When a decades-old legacy brand wants to pivot to attract new, younger consumers, there’s no better place to turn than TikTok. And that’s exactly the approach Connelly Partners took to reintroduce Gorton’s Seafood to Gen Z and millennial consumers last summer. 

Connelly Partners launched the established frozen seafood brand on TikTok to imbue it with a fresh sense of youth and playfulness—or, in the campaign's words, to “Make the Freezer Hot Again.” The Boston-based agency took a phased approach to Gorton’s introduction to TikTok, first teaming up with millennial parents to produce videos showing their kids eagerly gobbling down the brand’s frozen fish sticks before later using TikTok to promote and announce the launch of a new air-fried product line.

Gorton’s also leaned into the popularity of AR filters on the platform and launched its own filter that enabled users to catch these air-fried fish in their mouths.

Influencer partners were a key part of both campaign stages, and much of the video content produced throughout the campaign stemmed from the “Gorton’s Creator Team,” a group of food, family and lifestyle influencers. 

Just a few months after launching on TikTok, Gorton’s had amassed more than 100,000 followers; the brand’s overall campaign garnered a total of 6.5 million views and 503,000 engagements across its six-month span.

Not too shabby for a brand 150 years older than the consumers it aimed to reach.