On Tuesday, September 16, PRSSA welcomed back Sarah Oney, who graduated from UGA’s Grady College in May 2023 as a public relations major with a certificate in nonprofit management. She shared about her involvement as a UGA student, her post-grad timeline, her passion for experiential marketing, her time as an Oscar Mayer Hotdogger, the experience she’s gained, and the lessons she has learned.
Experiential Marketing
Sarah explained that experiential marketing is about instilling feelings within a consumer. She elaborated that it is a strategy that focuses on creating real-world, interactive experiences that allow consumers to connect with a brand in a memorable and emotional way, because people remember experiences more than advertisements. Some notable examples of experiential marketing include the Kissmobile, music festival brand activations, Super Bowl experiences, pop-ups on campus, and the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile.
Oscar Mayer Wienermobile
The hot dog-esque vehicle hit the road in 1936 during The Great Depression to spread joy. It is the most successful and longest running experiential marketing campaign in the country, and considered a “PR Firm On Wheels”. There have been 38 classes of “Hotdoggers”, or Wienermobile drivers, and approximately 7,000 applicants for the role. They’ve partnered with Lyft, AirBnb, made appearances at weddings and Drew Barrymore’s birthday party, and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway race. Sarah drove it across 29 states, 300 communities, and lived in hotels along the way. She crafted media lists of influencers, podcasts, TV show producers, and other interview opportunities for the places she visited. In this position, she built a portfolio of professionalism by representing a $3B brand.
“Quick Toppings”
Sarah shared that she has generated 3.6 billion earned media hits. She participated in 3 national activations, such as partnerships with Instacart, the Bologna 50th, and the Wienie 500. She pitched 4 influencer collaborations, secured a 4.6M view trending reel + garnered the largest social following in Wienermobile history through her platform of @OM_Sarahkraut. She’s traveled 28,000+ miles, attended 3000+ events, and received 10B total impressions.
Lessons from “Sarahkraut”
Sarah’s advice to students is to do what speaks to us, and avoid listening to the opinions and noise from others. She emphasized the importance of pursuing your passions, and not to push your goals aside. Sarah recommends “build your brand” and channel what makes you unique. She advised us to ask ourselves: Who are you? What mark do you want to make? Sarah wrote poems to corporate offices, which was a unique method of thinking outside the box. She explained that your journey is meant to change, and referenced The Mel Robbins Podcast by explaining that what she wanted to do did not even exist to her yet, so it is important to keep an open mind. She continued by explaining that it is essential to advocate for yourself because you are your loudest voice.
Q&A with PRSSA President Sydney Brass
Q: Looking back, is there something you wish you knew in college?
A: Sarah wishes she knew how to advocate for herself. “We get so hung up on a decision, that we forget that there’s an experience leading us to it,” Sarah said. “It’s a fun journey and you forget the joy of not knowing what it is in the middle.”
Q: Is there something you learned at UGA that helped you as you navigated this?
A: Sarah loved her classes with Kim Landrum. She says to develop relationships with your professors. She also recommends stepping back and looking at the bigger picture when you’re frustrated about a situation. She learned about how to make a media list in her Public Relations Communications class, and it turned into everything she did for a year. She learned about social media on the road, three-tiered captions on instagram posts, and how to draw people in at the beginning. She also learned when making a campaign to think about the central message, which everything else should come from.
Q: Can you walk us through a day in the hot dog world as you drove the Wienermobile around the country?
A: “Everyday is different. You drive to a new location on Monday, traveling in a hot dog. You can’t go anywhere without people honking and waving, it’s like being a mini celebrity. There is no stepping in silence, because everyday is a parade, and everyone has their phones out. Tuesdays and Wednesdays are off, and you can experience the city. From Thursday to Sunday, you schedule events. The vehicle gets 10,000 event requests per year. They hire 12 people, you spend 7 months with one co-pilot, and then 5 months with another co-pilot. There are 6 vehicles total, and they are on the road 24/7. I did 300 events, and sometimes 2-3 events per day.”
Q: Will you ever eat another hot dog brand that’s not Oscar Mayer?
A: She doesn’t think other brands are actually as good. She only ate 22 hot dogs, and mentioned that it’s not a food truck, just a truck that looks like food, serving up smiles.
Q: Can you talk about going to get groceries?
A: The Wienermobile was her personal vehicle. She used negotiation skills on the road, because every hotel she stayed at was negotiated to a certain price. She went to the grocery store in her Wienermobile, and people surrounded it. She’s taken it to the dentist, the doctor, the movies, and drove a kid to school. The purpose is to make people’s day and build community. She asks herself how she can take the vehicle and use the domino effect of silly happiness to affect people. She didn’t know what it was when she applied, but she knew she wanted to make people happy. She learned about the deep connections that people have to something, like the nostalgia that comes with the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile. She finds it fascinating that a brand has the power to instill that. She explained that you aren’t just selling something, that you are taking people out of their day and giving them something to feel or bring them joy.
Q: Were there any challenging parts of being on the road?
A: It never gets old, it’s always entertaining, and every single day always looks different. She got to see parts of the country that people will never see. There were definitely challenges, like in every job that requires travel. She learned about keeping a level head in a crisis situation, how to build a relationship, and how to control a conversation. She also learned about “bridging” at hot dog high, a series of training events prior to beginning the position. If she received a targeted question, she remained calm, taking something they’ve said, and bridging it into something they’d find interesting. She takes the power back, bringing something else up instead. She is always talking about the positive aspects to create a lively experience for people.
Q: Switching gears, while you were trying to figure out your passions and how to pursue them, how did you balance that with being practical?
A: There’s a level of practicality when chasing dreams, but also controlled recklessness. You’re not always going to have a plan, even if you’re a planner. You can always pivot, so in the first 2-3 years of post-grad, know that decisions are reversible and chasing after a dream doesn’t mean that it isn’t smart.
Q: What’s next for you? What goals are you excited to pursue?
A: Sarah is moving to Chicago in October. She signed an offer letter with an experiential agency at Momentum Worldwide with her client being Walmart. She’ll work on activations at music festivals, traveling, and staying on the road. She wants to sit in the fact that she’s confident in this field and does a good job at it.
Q: Have you had any moments that solidified that PR is everywhere?
A: It was everything that she did. From building media lists, to searching for emails and news outlets, writing pitches, and managing the reputation of a brand as an ambassador. She explained that they don’t only hire people that have studied PR.
Q: Are there any crazy hotdogger stories that you want to share or fun towns you didn’t expect to love?
A: She enjoyed her time Millersburg and Minerva Ohio. She enjoyed bringing the Wienermobile to Amish country, as there were horses and buggies next to it in the parking lot. She also went to someone’s house who cooked for her, and enjoyed moments where people treated her like family. She celebrated Mother’s Day in Annapolis Maryland, and gave rides to mothers.
