#TBT:
TWIX BITESIZE AND
TAKING LATEA NEW TO PRODUCT GREAT FROM THE BUSINESS SITUATION: A NOT-SO-BITE-SIZED PROBLEM With increased interest in overall health and easily controlled snacking portions, the only segment growing in the otherwise flat chocolate category is “bite-sized.”1 In 2011, Hershey’s introduced their top-performing brands (Reese’s, Kit Kat and Rolo) in a smaller format, and MARS, a market leader, found itself reduced to a bit player in bite-size. In defining a new segment and satisfying a consumer desire, Hershey’s gained almost 2 share points quickly through this reinvention of their portfolio. Moreover, Hershey’s spent $87M in media against their bite-sized portfolio – an incredible investment in a new seg- ment – and outspent us 3 to 1.2 We were outmaneuvered, overdue, and outspent. We needed a plan – and fast - to ensure that we stayed our ground despite growth from our chief competitor.
1Business Wire Report. US Chocolate Industry 2013-2018: Trends, Forecasts and Opportunity Analysis. May 14, 2015. 2Partner Agency Media Report. THE INSIGHT: A PREDICAMENT BECOMES A PERK
Bite-sized chocolate wasn’t new news to consumers – by late 2013, when we were getting ready to launch TWIX Bites, people were already used to seeing Hershey’s brands in these smaller sizes, and that’s what was keeping us up at night. How were we going to launch a new product that wasn’t going to feel all that new?
As with any new product, we conducted focus groups to find out what they liked or disliked about TWIX Bites. We went in expecting to learn about the product’s shape, size, taste, and texture.
We didn’t expect to walk out with the strategy.
It came from listening to consumers’ unprompted responses, when they tried the product. They kept asking us the same question, again and again.
“What took you so long?”
It wasn’t that they didn’t like bite-size chocolate.
It was that they couldn’t believe that TWIX, one of the category’s most iconic brands, hadn’t done this already. To them, the idea was simple – so simple, in fact, that it was downright funny we missed it.
We had our answer, staring us in the face. We couldn’t go back in time and change the past.
But we could offer up reasons for what might have caused the delay in the first place.
WE COULD TAKE OUR CURRENT BUSINESS PROBLEM AND TURN IT INTO THE PERFECT COMMUNICATIONS SOLUTION. THE CREATIVE IDEA: GOING BACK TO THE PAST TO RE-WRITE THE FUTURE What were all of the reasons that we didn’t introduce TWIX Bites sooner? In the minds of our creatives, the possibilities seemed endless - there were almost too many reasons why TWIX Bites didn’t make it to market until now. But we needed an idea with cultural relevance – one that would enable the news of the product to punch above its media weight. For our creatives, nothing seemed more relevant than the heavily-discussed recent decades of the 1980s and 90s – and the trends and moments that defined them were ripe for the creative picking. These iconic cues from decades past could demonstrate how long ago we had the brilliant idea for TWIX Bites, but how the fates had conspired against us for the last 30 or so years. The answer lay in the intersection of being humble and humorous. We couldn’t brag about our brilliance, because Hershey’s beat us to the punch. But we could provide entertainment to engage consumers and help our news soar. THE COMMUNICATIONS CHALLENGE: HOW COULD WE MAKE A BIG SPLASH WITH A SMALLER ROCK? We had a winning product, a winning proposition, and a winning idea. We were on our way to bring Twix Bites to market. Our TV buy was purchased against the Primary Grocery Shopper, or moms aged 25-49, but given that Twix over indexes with younger people under 353. We knew we had to go beyond the TV buy alone. We needed Millennials to evangelize Twix Bites for us, given that they already love the brand. Clearly, our work was not yet done. Our strategic communications challenge was rooted in our media strategy. TWIX Bites needed to find a way outside of its biggest reach-driving medium, TV, to stretch our budget and make the launch feel big, ensuring that the brand would get noticed by our key younger demographic. We didn’t have the budget of our competitors or even our sibling brands; what we did have was an idea that revolved around nostalgia cues, and a nostalgic social media event that took place reliably every week.
VIDEOS
FLAT TOP :15 VIRTUAL PET :15
Y2K :15 DIAL UP :15
3Beacon Ad and Brand Tracker 2012. THE ANSWER: RETRO RELEVANCE, IN THE RIGHT PLACE AT THE RIGHT TIME #THROWBACKTHURSDAY: CELEBRATE OUR LATENESS We knew this hashtag was popular amongst our social circles, but soon learned the spread of this trend. With over 228MM photos hashtagged #throwbackthursday as of May 2014, this was clearly a phenomenon worth tapping into. Once we knew we wanted to utilize the #throwbackthursday hashtag, we needed to focus on just the one day – to credibly play on #throwbackthursday, the message had to match the medium.
We had our content - four :15 videos, which were uniquely designed to run on social media. The videos were hosted on YouTube, and were amplified with pre-roll purchased on Thursdays, to drive additional, concentrated reach of the content. On Facebook, where Twix has an existing presence, we utilized promoted posts, only running on Thursdays; additionally, we created a Twix Instagram account to push out the videos where #throwbackthursday was born…on Thursdays. But to really drive additional reach for the idea, we needed a partner with as much equity in nostalgia as the stories we were telling – BuzzFeed Rewind, the sister site to BuzzFeed, that features only content relating to nostalgia and retro cues. They helped us craft four unique posts, populated with nostalgic content, which were posted and bumped to the top of the feed, only on Thursdays. By combining a culturally-relevant idea with the placement-relevant hashtag and content partners, we could amplify the TWIX Bites launch, driving earned reach for the idea and grabbing the attention of our key demographic simultaneously. THE RESULT: AN EXTRA-RELEVANT CAMPAIGN, BUILT ON PURELY RETRO CUES The launch of Twix Bites was a tremendous success; by using social media to capture our crucial under-35 demographic, we were able to punch far above our media weight:
◊ 75% of #TBT content views on YouTube reached our under-35 target, which our TV buy was unable to capture.4 For every 10 people who saw Twix content as a result of paid media, ◊ Twix Bites’ #TBT Facebook content delivered an average an additional 3 people saw the content for free as a result of sharing! of 8.1M impressions each Thursday throughout the 64,244 Social Views 1.3X Social Lift campaign - the same amount of impressions that we Erica Cable Meyer LOL!! These commercials are would otherwise see on a week-long Twix Facebook hiliarious! Keep up the good work! campaign.5 I wanna be your puppy This is a very good campaign. If you don’t like it, you ◊ On YouTube, paid media purchased on Thursdays fueled are either lying or dumb. 4X the amount of organic views of TWIX Bites #TBT 6 content. MsUsagi513 “No wait!” Oh boy! That brought back memories.
◊ Our partnership with BuzzFeed generated a 30% earned Tracy Kreig thought this was funny, I did actually LOL! We all had one of those guys in the office at lift on Twix Bites content and drove significant additional one time or another! Cute! reach of the campaign.7 ◊ And the chatter was consistently positive, with 91% staceydanger Aghh!! what a fun spot! overall positive sentiment across six different social 8 reactions as measured by BuzzFeed. Air Espenilla Hilarious. But very true. Dial up was a nightmare
4 YouTube #TBT Campaign Data, October 2014, data runs 8/14/14 – 8/31/14. 7 BuzzFeed Campaign Report, October 2014, data runs 8/14/14 – 8/31/14. 5 Facebook #TBT Campaign Data, October 2014, data runs 8/14/14 – 8/31/14. 8 BuzzFeed Campaign Report, October 2014, data runs 8/14/14 – 8/31/14. 6 YouTube #TBT Campaign Data, October 2014, data runs 8/14/14 – 8/31/14.