Dive Brief:

• Kraft Heinz lemonade brand Country Time launched a new campaign called The Littlest Bailout Relief Fund that will send stimulus checks to kids that had to close their lemonade stands due to the pandemic, according to a press release the company shared with Marketing Dive.
• Consumers can enter their kids to receive a $100 bailout fund on a microsite. Payments will be chosen at random and will be mailed to kids in the form of a commemorative check in the mail and a prepaid gift card by email.
• The brand created a video to promote the program starring a little girl who is trying to sell lemonade as tumbleweeds roll by. The video points to the large corporations who have taken advantage of government stimulus bailout checks. "Now the smallest of small businesses are about to get some help," says the voice over.

Dive Insight:

With social distancing rules in place due to COVID-19, many of the lemonade stands that kids around the country traditionally set up during the summer months are likely canceled. To support these kids' entrepreneurial spirit in the time of a pandemic, Country Time has kicked off a campaign that recognizes the challenges of the moment while focusing the messaging around broader discussions about how small businesses are being impacted by the health crisis.

The campaign gives a nod to stimulus programs run by the United States government and designed to help small businesses stay afloat during the economic downturn caused by the ongoing pandemic. The video points out how giant corporations have taken advantage of loopholes in the programs to take money that was intended to go to small businesses. The brand is offering to step in to give money to the smallest of businesses and support kids.

By recognizing kids who operate summer lemonade stands, Country Time is acknowledging these consumers in a sweet way that says their businesses matter too. The microsite requires consumers to enter information about themselves to receive a stimulus check, which gives the brand data that can be used at a later date to promote products.

The brand has taken on current events impacting lemonade stands in its marketing before. Last year, Country Time used programmatic media to run an out-of-home (OOH) push in states where operating lemonade stands is illegal. The ads were part of the brand's Legal-Ade cause-marketing campaign that has focused on helping consumers change permit laws regarding lemonade stands that has run for several years.

The campaign comes as the latest example of Kraft Heinz ramping up its marketing efforts at a time when some brands are holding back because of the pandemic and related economic downturn. Last week, Kraft Heinz launched its first podcast series, "Table Stakes." CPG marketers like Kraft Heinz have fared well during the crisis as consumers stock up on supplies and seek out comfort food, an opportunity the brand is leveraging with marketing designed to appeal to existing and potentially new customers.