Starcom – Butterkist
Accounting for a third of all sales, Butterkist is the number one brand within popcorn. But with the century-old snack starting to show its age and other brands hot on its heels, it had two simple objectives: to modernise the Butterkist brand among 25–44-year-olds so that it comes to mind more freely within more shared occasions, and to get people repeating and tweeting ‘Go Grab the Butterkist’ — all with a modest budget of £300,000.
Butterkist’s brand purpose is to create a feeling of togetherness, so in a low attention world where people are often doing three things at once, Butterkist knew it had to play a role in creating a shared feeling.
The brand’s target audience finds the greatest entertainment in keeping up with celebrity drama, constantly refreshing their mobile newsfeeds for the latest social currency. However, Butterkist recognised that mobiles and multi-tasking go hand-in-hand and that there was a chance its message could be missed if they relied on mobile advertising. Reinventing the brand required it to be unmissable.
To do that, Butterkist mimicked the mobile with an approach that embraced the novelty and unexpectedness of the small screen whilst capitalising on the visibility traditional media offers, forming a reactive approach that drew its audience in. This is where news brands stepped in.
The celebrity news context, coupled with millions of eyeballs and short lead times, made news brands an ideal platform to create shared knowledge of Butterkist and catapult ‘Go Grab the Butterkist’ to fame.
In a smart, tactical move, Butterkist played into the “Wagatha Christie” news coverage, jumping into the story as the libel trial was drawing to a close. The brand secured a half-page position right next to the editorial, with an ad reflecting the story in court sketch style. That gave Butterkist kudos, cultural and social currency.
Butterkist achieved a ‘break the internet moment’ with a single print ad, seeing a 72% increase of #GoGrabtheButterkist on social media and national news brands publishing stories about the ad online. The original print insertion planned to reach a maximum of 4% of 25-44s, but instead delivered almost five times that target. As a result, Butterkist was 6% more likely to come to mind for its target audience and 5% more likely to think of the brand.
This campaign was really impactful, relevant, and founded on fantastic insight, which led to perfectly timed ad placements. And the creative was on point. It ticked all the boxes for me.
Sonya Mooney, marketing activation lead, Specsavers
6%
more likely to come to mind for its target audience
72%
increase of #GoGrabtheButterkist on social media
