hijacking an inauthentic holiday to enhance an authentic one

In Mexico, Cinco de Mayo is a small, quiet holiday celebrating victory over the French at the Battle of Puebla.

In America, it’s become a reason to overindulge in tacos and tequila.

So, instead of promoting an inauthentic Mexican holiday, Cholula, the Mother of Sauce, asked bar-goers to leave the bars, and join us in celebrating a bigger, authentic Mexican holiday just five days later: Día de las Madres.

Often referred to as “Mexican Mother’s Day,” Día de las Madres is a huge national celebration. All across Mexico, mamás wake up to serenatas performed by mariachi and share delicious breakfasts with their families.

We went to bars on Cinco de Mayo and asked partiers why they were celebrating (none of them knew), reminded them Mother’s Day was that very weekend, educated them on the more authentic Día de las Madres, and offered anyone who was willing to leave the Cinco celebration an opportunity to fly home and make brunch for their mom on Mother’s Day.

All the while, we were shooting, editing and posting the whole experience on Cholula’s and our celebrity partner, Jessica Marie Garcia’s, Instagram and TikTok live and in real time.

We earned over 275 million media impressions across 390 unique media placements and over 15 million impressions on social.

Visitors to Cholula.com during the activation timeline spent an average of over 2 minutes on the site, a 125% improvement over the site average. And sales increased by 14% year over year. But most importantly, the Mother of Sauce didn’t celebrate Cinco de Mayo. We celebrated Cinco de Madre and made some mamás’ days.

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