experiential marketing now?
Ana Goettsch: We’re a digitally native brand, and we’ve done a good job with our digital strategy, using influencers and reaching consumers on social media. Last year, we began experimenting with a mayo sampling program in Los Angeles, and the response was incredible. That was an important realization, reaching people who had heard of us but had not tried us. We wanted to do experiential in a bigger way this year.
We’ve gained so much retail distribution. We’re in 16,000 doors. But we're still a small challenger brand. It’s time to get our feet on the street and enter communities in different markets. We want to understand how people interpret the brand. We need to build awareness in a few key markets: New York, Chicago and Los Angeles. The pop-ups make sense now because summer is the core season for condiments, sauces, dressings, and grilling.
CPG Insider: Why work with Pinterest on this?
Goettsch: We were already one of Pinterest’s top pinned brands. And we fit into a few core trends it sees in the year ahead. Searches for "clean food" have risen almost 1,000% year over year, for example, and searches for dips and snack hacks have increased 100%. Another trend is around colorful kitchens, which fit well with our packaging and the veggies and protein we promote.
Pinterest is such a positive social platform and has incredible reach. This effort extrapolates what is happening on social media and turns it into a "real food" experience.
CPG Insider: How has Primal Kitchen’s marketing evolved, moving from a digital start-up in 2015 to a grocery store brand?
Goettsch: I was one of the first employees at Primal Kitchen, so I’ve been lucky enough to ride this roller coaster from the beginning, including our early days of breaking into Whole Foods on a regional basis.
From a marketing perspective, it shows that distribution is just one component of how consumers find your brand. You also have to do a good job of creating meaningful connections, building community, and tapping into the ways people explore foods and look for inspiration. Influencer marketing has been a great tool because we appeal more to millennials and Gen Z audiences.
But for this next layer of building awareness and creating saliency at the shelf, consumers need to know more about us. They need to understand the brand's value when they make that three-second decision. How can we cast a wider net and connect with consumers more? That’s what these pop-ups are all about.
CPG Insider: Pop-ups are experiential. How do you make them digital, too?
Goettsch: The whole 360-degree omnichannel journey is what every marketer thinks about. We’re all looking for the touch points that create meaningful experiences and impact in stores.
This partnership with Pinterest is about building buzz and brand awareness in person, with food creators joining us in each city. They’ll include recipe cards and QR codes, layering in that digital component. We can own a trend on Pinterest, and there are also digital advertising opportunities in Pinterest Predicts. Earned media drives in-store revenue.
CPG Insider: How do you build that retail connection?
Goettsch: We can see which food topics are trending on the platform and where they impact store revenue. With this campaign, Pinterest is piloting ads that drive people to stores, so eight of our retailers, including Walmart, Target, Whole Foods and Sprouts, will also be getting advertising driven from Pinterest.
CPG Insider: You’ve been part of Kraft Heinz since 2019. How has that changed your marketing approach?
Goettsch: We had grown from zero to $50 million in sales by the time of the acquisition, and we’ve doubled the business since then. Many senior leaders who were there in the beginning are still there today. Our co-founders are still incredibly involved. We have this autonomous structure for sales, marketing, understanding our consumers, and media buying. Yet it's also been an incredible opportunity to learn from the big guys. How can we think like a bigger brand?
CPG Insider: One of the things that made you famous is that founder Mark Sisson has been such a blogger and cheerleader for the ketogenic diet. That’s fallen out of fashion. How do you stay relevant?
Goettsch: Our core consumers were highly engaged with keto and paleo when we first started. They wanted to know more about our good fats and liked that we were low sugar and gluten-free. That wave has come and gone, but the interest in clean eating -- and a health-informed consumer -- isn’t going anywhere.
Primal Kitchen is real food, and that’s the future. People want ingredients they can pronounce. But they also want flavor. They’re unwilling to compromise and eat something just because it’s good for them. It has to taste great, too.
CPG Insider: And sauces are trendy. Even fast-feeders are introducing snazzy sauces. America has become condiment-forward.
Goettsch: Our new dipping sauces are unmatched in ingredient integrity, and they're selling well. You don't want to eat broccoli and have it not taste good. You want something to make it fun and exciting.
CPG Insider: What’s next?
Goettsch: We have some fun out-of-home ads coming up that tap back into our Primal roots.