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# The jar in the wrong zip code
- URL: https://giovanni-gallucci.ghost.io/the-jar-in-the-wrong-zip-code/
- Published: 2026-10-13T15:14:25.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-13T15:14:25.000Z
- Description: Duke's Mayo is in about 65% of mayo-selling stores and climbing, and its best fan mechanic (Venmo cash for tagged posts) still runs only in seven Southern cities. Point it at the new shelves before the next mayo bath.
- Author: giovanni gallucci
- Tags: Organic Social, Brand Positioning, Retail Distribution, Consumer Trends, shelf-life

*Listen to this episode of Shelf-Life, then use the piece below.*

The first time [Duke's Mayo](https://dukesmayo.com/?ref=giovanni-gallucci.ghost.io) put its name on a bowl game, the winning coach got a water bath. December 30, 2020, Wisconsin beats Wake Forest 42 to 28 in Charlotte, and Paul Chryst gets doused out of a jug with a Duke's label slapped on it. Bank of America Stadium had said no to mayonnaise on the field. The internet, which had been promised a grown man covered in condiment, felt cheated.

Rebecca Lupesco, Duke's director of marketing, told [MediaPost in January](https://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/411899/with-football-fans-and-challenger-strategies-duke.html?ref=giovanni-gallucci.ghost.io) exactly what happened: "The first year, we used a Gatorade jug and just branded it with Duke's." The year after, they fixed it. Mayo in the bucket, and a tradition that's now run through Shane Beamer, Mike Locksley, Neal Brown, P.J. Fleck and, this past January, Wake Forest's Jake Dickert, who took roughly 42 pounds of it, and so did his wife and three kids.

That fix is the most useful thing on this week's Shelf-Life table. A 109-year-old Southern mayonnaise read its own comments, admitted the first version was a cop-out, and changed the content. Most brands defend the jug.

## What Duke's is trying to do right now

Duke's is going national, and the numbers are big enough to make the social plan look small. Per that same MediaPost piece, Duke's sits in roughly 65% of the stores that sell mayonnaise, Lupesco expects 80% soon, and the brand's dollar share is up to about 10%, good for second behind Hellmann's after passing Kraft. In Charlotte, where the bowl is played, she says about half the mayo sold is Duke's. The expansion targets the Northeast, the West and the South Central region, Texas included, which is why Rachel Donovan, my cohost this week, is now seeing the jar on shelves in West Texas.

[Retail Brew reported in July](https://www.retailbrew.com/stories/how-dukes-mayo-got-cooking-with-restaurants-to-grow-retail-sales?ref=giovanni-gallucci.ghost.io) that Duke's picked up national distribution at Walmart, Kroger, Albertsons and Dollar General, and that it ranked second in dollar sales in NielsenIQ's Q2 2026 mayonnaise and sandwich spreads category, up from fifth a year earlier (Duke's supplied that data). Brad Wile, chief growth officer at Sauer Brands, which owns Duke's, told them the restaurant partnerships are part of the pitch to retailers.

The national campaign is called "Mayo Is Coming," built by Familiar Creatures. It debuted January 2 at the bowl with a :30 spot on the jumbotron and the ESPN broadcast, alongside staff in the stands squirting Duke's onto hot dogs and chicken fingers (and into a few open mouths), the jar mascot Tubby running in-game mayo challenges, and a parachute drop of plush jars into the crowd.

All of that is a fine night. My problem is with what happens on a Tuesday in March.

## The fan base lives in the wrong place

Duke's has the kind of fans other brands buy. Lupesco says they've given away Duke's tattoos at events. The brand platform since 2024 is called ["Welcome to Duke's Country"](https://dukesmayo.com/blogs/press-releases/dukes-mayo-launches-new-brand-campaign-welcome-to-dukes-country?ref=giovanni-gallucci.ghost.io). The recipe pitch (no sugar, apple cider vinegar for the tang) is something people in the Carolinas recite at cookouts without being asked.

And the brand already pays them to post. During [Hot Tomato Summer](https://dukesmayo.com/blogs/press-releases/hot-tomato-summer-returns-with-new-flavors-new-city-and-even-more-mayo?ref=giovanni-gallucci.ghost.io), a ten-day restaurant event that ran July 17 to 27 last year, Duke's randomly sent Venmo cash to fans who posted their tomato-and-mayo dish on Instagram and tagged both the restaurant and @dukes\_mayonnaise. Diners voted daily for the Golden Tomato Award in each city.

Look at the cities, though. Virginia Beach, Richmond, Greenville, Charleston, Charlotte, Raleigh, Knoxville. Seven, and every one of them is a place where Duke's already owns the shelf. The best UGC mechanic the brand has runs in its home market, where it needs the help least, in a ten-day window, at restaurants.

The new shopper in a Denver Kroger or a Lubbock Walmart gets the bowl clip once a year and a :30 spot that was made for television. She's standing in front of the blue-lid jar she's bought for twenty years with about three seconds to decide, and nobody she follows has ever told her Duke's is worth the switch.

Meanwhile there are Carolinians all over the country (every one who moved to Phoenix or Minneapolis for a job) who would lose their minds seeing the yellow label in their new grocery store. That's the most valuable audience Duke's has, and right now it has no assignment.

## What I'd build before the next bowl

The last two Duke's Mayo Bowls were played January 3 and January 2\. If the next one lands in the same window, that's under twelve weeks out. The bucket clip will travel again whether the brand posts it or not, because ESPN carries the game and every college football account on earth reposts it. What's missing is anybody in the new markets ready to catch that attention and point it at a shelf.

So, three things, in this order.

One, take the Venmo mechanic out of the restaurant and put it in the grocery aisle. Same rule (post it, tag us, we might pay you), different trigger: the first time you find a jar in a store outside the old footprint. Call it whatever the brand wants. I'd call the people doing it exiles, because that's how they talk about themselves.

Two, reply to every sighting by name and keep a running public map of them. Every post is proof of distribution in a town the sales team is still fighting for, and a buyer at a regional chain can look at that map. A sales deck can't buy that.

Three, point the tomato season at grocery. Hot Tomato Summer is built for restaurants in seven Southern cities. Tomato season is the one stretch of the year a shopper buys mayo on purpose instead of out of habit, so it's the season a challenger should own in every new market, with a local creator doing the tomato sandwich test in each one the week jars hit the shelf.

And the mistake everybody watching this is about to make: buying a bowl. The name on the scoreboard is the cheap part. Duke's won because the brand did something ridiculous on camera that fit the product, listened when fans called the jug a cop-out, and had a fan base that would defend it in the comments. A brand without that buys a bowl and gets a logo nobody screenshots.

## Use this today

You don't need a bowl game for any of this. If your product landed in a new market this quarter (a new chain, a new region, a new set), this is the build for this week. Positive news, so the job is to cash it in while it's fresh.

One, the post. Pasteable for Instagram, TikTok or Threads, edit the bracketed bits and ship it:

> We're on shelves at \[CHAIN\] in \[CITY\] now. If you grew up with us somewhere else and just found us here, post the jar where you found it and tag us. First 25 who do, we're sending you something. Bring the aisle number.

Keep the "something" honest and cheap: a shirt, a coupon, a handwritten note from whoever runs the account. Then answer every single one by first name, in the comments, the same day. The replies are the content.

Two, the still. Your product on the actual store shelf, shot on a phone at shelf height, straight on, with the category leader's package visible next to it and slightly out of focus. Store fluorescent light, no flash, don't fix the price tag that's crooked. If you can get a shopper's hand reaching for yours, take it (get permission first, obviously). That frame tells a new market you're here and who you're here to replace, without saying either.

Three, the video. Twenty-four seconds, vertical, one phone, one person who grew up with the product.

- Shot one, three seconds: their hands holding a set of car keys in a grocery parking lot. Text on screen: "Moved to \[CITY\] in \[YEAR\]."
- Shot two, four seconds: walking the aisle, phone at hip height, scanning the shelf. No talking.
- Shot three, three seconds: the stop. Product on the shelf, fluorescent light, the category leader next to it.
- Shot four, five seconds: their face, reacting, unscripted. Whatever they say, keep it.
- Shot five, six seconds: back home, one bite of the thing they always made with it, at their own counter, no styling.
- Shot six, three seconds: the jar on the counter, empty spot on the shelf behind it if they have one. Text on screen: "\[CHAIN\], aisle \[NUMBER\]."

Trending audio low under the store noise, captions burned in, post the day you shoot it, and tag the store's local account.

If the new-market sighting posts start coming in, repost the best one every week until the next big moment on your calendar. By the time that moment shows up, there's a local audience waiting to point at it.

This piece extends this week's Shelf-Life. The show is the briefing, the article is the build, and the post is what you ship. Shelf-Life runs Tuesdays inside The Daily Trend Report feed; subscribe on [Apple Podcasts](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-daily-trends-report/id1896763846?ref=giovanni-gallucci.ghost.io) or [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/show/033jcZwbZNGKpeUTRJvt1J?ref=giovanni-gallucci.ghost.io) and it's waiting before you open the laptop.

Turning a quiet fan base into one that posts for you is the part I start with on day one for food and beverage brands. If your fans love you and your comment section is a ghost town, [message me on LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/galluccinet?ref=giovanni-gallucci.ghost.io).