Campaign Brief recognises and showcases the great work that is being produced in the region with The Work 2024 Contenders. Here is VaynerMedia’s Top 2…
Twisties: Twifties
VaynerMedia
Twisties has always stood out as the chip with, well, a twist –– it’s a straight world without Twisties after all.
Renowned for its twisted take on culture, Twisties thrived under the ‘Plot Twisties’ platform, subverting trending conversations with a cult following eager for the next spectacle –– from body positivity bros to bad breath on MAFs.
With Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour and Swiftmania captivating the nation, we seized the cultural moment to disrupt the conversation. As brands clamoured for attention and saturated traditional channels, we acted swiftly to cut through the lavender haze.
Skywriting “Twifties” onto Sydney’s skyline outside Taylor’s hotel window, we playfully nodded to Swift’s fandom and our unrelated product. This absurdity turned audiences into active participants, igniting curiosity and speculation across social as they deciphered our ambiguous “typo”.
This manipulation of curiosity created a self-perpetuating cycle of brand interaction that audiences carried forward, crafting a brand moment from the ground up. This wasn’t just about capturing attention; it was about transforming our audience into active participants in a brand narrative they couldn’t initially decode. By doing that, we turned our audience into unwitting brand ambassadors –– each share and comment is a testament to the campaign’s pull. On top of that, our mascots humorously took credit for the ironic stunt on social, fuelling further user-generated confusion and engagement.
The skywriting escapade unleashed a viral storm on social, drawing in Swifties and the wider public, setting a new standard for real-time engagement. From Reddit detectives to TikTok stans, ‘Twifties’ authentically engaged fans, we garnered legions of reposts, comments, and user-generated content swirling around the enigma of ‘Twifties, culminating in a nationwide brand moment, especially amongst real Swifties and Twisties fans.
‘Twifties’ became a cultural touchstone, embodying Twisties’ playfully twisted spirit and continuing an enduring connection (a love story if you will) with our audiences –– while overshadowing competitors vying for Swift’s (and Swifties’) attention. Agile planning, swift decisions, and a deep understanding of the cultural zeitgeist converged, establishing ‘Twifties’ as a benchmark for impactful, real-time engagement.
Doritos: Wash Your Mouth
VaynerMedia
In response to Australia’s deeply divided cultural landscape, Doritos embarked on a bold campaign centred on the polarizing coriander debate, aiming to ignite a full-scale national debate with Doritos at the centre of the conversation.
With 1 in 5 Australians tasting coriander as soap, Doritos’s objective was clear: to provoke intense engagement while solidifying its fearless brand identity. The “Wash Your Mouth Out” campaign capitalized on coriander’s divisive nature, releasing 500 packs of Coriander-flavored chips without warning, thus sparking passionate reactions from supporters and detractors alike while firmly embedding Doritos Coriander in national dialogue.
The campaign’s success lay not only in diving chip-first into controversy but also in its reactive and non-traditional execution:
– Strategic ads near soap retailers portrayed the chips as aromatic soap products, deliberately triggering negative associations.
– Through organic social media and tactical PR, individuals were provoked to take a stance on the coriander controversy.
This approach garnered widespread attention, with the campaign evolving organically together with nation-wide, consumer-centric conversations. An unplanned online auction for the final coriander pack surpassed all expectations, demonstrating the campaign’s impact.
Central to the campaign’s success was its ability to foster meaningful engagement with consumers, both positive and negative. Brand engagement deepened as we garnered extremely high volumes of authentic, user-generated content that were fed back into social and PR efforts to keep the conversation going, including stoking the fire in the ‘I Hate Coriander’ Facebook page.
By directly involving consumers in the conversation and catalyzing widespread social interaction and media coverage, Doritos Coriander became firmly embedded in the national dialogue. From TV to social media, the campaign showcased the power of bold marketing in shaping cultural discourse and fostering authentic engagement, solidifying Doritos’ bold brand identity as a fearless trailblazer unafraid of criticism.
The deadline for Campaign Brief’s The Work 2024 has now closed. If your company entered The Work and would like to showcase your work in our Contenders series please email [email protected].
