What if we told you that in the past year, a Kerrygold-branded coffee table went viral, people got Kerrygold tattoos inked on the skin, and that membership of The Butter Club was the hottest ticket in town?
Well… let’s go back to the beginning to find out how it happened...
If you had looked at Kerrygold’s social media presence a couple of years ago, you would have seen a feed that was overly reliant on recipes, perfectly curated dishes, and indistinct pans and hands.
The same strategy was replicated across the butter category. Lightly branded food content that mimicked the norms of the saturated world of Instagram food content. Kerrygold was swimming in a sea of same. The only flavour available was vanilla.
No one was standing out. No one was winning on social.
Through research and social listening, we discovered that Kerrygold had an untapped secret weapon: a cult-like love for its butter.
Chefs, celebrities, and consumers alike were crazy for their all-natural, grass-fed butter and cheese. However, this fanatic love was more 'if-you-know-you-know' than ‘worst-kept-secret’.
Our objective was to change this.
With a business goal to double household penetration in the UK, US, Ireland, and Germany, we knew social could help unlock growth by expanding Kerrygold’s brand equity.
We saw an opportunity to transform Kerrygold from cult status to cultural icon.
Our strategy was designed to create a social sensation that would win the hearts and minds of butter buyers, supercharging pockets of fandom into an infectious frenzy of buttery brand love.
We made Kerrygold butter the star of the show and not just another ingredient.
In a category saturated by repetitive recipe content, we built a culture-first content strategy that inserted the brand into people's lives and feeds beyond its supporting act role in recipes.
Moving away from the hands and pans approach - always polished - always perfectly unctuous - always earnest - our strategy we focused instead on the world of emotion that surrounds eating occasions, food moments and food conversations.
Four critical strategic transformations were implemented.
ONE.
A new social and tonal identity was launched with the ethos - Be Bold About Butter. This shift enabled Kerrygold to deploy a more socially fluent tone of voice and attitude, ensuring it showed up on Instagram and TikTok with a distinct positioning. The overhaul of the brand's visual identity was dramatic and allowed the brand to take on a more adaptable presence - flexing between lo-fi reel, slick recipe content and static meme-style visual. Check out where gone from and to here [ROSIE - link to - from to visual].
TWO.
An overhauled content strategy - From Cult to Culture - focused on Instagram and TikTok was implemented.
We led the way with the Iconic Kerrygold content series - serving up delights like this celebration of our colour of the year for 2025; the iconic custom-built Kerrygold butter table; and, of course, the tattoo transfers that inspired people to get the real thing inked on.
The Gold Moments content series tapped into the human truths around food, turning them into relatable memes to entertain. The roommate who bites the butter; Two people pleasers sharing Kerrygold; and who needs a cheese wheel when a butter wheel is an option.
Our Fandom content series celebrated people's love for the Kerrygold brand. The Edie Butter Yellow Bag showed how fashion is better with Kerrygold. Kerrygold tree decorations arrived right on cue for the holiday season.
THREE.
Community engagement tactics were levelled up through the launch of the if-you-know-you-know exclusivity of The Butter Club. From delicious branded flatlays to a Butter Club hat and a tote - the Butter Club strengthened the sense of belonging and community around the brand.
FOUR.
We diversified Creator collaborations - out went the same old line-up of Instagram cooks - in came emergent voices from new passion points and backgrounds. Elle Cordova brought her unique musical flair to the launch of Kerrygold cheese sticks by celebrating the true purpose of that tiny pocket on our jeans, and voices like Tessa Sinatro brought a more people-centric dynamic to our food content, as did Patrick and Russell with their fresh take a traditional Irish dish.
Year one of the new strategy delivered better than expected performance.
The expansion of fandom from a core group in the if-you-know-you-know to a much broader community of people expressing their love for Kerrygold has propelled us toward our goal of creating a cultural icon.
We're nurturing a vibrant and engaged community through conversational creativity and humour, driving participation that's building affinity, sparking advocacy and building the brand’s status.
Together… we’re painting the town gold. Kerrygold.
Here’s what the data is telling us...
We’re securing the attention of new audiences - we saw a x7 fold year-on-year increase in organic reach on social.
The reimagined recipe content is more popular than ever - we’ve seen a 120% increase in the number of times people have hit save on a recipe, despite the fact we’re purposefully publishing less recipe content.
More people than ever are joining the community - we’ve seen x3 fold increase in social following across all markets and channels. And a 12% lift in overall mentions on social handles.
We’re seeing the link between social and sales - through a 78% lift in the volume of Kerrygold mentions that display purchase intent or product desire, and we’ve had a surge of people DM’ing Kerrygold social to ask where they can purchase, or requesting the brand to be stocked in their local shop.
And the butter on the toast - Kantar reported a DOUBLING of unaided brand awareness among a younger cohort - firmly driven by social.
