For their first foray into frozen baked goods, Hostess introduced Deep-Fried Twinkies, available in the freezer section at Wal-Mart stores nationwide. We had a very, very small budget to work with (the brand was still recovering from their famous bankruptcy and had only recently made their “Sweetest Comeback in the History of Ever.”) We were entrusted with determining a very strong creative strategy for a digital/social campaign that would run for two weeks prior to the launch and then continue for a three-month period.

Cozi.com, a family organization app, hired us to help promote the site and increase sign-ups, with a goal of reaching 1 million new users in a year. They were prepared to run a digital campaign, but we pitched a much bolder idea, based around the creative strategy that Cozi helps families “keep their ducks in a row”. My team and I created an event to help Cozi set a Guinness World Record for the longest line of ducks in a row, with 17,782 yellow rubber ducks stretching an entire mile through Magnuson Park in Seattle, WA.

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”.

Milksplash flavor enhancer provided a variety of kid-friendly flavors, designed to encourage kids to drink more milk. Research showed that kids were 70% more likely to choose flavored milk over plain milk, and are 50% more likely to choose flavored milk over juice, when they have control over the flavoring. We based the creative strategy on the human truth that kids like choices almost as much as they love treats.