What happens when a beloved hot sauce disappears from shelves? For most brands, it’s just a blip. For Innerspin Marketing, it was the perfect opening to spark something bold—and a little bit spicy. In the midst of a nationwide sriracha shortage, they helped Lee Kum Kee, a 135-year-old heritage brand, swoop in like a perfect rebound with “Your Main Squeeze”—a cheeky, omnichannel campaign that fused bold design, playful messaging, and digital culture to connect Lee Kum Kee with a new generation of flavor seekers. From flirty subway ads to Twitch livestreams and limited-edition streetwear, the campaign didn’t just introduce a product—it reintroduced a brand.

By: The Innerspin Marketing Team

When a competitor’s supply chain fails, you don’t gloat—you romance their customers. That’s what we did for Lee Kum Kee, helping a new generation fall in love with an iconic brand.

The Challenge

Lee Kum Kee has been a global leader in authentic Asian flavors since 1888, but they had limited brand recognition in the US. Huy Fong, meanwhile, was synonymous with sriracha, but a weak chili harvest meant customers would have to explore fresh options. 

Not knowing how long the shortage would last, we had to go from conception to launch in just 10 weeks. Our mission: Match heat seekers with Lee Kum Kee Sriracha and Sriracha Mayo, creating a gateway for consumers to fall in love with the wider Lee Kum Kee lineup.

The Creative Spark

In an age of digital dating, we asked ourselves: “How do we get people to fall in love with Lee Kum Kee?” The answer was right there in the cultural moment. Burned by their old flame, consumers could start fresh with Lee Kum Kee, a brand that wouldn’t let them down.

Our core strategy was to make the Lee Kum Kee sriracha bottle unforgettable. If a consumer walked into a grocery store and couldn’t find their usual sriracha, they’d remember one of our ads and reach for Lee Kum Kee.

The tagline “Your Main Squeeze” set the stage for romance and made a direct nod to the bottle’s format, a fun and effective way to communicate product usage. The dual meaning opened up creative possibilities, allowing us to personify the bottle throughout the campaign. 

By featuring hands interacting with the bottle throughout our imagery, we made the product feel more intimate and approachable. Every squeeze became a moment of connection between consumer and brand.

Turning Up the Flavor

Lee Kum Kee’s ambition to connect with Gen Z and digital natives demanded an omnichannel approach. From eye-catching billboards to shelf displays, from social feeds to streaming platforms, we brought authentic flavor to every touchpoint.

Our cheeky, flirty tone of voice was crafted to resonate with our target demos and pay off the larger concept. “Next Stop: Your Place,” read one New York City subway ad featuring a young couple. Product copy for Lee Kum Kee’s sriracha promised a “guilt-free, gluten-free pleasure that will satisfy your craving.” This playful language turned typical food advertising into something uniquely fresh, borderline suggestive, and impossible to ignore.

We constructed a visual language for the campaign that embraced bold typography, vibrant colors, and on-screen talent that looked and dressed like our target consumers. The minimalism-meets-maximalism aesthetic helped Lee Kum Kee stand out on social and out-of-home ads across the country.

We built SrirachaLove.com as the campaign’s central hub, capturing all traffic from our ads and touchpoints. The microsite helped our digitally native audience find sriracha near them with an immersive brand experience that showcased Lee Kum Kee’s bold new look and personality. 

On top of strategic OOH ad placement, we sponsored genre-bending hyperpop rapper Ericdoa’s two-week, 24/7 album recording livestream on Twitch, and partnered with up-and-coming artists Hayd and Alex Porat on Instagram and TikTok. 

For a 135-year-old legacy brand, partnering with musicians as influencers was an unexpected move—one that positioned Lee Kum Kee at the intersection of food and music. To amplify Lee Kum Kee’s new cultural cache, we created limited-edition streetwear that could never be confused for corporate swag. The merch drops turned fans into brand ambassadors and attracted thousands of sign-ups to give our client a wealth of first-party data.

With a holistic approach to youth marketing, this heritage company was ready to reach a generation that values authenticity, creativity, and brands willing to show up in their spaces—both virtual and physical.

The Heat Check

The results were as hot as the sauce itself. We generated 1.05 billion total impressions, garnered 110,000+ monthly microsite users, and saw 20,000+ monthly product locator searches. The campaign transformed Lee Kum Kee’s market presence with Gen Z and millennial foodies, leading to expanded retailer distribution.

“Your Main Squeeze” was initially slated for a three-month run, but its cultural resonance proved to be powerful. Lee Kum Kee continues to leverage the campaign’s creative assets and strategic framework across channels. The concept’s success also sparked international interest as Lee Kum Kee optioned “Your Main Squeeze” to its Canada and APAC markets.

At Innerspin Marketing, we were thrilled to deliver for Lee Kum Kee and receive industry recognition for our work. This Graphis Advertising Award is a tremendous honor and a validation of our creative vision from our peers.

For us, “Your Main Squeeze” reinforced a crucial lesson: the power of meeting your audience exactly where they are—in their vernacular, on their platforms, with their aesthetics. Ultimately, it’s proof that a 135-year-old brand can gain cultural relevance without compromising its legacy of excellence. 

Innerspin Marketing is a Los Angeles-based boutique branding and marketing agency. For over a decade, our small, agile collective has delivered for bell-ringers, boot-strappers, and every business in between. We’re known for rostering the likes of Lee Kum Kee, Taco Bell, and Walgreens. Still, at Innerspin, we take equal pride in building and nurturing the next generation of market leaders with work that turns cultural moments into brand movements.

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