\n
If you haven\u2019t encountered the Truff hot sauce brand on its own, you\u2019ve probably seen it with another brand\u2014like Bagel Bites, Taco Bell, or Hidden Valley Ranch.<\/p>\n
Those collaborations have Michelle Gabe to thank. The truffle-infused hot sauce brand\u2019s director of marketing, who took on the role in 2020, has overseen partnerships with all of the above and, most recently, The Super Mario Bros. Movie <\/em>with limited-edition sauces. In the last three years, she\u2019s also overseen the brand\u2019s first national TV commercial and its first OOH campaign, and plotted to get bottles in the hands of celebrities like Lizzo and Machine Gun Kelly\u2014all to boost Truff\u2019s retail sales and heat up the conversation.<\/p>\n\u201cWe have a good gauge on what people want to hear and what makes people talk,\u201d Gabe said.<\/p>\n
Prior to leading Truff\u2019s marketing team of five, Gabe built her career in the PR world, working with brands ranging from Tao Group Hospitality to Health-Ade kombucha. Now, she\u2019s taking her industry experience and making it her mission to douse brands of all kinds with hot sauce.<\/p>\n
Fired up<\/h2>\n
Truff started doing brand partnerships in order to generate \u201cmass awareness quickly\u201d and \u201cencourage conversation,\u201d Gabe told us. So far, that\u2019s worked: The Taco Bell partnership, which started as a one-store test in 2021 before expanding nationwide in 2022, gave 4 million people the chance to sample Truff, Gabe said. Partnerships can also help with regional growth efforts, like last year\u2019s Hidden Valley collab, which was designed to establish a customer base in the Midwest, where the brand had initially struggled compared to the coasts. It was a hit.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt literally sold out in less than one minute, which was mind-blowing,\u201d Gabe said, adding that the team \u201cexpected it to at least be a day or two or maybe even a week\u201d before they sold all 5,000 bottles of the truffle ranch sauce.<\/p>\n
A partnership this year with the Universal film The Super Mario Bros. Movie<\/em>, which hit theaters in April and has since become the second-highest-grossing animated film ever, was intended to tap into nostalgia marketing and reach a multigenerational audience, according to Gabe. \u201cWe knew not only was there a fit with the mushrooms and the truffles, but we were reaching really anyone who had a childhood and played these games,\u201d she said.<\/p>\nAt the beginning of each year, Gabe said her team meets and writes down a wish list of brands that \u201care not only iconic and not only have mass appeal, but also offer that hype moment where people are overly passionate about the brand.\u201d Then they set out to try and make those deals happen.<\/p>\n
\n
\n
Get marketing news you’ll actually want to read<\/h5>\n
The email newsletter guaranteed to bring you the latest stories shaping the marketing and advertising world, like only the Brew can.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
When pitching brands on a potential collab, Gabe said she emphasizes how Truff began as an Instagram account dedicated to food content before evolving into \u201ca full CPG brand that\u2019s available in 20,000 stores and has all these celebrity nods.\u201d Some of those nods include Lizzo, who once shared a video of herself dabbing a burrito with Truff sauce; Machine Gun Kelly, who gave the brand an expletive-laden endorsement; and even Oprah, who listed it as one of her favorite things of 2022.<\/p>\n
According to Gabe, many celeb acknowledgements have happened organically, or through carefully sent samples. For instance, Gabe said Truff sent products to Lizzo\u2019s hairdresser and to people who spent time with Machine Gun Kelly in an effort to get them to try the sauce.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe show [potential partners] all that stuff and try to showcase what type of momentum Truff can actually bring and how we do everything in-house at a pretty scrappy scale with very little lift,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Agency mentality<\/h2>\n
Before becoming Truff\u2019s first executive marketer, Gabe said she started working with the brand and its co-founders, Nick Guillen and Nick Ajluni, via the PR agency Shadow, where she had spent the majority of her career.<\/p>\n
“[The founders] knew that at the end of the day, I didn\u2019t have much experience in regards to traditional marketing, but they knew my work ethic and they knew how in tune I was with pop culture, given all my past experiences,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
According to Gabe, three of the five people that make up her \u201cin-house agency\u201d team at Truff previously worked at a traditional agency. The mentality that comes from that experience, she said, has been key to working hard and achieving big goals despite the team\u2019s small size.<\/p>\n
Another way to achieve big things, according to Gabe\u2019s philosophy, is to embrace marketing opportunities at every level.\u201cEvery single thing that we do is a stepping stone to get to the next place,\u201d she said. \u201cI always like to just reinforce that everything we\u2019re doing is getting bigger and bigger and bigger.\u201d She compared the small digital moment of Truff\u2019s first partnership with Bagel Bites to its larger deal with Taco Bell, saying the latter wouldn\u2019t have been possible three years ago.<\/p>\n
As for what\u2019s next? She already has a dream brand collaboration in mind. \u201cI would say bringing the Hidden Valley Ranch collaboration to Domino\u2019s Pizza,\u201d she said. \u201cThey can reach out to me. That\u2019s all I\u2019m saying.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Read the full article here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If you haven\u2019t encountered the Truff hot sauce brand on its own, you\u2019ve probably seen it with another brand\u2014like Bagel Bites, Taco Bell, or Hidden Valley Ranch. Those collaborations have Michelle Gabe to thank. The truffle-infused hot sauce brand\u2019s director of marketing, who took on the role in 2020, has overseen partnerships with all of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14692,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[78],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-14691","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-marketing"},"yoast_head":"\n
A conversation with Truff\u2019s director of marketing | Brandiary<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"If you haven\u2019t encountered the Truff hot sauce brand on its own, you\u2019ve probably seen it with another brand\u2014like Bagel Bites, Taco Bell, or Hidden Valley\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?p=14691\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A conversation with Truff\u2019s director of marketing | Brandiary\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"If you haven\u2019t encountered the Truff hot sauce brand on its own, you\u2019ve probably seen it with another brand\u2014like Bagel Bites, Taco Bell, or Hidden Valley\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?p=14691\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Brandiary\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-09-20T19:48:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-09-20T19:48:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/1695239295_01931248aeac370c9320a8ae7f5f626266be2fce-1920x1080.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"630\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"News Room\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"News Room\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?p=14691#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?p=14691\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"News Room\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/#\/schema\/person\/5062dafb0f932b59aa228f1a047332f4\"},\"headline\":\"A conversation with Truff\u2019s director of marketing\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-09-20T19:48:14+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-09-20T19:48:18+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?p=14691\"},\"wordCount\":913,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Marketing\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?p=14691#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?p=14691\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?p=14691\",\"name\":\"A conversation with Truff\u2019s director of marketing | Brandiary\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2023-09-20T19:48:14+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-09-20T19:48:18+00:00\",\"description\":\"If you haven\u2019t encountered the Truff hot sauce brand on its own, you\u2019ve probably seen it with another brand\u2014like Bagel Bites, Taco Bell, or Hidden Valley\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?p=14691#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?p=14691\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?p=14691#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"A conversation with Truff\u2019s director of marketing\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/\",\"name\":\"Brandiary\",\"description\":\"Latest Business and Startup News and Updates\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Brandiary\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/b-logo-1.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/b-logo-1.png\",\"width\":381,\"height\":100,\"caption\":\"Brandiary\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/#\/schema\/person\/5062dafb0f932b59aa228f1a047332f4\",\"name\":\"News Room\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/avatar_user_1_1688031660-96x96.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/avatar_user_1_1688031660-96x96.png\",\"caption\":\"News Room\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?author=1\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"A conversation with Truff\u2019s director of marketing | Brandiary","description":"If you haven\u2019t encountered the Truff hot sauce brand on its own, you\u2019ve probably seen it with another brand\u2014like Bagel Bites, Taco Bell, or Hidden Valley","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?p=14691","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"A conversation with Truff\u2019s director of marketing | Brandiary","og_description":"If you haven\u2019t encountered the Truff hot sauce brand on its own, you\u2019ve probably seen it with another brand\u2014like Bagel Bites, Taco Bell, or Hidden Valley","og_url":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?p=14691","og_site_name":"Brandiary","article_published_time":"2023-09-20T19:48:14+00:00","article_modified_time":"2023-09-20T19:48:18+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":630,"url":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/1695239295_01931248aeac370c9320a8ae7f5f626266be2fce-1920x1080.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"News Room","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"News Room","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?p=14691#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?p=14691"},"author":{"name":"News Room","@id":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/#\/schema\/person\/5062dafb0f932b59aa228f1a047332f4"},"headline":"A conversation with Truff\u2019s director of marketing","datePublished":"2023-09-20T19:48:14+00:00","dateModified":"2023-09-20T19:48:18+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?p=14691"},"wordCount":913,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/#organization"},"articleSection":["Marketing"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?p=14691#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?p=14691","url":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?p=14691","name":"A conversation with Truff\u2019s director of marketing | Brandiary","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/#website"},"datePublished":"2023-09-20T19:48:14+00:00","dateModified":"2023-09-20T19:48:18+00:00","description":"If you haven\u2019t encountered the Truff hot sauce brand on its own, you\u2019ve probably seen it with another brand\u2014like Bagel Bites, Taco Bell, or Hidden Valley","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?p=14691#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?p=14691"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?p=14691#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"A conversation with Truff\u2019s director of marketing"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/","name":"Brandiary","description":"Latest Business and Startup News and Updates","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/#organization","name":"Brandiary","url":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/b-logo-1.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/b-logo-1.png","width":381,"height":100,"caption":"Brandiary"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/#\/schema\/person\/5062dafb0f932b59aa228f1a047332f4","name":"News Room","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/avatar_user_1_1688031660-96x96.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/avatar_user_1_1688031660-96x96.png","caption":"News Room"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com"],"url":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?author=1"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14691","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14691"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14691\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14693,"href":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14691\/revisions\/14693"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}