From Wisconsin with Love: Culver’s National Tour

Culver’s is a family-owned brand that wanted to bring some Wisconsin love on tour, showcasing the brand’s roots across the country. Along with this high-level objective, Culver’s wanted to share the history and origin of the brand, and give customers a better understanding of its history, mission, vision, and values. To achieve this, Hiebing Group (Culver’s PR agency) partnered with RMNG and brought Culver’s to 17 cities (Indianapolis, Phoenix, Houston, Tampa, Pensacola, Orlando, Atlanta, Charlotte, Nashville, Cleveland, Chicago, Detroit, Milwaukee, Kansas City, Salt Lake City, Denver, and Minneapolis) across the better part of 2022.

The Culver’s brand follows the strict belief that “good food starts with the people and hard work that grow it.” Culver’s runs many philanthropic efforts to help local Wisconsin farms, so our entire design and 50x50 footprint were created to pay homage to those hard-working Wisconsin farmers and ranchers. With this in mind, each activation included a plethora of interactive touchpoints. Among some were a live cheese sculptor (yes, that’s a thing) working from a giant block of genuine Wisconsin cheese, analog life-sized Plinko machines, a live cow from a local petting zoo, and a life-sized cow piggy bank when the live version wasn’t allowed.

To make the event educational and family-friendly, we included a giant interactive screen where visitors could learn about Culver’s history, Wisconsin roots, mission, and values as well as games that kids could play to earn Culver’s swag. Scoopie, the famous Culver’s mascot was also present, interacting with and teaching kids throughout the event.

Perhaps most importantly, upon entering the activation guests would be directed to the Culver’s food truck, where friendly Culver’s staff served up Culver’s most famous cuisine: Butter Burgers, fried cheese curds, and Culver’s infamous frozen custard.

Exit interviews proved the results of all of the hard work: word of mouth had brought parents and die-hard Culver’s fans from far away to attend the activations, and parents & kids both left with smiles and a greater appreciation for the Culver’s brand.