4 min read · Sep 12, 2020
“You’re not you when you are hungry” is a widely known phrase from the snickers campaign which has successfully paved the way for Snickers (a chocolate bar owned by MARS Inc. company) into the global market. Its usage in memes and jokes ever since the first advertisem*nt aired has been an example of impressive localization of the brand. It has affected people in a way they could easily relate to it. It is not simple but the easy to remember, the straightforward and effective tagline was something everyone could connect to.
The idea for this advertisem*nt came from qualitative research, stating a universal code of conduct is followed by men and any behaviour outside of it is termed as unusual or out of sorts. It was then applied universally to the expectations and behaviour of people worldwide. Hunger is an emotion people could easily relate to no matter where they belonged. Any abnormal behaviour would mean that something is wrong and what’s a better reason than the hunger for selling a nut-filled chocolate bar. In this way, MARS found a way to penetrate the global market and attract more buyers.
So how did the company go about it?
MARS targeted different markets using locale celebrities keeping in mind the viewership. Audience specific actors and relatable situations presented in a fun and creative way paved the way to success. The message conveyed is simple and easily carried forward in conversations, twitter jokes and memes. This made the campaign highly successful.
The first campaign was run in the US, launched during the super bowl 2010, an event covered by media extensively online and on the television, increasing the chances of widespread viewership. Featuring comedian, actress, and author Betty White, the 30 seconds ad received more than 91 days of media coverage and topped as №1 advertisem*nt of the super bowl.
Local coverage leading to global engagement
Since then Snickers became famous. Soon Russia adopted the campaign and the ad generated 4 times more viewership. Russian ballerina Anastasia Volochkova featured in the ad, playing basketball with a group of men and gathered immediate fame. The campaign gained attention on social media and crossed the threshold to popular culture.
Similar campaigns were introduced to the local market of other countries like China, India, UK, Turkey, France and Canada. This engagement led to higher growth and more recognition. The 34 markets which held 49% of snicker’s global value ran the campaign in phase 2 increasing the growth to 3.1 times more than the last phase.
The UK and its interesting approach to the campaign
Introduction of the campaign in the UK was a fresh new way as compared to the ones before. Four out-of-character tweets sent by 5 celebrities caused a lot of buzz on twitter, increasing the level of audience engagement.
Later it was revealed that they were just hungry for snickers. This prompted a lot of debates and people questioned the legality of the campaign, which was later declared legitimate. Newspapers published multiple stories and the audience reach increased to about 26 million. It became a running advertisem*nt and topic of interest among people, featuring in-jokes, memes and political satires.
Impact on sales and the global market
96% of marketing directors of MARS agreed that this campaign was significant in driving the business. The investment confidence in the brand also increased to 96% from just 25%. In the two years of its launch, the rapid development and increasing local market engagement of the campaign led to the increment of sales by 376$ million and snickers became the world’s foremost chocolate bar. 58 markets represented 88.7% of global sales and growth rate increased to 9.5 times that of Phase-1, at about 15.9%. Snickers outpaced its nearest competitor at that time and its market value was growing at a tremendous pace.
Digital commerce
Programs like “Hungerithm” (Australia) monitored the internet mood and gave a discount on snickers in seven eleven stores when the general mood of the audience was “hungry”.
Gaokao, a program built around exam time, gives students a snicker when they’re hungry, allowing the company to track real-time sales and communication measures.
These methods helped to determine the effectiveness of the campaign by keeping a constant check. They are also one of the best areas of focus and excitement for marketing experts of the brand.
Conclusion
Mars played on one of the most important strategies of localisation, creating content that connects to people easily especially through updated memes. By successfully carrying out the campaign, it made Snickers one of the most familiar chocolate bars in the world.
By Romita Trehan
Team Loc-N-Apps
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