Pringles is a brand that has a whole lotta love. So how do you create even more? Build the brand and make it relevant at all the most important consumption occasions, and most importantly grow sales?
This has been a multi-year project across Europe to bring more fame, relevancy and fun to the world’s most loved chip; to open up new audiences and opportunities for people to come together to enjoy their irresistible taste.
MIND-POPPING
We started with a new creative platform for our global brand refresh, Mind Popping. Launched across EMEA and APAC, with film and online assets for launch.
GAMING
Pringles is less chip more global icon. The pack, the pop and the chip are synonymous with sociable good times and hero worshipped by salty snack lovers across the world.
Although everyone knows Pringles, it is very much associated with parties, getting friends around for football and Christmas. In order to grow we needed to stretch the brand into new snack occasions, and with 2.5bn gamers in the world each gaming on average 6 hours per week means lots of snacking opportunities. A place where you can both build brand and sell product.
But gaming is a notoriously tough environment for brands, and there’s fierce competition for attention. Most importantly, campaigns in this space have to add genuine value and entertainment for the audience. We kicked off with a partnership bringing together XBOX, Twitch and the independent game West of Dead, for their launch. The idea - to bring an NPC out of the game and to life in the real world, for real, as our ambassador and influencer.
It was seen worldwide, with over 686 million projected media impressions, over 100 pieces of coverage, 9.9 million minutes watched on Twitch and making it into the top 10 most watched streams globally. Importantly, it was also loved and generated conversation, with #Frank and #Pringles both trending on Twitter in multiple countries, peaking at #3, and viewers showing total fandom for the campaign:
We generated a +24.7% sales increase for Pringles across key markets. It even had a knock-on effect on sales of the West of Dead game Frank was born from, increasing their games sales by +108%. And to top it all off, the integrated campaign won at D&AD, Cannes, Creative Circle, IPA to name a few, and a global Grand Effie to top it all off
To celebrate the 40th anniversary of the console that launched all other consoles, the ZX Spectrum, we created a game and competition only accessible to those passionate enthusiasts who could recognise our painful audio on YouTube was a ZX Spectrum programme, record it and run it on the original console or emulator. Everything from the graphics, animation and gameplay were taken painstakingly from the original ZX guidelines. This won Campaign Big best work in the Gaming category, as well as a Cannes Lion.
And how could we build even closer bonds with gamers in 2023? In 2022 we released an NPC into the real world, but at a time of the great resignation, and computers ‘coming for our jobs’ we again partnered with XBOX and Twitch to create the first paid job in a game. Welcome to train Sim World 3, where you could win a job as a Pringles vending machine stacker. We had thousands of entries from our integrated campaign, won multiple awards at One Show, Creative Circle, Caples and Cannes, and of course sold more Pringles than ever.
MULTIGRAIN
The new HFSS rules in the UK meant that the launch of Multigrain Pringles was a key driver. But how do you launch a new product made to taste just as delicious as the originals, when multigrain isn’t something that people want to talk about, or share? For our UK launch we made it a talking point across the nation with a simple spelling mistake across all our comms. One that opened a door for us to have as much fun with the NPD as multigrain became ‘multigran’.
When our next fully integrated campaign for multigrain was launched, the star of our show was the wonderfully different Synth Hamster - a squeaking, keyboard playing wonder with it’s own Bamdcamp album, tiny tour posters and of course a film that makes you squeal with delight.
CAN HANDS
Grey London was part of the 2023 Super Bowl team, creating an hilarious film based around something the internet talk about a lot - people’s hands get stuck in a Pringles can trying to get to the delicious bottom chips. Hyperbolising this into ridiculous situations for a key moment was one thing, and we then adapted the concept across Europe for more repeatable consumption occasions, from nights in and house parties to apero time.