Last winter, my mom showed me a piece of artwork that I did in elementary school, with a short statement claiming why she deserved cake. The reality is, every mom deserves cake. I submitted it to our local grocery store as part of a local competition. It was drawn on flimsy graph paper, complete with a poorly done illustration. Drawing has never been my thing, but let it be known we ate free cake that Mother’s Day thanks to that paper, and it became one of the earliest signs of my career in writing. As my passion for social media and brand engagement has heightened over the last few years, so has my ability to win a competition here or there. Doritos blew my mind with over 325 full-size bags of chips getting delivered to my front door in Boston. Moosejaw hooked me up with a rad backpack filled with gear that got me through the Grand Canyon, and Outback has always shown nothing but love as they feed my steak addictions.
I recently saw a post come across my timeline from Kerrygold Cheese, whom has come to become one of my most-loved brands of this year. Last summer, my friend Nathan came to a church gathering at the park with a block of Dubliner in his hand, which was halfway eaten already. He allowed me to cut off a few pieces to try and then watched as I tried to sneak as many tastes as I could get. When his wife revealed a second block, we knew we were in for a good evening. Since then, I’ve bought a block of Kerrygold on nearly every shopping trip I’ve been on. It’s become a guilty obsession. The Richardson’s and Laura Mead, the official cooking and baking aficionados of Northern California, all proclaimed their love for Kerrygold Butter, which I can gladly confirm makes the difference in any recipe you try. So the last year has been nothing but love for the Kerrygold family.
So the post from Kerrygold was a call for customers to declare their love of Kerrygold with the use of #IHEARTKG on various social media platforms. My eyes lit up when I saw the prize: $5,000 and a years supply of cheese and butter. Simply thinking about how much money I’d save by not having to buy a block of Dubliner on every Giant Eagle visit was enough to convince me that I had to participate. I’ve come to learn that luck is only a small part of my competitive successes, as I’ve only won the competitions that come with long terms to make sure it’s not a randomly-selected winner. When I saw that this competition was based entirely on creativity, brand recognition, and production quality, as determined by a panel of internal judges, I knew I had a shot. Much like how a dog pulls out its oldest trick when seeking out a treat, I fell back on my rhyming skills and began writing a short rap about Kerrygold. An hour of wordsmith work, an hour of recording, and a short shot list of how it’d come to life quickly filled my afternoon. I sat on the project for a few weeks, hoping to get a friend involved that was much better at editing than I was. I had dreams of using movi’s and slow-motion camera pans. I told a few friends about the competition, with the affirmation that “I WILL win this competition”. But four weeks ago, on a Saturday morning, I woke up and happened to check the website for a deadline date, only to realize that it was due that day! My morning plans of a book with coffee on the patio quickly changed as I ran around my house filming the short video.
Total investment for the video: an afternoon and $5 for the licensing of a background track. And one less cup of coffee that weekend.
As I submitted the video with a subtle love note to Kerrygold, I sat back and watched my friends and family comment on the video, most of them ashamed of my dancing with the select few that claimed they were proud of my work. I still question them. I searched the hashtag to see hundreds of submissions; my heart sank when I saw a guy got a tattoo of the Kerrygold logo on his arm. Hope left the room completely when I saw a video of a family gathered around their dining room table, announcing that a new addition to their family was coming soon. (Marketing Note: you can rarely beat out a cute baby or an extremely irrational decision in a competition). I hyper-analyzed my decision to booty dance on camera and played the waiting game.
But last week, I received confirmation that I had been selected as the winner of the competition, pending eligibility. A few calls, a bunch of paperwork, and way too long of a timeline that I couldn’t tell anyone and it’s finally official! $5,000 cash and a years supply of cheese, delivered at the beginning of each month, was set to become reality. I’ve been told I’m one of the luckiest guys out there and I think there’s some value in that statement if blessings count as luck. But the bulk of the competitions that I’ve won in the last few years have come from spending a little too much time on a mundane task that most simply bypass. I’ve stood by the mentality of going after things you enjoy; the “work” of it is simply to take time doing what you love. When it aligns to a competition or brand-connection, hop on-board and be relentless. A silly video shot in your living room could be exactly the type of messaging that a billion-dollar brand is looking for, and unable to find from their internal team or ad agency.
Dream big. Collaborate often. Get to work.
And eat cheese.
Great recipes and all things cheese is always available on the Kerrygold Cheese & Butter Facebook page.