While Rao’s New York is a world-famous restaurant, few people are aware that they bottle their pasta sauce and sell it in grocery stores. Our challenge was to grow Rao’s awareness and household penetration. Further, Rao’s Homemade averages $5.00 more per jar than the much of the competition and many consumers believe that a jarred pasta sauce just doesn’t taste that good. We needed to prove them wrong.

Rao’s Homemade built its reputation on word of mouth. For those who have tried it, there is no substitute—in fact, the reviews are incredible— people love the way it tastes and are passionate advocates for the brand. And boy do they like to share their thoughts with those who will listen.
We thought the most interesting and authentic way to tell our story was to let the consumer do the talking.

We started with real online reviews – and while the online reviews were generally creative, we needed a way to make them more interesting to stand out in a crowded newsfeed. Enter Michael Amante, an Italian opera singer who we used to juxtapose Italian opera with the real customer reviews to create the perfect blend of highbrow and lowbrow humor, and the “Delicious Speaks for Itself” campaign was complete.

We have nearly tripled household penetration and have seen statistically significant lifts in aided awareness, familiarity and consideration between our test and control markets.