From Unknown to Unstoppable

We were tasked with launching a frozen Japanese food product from a little-known brand, Ajinomoto, to Costco shoppers in the Pacific Northwest.

The mission? Drive sales high enough to secure shelf space and expand to new regions.

Frozen food? Yeah, we know—it’s long been considered subpar. But times have changed, and so has the quality.

Ajinomoto needed to break through to affluent Costco shoppers with a message of premium quality. And we needed people to remember to buy this authentic Japanese-style gyoza— no easy feat when it takes a bit of effort to prepare.

So, we rolled up our sleeves and built a full-funnel media plan, targeting Costco shoppers in the region with laser focus. We hit them with connected TV, streaming video, social media, high-impact display, and programmatic ads that activated the “find-a-store” feature on Google Maps. We even threw in some outdoor ads in key areas for good measure.

The ad campaign? “Cook ’em. Flip ’em. Enjoy ’em.” Simple, memorable, and all about that satisfying pan flip. We knew Costco shoppers love hosting dinner parties, so we put the spotlight on sharing these gyozas with friends and family—because nothing says quality like sharing a meal.

Here’s the kicker: Costco has strict sales targets—hit ‘em or get booted. We crushed it. Within two weeks, we hit 2.6X the required sales. By the time the client stopped sharing numbers, we were at 3.8X.

Costco expanded the product to the Southeast, Texas, and Canada, before eventually going national. Mic drop.

Oh, and did we mention? The product hit shelves a month early. No problem. We pivoted in hours, got the campaign live, and delivered big results. That’s how we do it.