ajinomoto

Turning 4 Freezer Aisle Underdogs into Category Climbers

Summary: We turned Ajinomoto’s four low-awareness frozen food brands into distinct, fast-growing players by carving unique positions and targeting precise audiences on lean budgets.

Red stylized text reading 'AJINOMOTO' on a black background.
Logo of José Ole with a smiling man wearing a sombrero, and the slogan 'Taste the Fiesta!' in red banner.
Logo with the words 'TAI PEI' and a stylized dragon in between, on a black background.
Ling Ling logo featuring a panda holding a bamboo stick above the text, with a yellow background and black border.

When Ajinomoto Foods North America tapped us as their agency-of-record, they didn’t hand us one frozen food brand to supercharge—they dropped four in our lap: José Olé, Ling Ling, Tai Pei, and namesake Ajinomoto.

Three had been around for decades yet still acted like scrappy start-ups—good distribution, microscopic user bases. How small? José Olé had under 8 million users, and one brand limped in with fewer than a million. Then there was Ajinomoto—the 100+ year-old Japanese powerhouse that once gave Dentsu office space to get on its feet—yet in the U.S., it faced the same problem: nobody really knew it.

Across the board, awareness was abysmal. And these weren’t just any frozen foods—they all lived in the hot snack/hot entrée aisle, battling giants like Totino’s, Marie Callender’s, Stouffer’s, and Hot Pockets. In a category of 119 million total users, the heavy-hitters commanded 15 million or more. Our four? Mere blips. To make matters worse, the three Asian brands all offered nearly identical lineups—potstickers, rice, noodles, egg rolls—and, frankly, looked and sounded interchangeable. Different packaging, same everything else.

We knew “just advertise more” wouldn’t cut it. Our first move: run each brand through our 5-C process—consumer, category, culture, competition, company—to uncover the white space and blue-ocean opportunities others missed. This became the blueprint for everything: audience targeting, media planning, and creative strategy. But for the three Asian brands, we had to go deeper—creating clear, defensible “swim lanes” for each so they wouldn’t cannibalize each other’s message or media spend. With category leaders outspending us many times over, precision was our only option.

The payoff? Four brands. Four distinct target audiences. Four unique positions built to spark relevance, create esteem, and drive growth without tripping over each other. User bases climbed across the board, proving that with the right strategy, even molehills can become mountains—sometimes, entire mountain ranges.

A stylized red logo with the word 'AJINOMOTO' in capital letters, featuring a cursive 'A' at the beginning.
A woman in a red off-the-shoulder top, wearing pearl earrings and necklace, holding a fork with a lemon wedge, against a red background.
Three people dining together at a table with a plate of Japanese-style gyoza dumplings, a box of Ajinomoto gyoza, glasses of white wine and red wine, soy sauce, a black plate, a red napkin, and a small black condiment container.
Colorful Joseo logo featuring a cartoon man wearing a sombrero and a red bandana, with the text 'Taste the Fiesta!'
Costco-style table setting featuring a tray of assorted Mexican snacks including tacos, burritos, and chimichangas, along with packaged José Olé mini tacos, taquitos, burritos, and chimichangas, and side dishes of salad and sour cream.
A young woman with curly hair wearing a black t-shirt and gray skirt, smiling as she holds a fry above her mouth against an orange background.
Ling Ling logo featuring a panda holding a bamboo stick, with the text "Ling Ling" and "Authentic Asian Flavor" above.
Family gathered around a dining table enjoying a meal, with a boy in the center eating chicken and smiling, adults smiling and engaging with him, food and drinks on the table, a cozy kitchen background.
A young woman with blonde hair enjoying eating a piece of food from a plate, holding a fork in her right hand and the plate in her left. She is smiling with her tongue slightly out, against a bright yellow background.
Tai Pei logo with a stylized dragon in between bold black and white letters.
A woman with long, wavy hair, wearing a blue striped button-up shirt and beige pants, holding a container of Tai Pei frozen food and eating with a fork against a yellow background.
A cup of spicy chicken instant noodles with vegetables, a sealed container of the same brand, and a chopstick holding a meatball over the cup, against a yellow background.

Behind Every Category or Client Logo Are Advertising Moves Powering Growth