On The Clock with Hershey’s Anna Lingeris
Here at PyeongChang 2018, I caught up with Anna Lingeris who leads brand publicity for the US at The Hershey Company. We had the opportunity to discuss Hershey’s relationship with the United States Olympic Committee, the recent launch of Hershey’s Gold, and Hershey’s activations in the lead up to and during the Winter Games.
Here is Anna Lingeris, on the clock:
OTC:
Tell me about Hershey’s relationship with the United States Olympic Committee.
Anna Lingeris:
We signed our sponsorship with the USOC in October of 2015 and the Olympic Games in Rio were our first games giving us a short timeline for preparations. PyeongChang 2018 is our second games and our sponsorship runs through the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
OTC:
Hershey has been busy over the past several months. How have you prepared for this Winter Games?
Anna Lingeris:
This Winter Games has been pretty incredible for The Hershey Company and the Hershey’s brand. For only the fourth time in the company’s history, that’s over 125 years, we launched a new flavor of the Hershey’s bar. In 1900, you had milk chocolate. In 1939, you had dark chocolate. In 1995, you had white, which would be cookies and cream. And now, in 2018, you have Hershey’s Gold. And if I say “gold”, the first thing that comes to your mind is the Olympics, especially this time of year.
As we launch this product, which is not as a limited edition, but as a permanent addition to The Hershey Company, we wanted to leverage our partnership with the USOC and Team USA to highlight Hershey’s Gold. That was the idea and it kicked off at the hundred days out countdown event in New York City
OTC:
How did you launch Hershey’s Gold?
Anna Lingeris:
On November 1, we unveiled Hershey’s Gold for the first time ever on the Today show. We have our partnership with Apolo Ohno. He really helped us out and is just a fantastic individual, iconic athlete, an incredible spokesperson and partner that I couldn’t say enough good things about. We also utilized relationships with 2016 Olympic gold-medalist Simone Biles and 2014 US Paralympic gold-medalist Rico Roman to help drive the news of Hershey’s Gold. They conducted media tours on our behalf to help celebrate the launch. Within the first week of our announcement Gold had taken the world by storm — generating 1.4B earned media impressions, which is incredible. That kicked us off and 30 days later on December 1st, the product became available in-store.On November 1, as part of 100 day countdown celebrations, we also kicked off at Team USA Winterfest for PyeongChang 2018, where we are the presenting sponsor. We had first-ever mass sampling of our Hershey’s Gold product in Times Square and also had a S’moresmobile, with a line wrapping around the Winterfest execution.
OTC:
You mentioned Apolo Ohno who is a legendary Olympic Athlete and one of my personal all-time favorites, how is he engaged with Hershey?
Anna Lingeris:
Apolo Ohno is in our television and our digital spots, two you should check out are “Trophy Case” and “Endorsement”. He has helped to focus on the theme and the look of gold. He is one of the most iconic gold-medal athletes from Team USA. There’s nothing more gold than the Olympic Games and Team USA winning gold.
OTC:
Let’s talk about the activation you are doing during PyeongChang 2018.
Anna Lingeris:
Every time Team USA wins gold, Hershey’s is releasing a coupon for Hershey’s Gold bars. The first one was 20,000 and subsequent ones are all 10,000. So, every time Team USA wins gold, Hershey’s gives Americans “gold” as well. And the reception has just been phenomenal. We’ve had our two first gold already with Red Gerard in Snowboard Slopestyle and just 45 minutes ago, Jamie Anderson won the women’s Snowboard Slopestyle.
OTC:
How does it work with Hershey and the Team USA athletes?
Anna Lingeris:
We proactively went out and signed a significant number of the Team USA athletes, well over one hundred. If any of these athletes win, we have a fast content shoot with them to celebrate with Hershey’s Gold. The team is working quickly to turn it around and make it relevant for the consumers in less than 24 hours. What we want to do is tell this authentic story of this athlete winning their gold, capturing that gold medal moment and what it tasted like.
OTC:
Nearly 150 athletes signed with you. That is quite a response.
Anna Lingeris:
It’s quite the golden opportunity.
OTC:
I understand that you have also emphasized equality for all the athletes?
Anna Lingeris:
Yes. Our program is equitable across all of the Team USA Olympic and Paralympic athletes.
OTC:
And Winterfest is not over yet?
Anna Lingeris:
Not even close!
We’re bring an international version of WinterFest to Seoul, Korea, during the Games. It will be visiting Yongsan Garrison military base in Seoul to celebrate Team USA,. This is to support our troops and give them a memorable time, celebrating TEAM USA with family and friends. The Winterfest event is open across all the bases in Korea and transportation is provided. There will be entertainment, from the USOC, including Rachel Platten and Cedric the Entertainer.
Then the very next day, there will be a different version of WinterFest happening in Hershey, PA. We want to not only celebrate our amazing employees from The Hershey Company, but we’re also opening it up to the local community and town of Hershey.
OTC:
You’re extremely busy with everything going on here in PyeongChang. Will your team have the opportunity to enjoy the events and competitions?
Anna Lingeris:
Fingers crossed. Anytime you have the ability to experience first-hand an event like the Olympics, you try to make some time. Part of the experience of coming here is understanding how events, media, hospitality at this scale operates. I always find that one of the things that’s really amazing, but difficult to translate when you go back home, is the importance of actually making it to the venues, the houses, the brand executions, etc. My goal is to take a little bit of knowledge every time I leave any event, whether it is our work with the NCAA and the Final Four or our work we do with Team USA. Those learnings come together to only make it a better experience for our brand in our next campaign
