IDENTIFYING THOSE WHO WERE MISSING SNACK CAKES THE MOST BEGAN WITH DIGGING DEEP INTO CUSTOMERS’ HEARTS, MINDS, AND TWITTER FEEDS – AND THEN DETERMINING THEIR BATTLE CRY.
Hostess Snack Cake Case Study
Q: How do you mount one of the greatest comebacks in history for a legendary snack cake brand that has no budget?
A: You enlist, empower, and celebrate the brand’s broken-hearted, loyal fans to help spread the good word.
CHALLENGE
The new owner and hopeful resurrector of Hostess needed a marketing miracle to relaunch the 90-year-old brand and reignite a love affair with consumers with next to no budget.
INSIGHT
Research determined our target of Gen X Moms wanted to be able to talk the talk with their kids. But our social media listening audits revealed a formerly untapped admiration for Hostess among male millennials. Jackpot. We had our troubadours, now we just had to inspire them with the right song.
SOLUTION
1. Designed an integrated multi-channel campaign that connected with our finicky millennial target; knowing they preferred to self-discover brands and then self-promote with their own sense of creativity, we reached them through social media, radio, street teams, special events, PR and more—all in an effort to let them own and carry forward the Hostess message.
2. Pre-launched with announcements of the upcoming return (REMOVED DATE) of the beloved cakes with out-of-home postings in New York and Los Angeles; used guerrilla and social marketing efforts to ask customer to “Prepare Your Cakeface.”
3. Rounded out the campaign by officially announcing Hostess’ return as “The sweetest comeback in the history of ever.” In the end, leveraged consumers’ broken hearts in a tongue-in-cheek way, reuniting them with the brand they loved.
RESULTS
Drove an increase in Twinkie sales of 185% and experienced product sell-out within the first 24 hours
Increased Facebook fans by 25% and Instagram followers by 2,023%
Vaulted #Twinkies and #CakeFace to viral trends nationally and saw the explosion of over 12,000 Buzzfeed articles
From ashes to IPO, from bygone icon to current pop culture, these guys created one of the greatest brand turnarounds in the history of ever.
