McIlhenny Company, maker of Tabasco® brand Pepper Sauce, has been a client of BMF for more than fifty years. Our agency has created award-winning and sales-successful ad campaigns, package designs, PR campaigns, cookbooks, videos, ground roots efforts, and internal communications.

The objective of the Industrial Ingredients marketing program is to position Tabasco® brand products in the forefront as viable options to food manufacturers and processors who are seeking bolder and more venturesome flavors in new product development. To accomplish this, the agency develops exciting ways to educate food technologists, company owners and brand managers about the various forms of Tabasco® available and their applications to new and existing food products. The effort involves national trade publications, web marketing, direct marketing, public relations/publicity, and industry trade show exhibits.

For the business-to-business publications, BMF created a series of full-color ads which depict the "hottest" food trends (by category growth) in before-and-after situations. The "before" products are bland and uninteresting. The "after" products — with Tabasco® Ingredients added — are exciting and appetizing. Each ad showcases a particular Tabasco® Ingredients application (there are ten different formulations) as well as the BMF-created "Play With Your Food" logo. The ads have been so successful that food processors request samples from the Avery Island plant by referring to the actual ads. ("I want the stuff that's on those French fries.") Every year, they score in the top five ads of over 50 tested in annual readership studies conducted by independent research firms.

The ingredients division of Tabasco® is now one of the most profitable in McIlhenny Company's line of products. Its growth over a nine-year period has been steadily in the triple and double-digit percentages. Some of the biggest growth has been realized from the expanded number of co-branded products, many of which resulted from the advertising exposure. Companies such as Hormel, Heinz and Keebler have responded to the growing consumer demand for spicy flavor by creating new line extensions using Tabasco® Brand Ingredients.

* The majority of the varieties of Tabasco® Brand Ingredients are by-products of the mash that is left over after the pepper sauce has been extracted. At one time, McIlhenny Company used to pay a vendor to haul the mash away from Avery Island for disposal.