Deep-Fried Twinkies Product Launch
Client: Hostess
Deep-Fried Twinkies Product Launch
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• #deepfriedtwinkies was the #1 trending hashtag on X (for 14 hours) and Facebook (six hours) on day of launch
• 1.6 million quality video views within the first month, with an average view completion rate of 37.4% (vs. industry average of 15%)
• 4.4 billion media impressions earned over the year
• Deep-Fried Twinkies sales contributed to the brand’s pro forma net revenue increase of 17%, rising from $620,815,000 to $727,586,000 over the fiscal year. (Hostess Annual Report)
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For their first foray into frozen baked goods, Hostess introduced Deep-Fried Twinkies, available in the freezer section at Wal-Mart stores nationwide. The launch budget was very small, since the brand was still recovering from their famous bankruptcy. As the Social Media AOR, my team was challenged with developing a creative strategy and social campaign that would run for two weeks prior to the product launch and then continue for a three-month period. The creative strategy would also inform product launch support, in-store sampling and point of sale.
For their first foray into frozen baked goods, Hostess introduced Deep-Fried Twinkies, available in the freezer section at Wal-Mart stores nationwide. With a small budget and minimal time, I had to work very quickly to articulate a creative strategy and brief. The product had several negatives working against it: unhealthy food product, low yum appeal due to packaging considerations, incongruity of being frozen and also deep-fried. To ground the strategy in human insight, I explored consumer behaviors and sentiment toward deep-fried foods. This very colorful subject showed up as a cultural phenomenon, with one source noting that, despite the adverse health effects, it “borders on obsession”.
While solving for the creative strategy, I was heavily influenced by Ted Allen’s quote, seen in my notes, here. I captured the human truth that people are more accepting of unique deep-fried foods thanks to an associated sense of fun. The creative strategy leaned heavily on the novelty factor of deep-frying, as popularized by state fair culture. Frying everything in the spirit of rebellion hit the spot. From there, I offered up the creative strategy, “everything is better deep-fried”.
The creative strategy informed and guided a video-heavy, low-budget campaign, with a tight brief for creative built around the idea that “EVERYTHING is better deep-fried.” After a kickoff and briefing that included fried food and examples of incredible/ridiculous consumer behavior related to state fairs and fried food, the creative work came easily. We kept the idea very simple: deep-frying anything we could fit into the deep-fryer, to set up a reveal for deep-frying a box of Twinkies. With a deep-fryer, hush puppy batter, and plenty of oil, the team shot dozens of short videos over a weekend. We deep-fried anything and everything, nothing was off-limits.
The short videos were posted in a consistent cadence over two weeks, leading up to the climax: a box of Twinkies being dunked in the fryer and coming out as Deep-Fried Twinkies. Community management creatives bantered round the clock with social media users, keeping the personality and engagement high.
There was plenty of ridiculous social media banter and engagement; for example, Magic 8 Ball “retaliated” because we deep-fried their product, so they good-naturedly smashed up some Twinkies for Twitter fans. The complete product launch included digital and social, in-store sampling, point-of-sale, and PR.
The Results.
While the media spend was minimal, the content resonated with viewers and had robust social audience interaction. The product launch was covered in hundreds of news outlets. The campaign kick-started a PR trend for the brand, ultimately earning 4.4Billion impressions over the year.
The campaign earned over 5MM impressions, 1.6 MM video views, 16k likes, 3,800 comments, and 5k shares within the first month. The social media campaign achieved the #1 trending hashtag on Facebook (six hours) and on Twitter (14 hours) on the day of the launch. The videos earned 1.6 million quality views within the first month, with an average view completion rate of 37.4%, well over the industry average of 15%.
More importantly, Deep-Fried Twinkies sales contributed to the brand’s pro forma net revenue increase of 17%, rising from $620,815,000 to $727,586,000 over the fiscal year. (Hostess Annual Report)
“Our financial performance this year benefited from increased distribution and product innovation initiatives, like Deep-Fried Twinkies, as well as continuing to build market share on our core products.” - Bill Toler, President and Chief Executive Officer, Hostess. (Food Business News)
For fun, this is a ring I made and wore during the creative strategy client presentation
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