2020/2021 Winners & Shortlists

Background

Bugles was once the crowned king of crisps of the region, however in later years it started to face a standstill in market share and a gradual decline in sales. We understood that while the brand was still popular amongst the older generation, Gen Z consumers didn’t share the same sentiment. That’s where the idea to launch a social media campaign that would resonate with this younger audience was born. The objective of the campaign was to reintroduce the brand to the market with a new face and packaging, and ultimately increase brand awareness, sales and market share, and generate brand-love and loyalty across the board.

Describe the creative idea

Bugles is a remarkably unique snack. It tastes different, looks different, feels different and is always surprising. Whether it’s down to the weird and wacky flavours, or it’s unique shape (and the fact that you can’t help but put them on your finger tips), Bugles will always defy your snacking expectations. Our core creative concept was to reintroduce Bugles to the world without ever saying the word Bugles at all. We know that Gen-Z are allergic to advertising, and for that reason we decided to offer them the kind of content they actually want to see; content that’s high energy, unpredictable, riddled with deep-fried culture memes and as addictive to watch as our crisps are to eat. When it came to crunch time, we told them to CRUNCH IT, through a TikTok campaign that would redefine the aesthetic of ads in this space.

Describe the strategy

We needed to gain the trust of a new, younger generation of communiholics; who were born swiping and savvier on social media than any generation we’d seen before. This meant re-defining Bugles’ role on social. Using various R&I sources, including: GWI, Arab Youth Survey & We Are Social x Hootsuite’s Global Digital Report, we studied Saudi Gen Z social and digital behaviour - crafting an audience-first strategic approach. In other words, we had to make our social approach more about them - and less about Bugles. So we identified our opportunity, to breathe life into the brand on a platform that 47% of our consumers were using, as a means of fun and escapism during a very uncertain year; TikTok.

Describe the execution

We began by giving our TikTok audience the thing they longed for most, content that nurtured their desire to creatively cocreate . We initiated our campaign with a branded TikTok challenge that reimagined the Bugles brand through the lens of our Gen-Z audience. We started by creating a contagiously catchy musical score and paired it with a vertical, TikTok-ready video that was designed with our audience’s online behavior in mind; riddled with dank memes, high-energy dancing & hilariously familiar references, ultimately resulting in the least ad-like ad on the platform. We partnered with the region's hottest TikTok KOLs, and leveraged their combined fanbases to extend our campaign reach. We seeded the video across our channels including: Snapchat, Facebook, Instagram & Youtube, over the course of 30 days, with all comms pushing our audience back towards the TikTok platform, enabling our audience to co-create with Bugles and have fun doing it!

List the results

30% increase in sales & achieved its highest ever market share, 34% lift in brand awareness, 23% in ad recall lift, 1.2 BILLION views on the TikTok Hashtag Challenge, 168,000 videos created using the unique hashtag, 1,300 consumers used our unique jingle, The 15 second video achieved an average watch per person of 16.33 seconds, which is 24% higher than the market benchmark (13.1s) also, meaning that consumers watched it more than once, 64% of our audience who viewed the video on FB & IG completed it - exceeding channel completion rates benchmarks by 93%, 11 pieces of earned PR including being featured in Campaign Middle East’s top 20 Digital & Social campaigns of the year.