Insight
When it comes to snacking, there are few things more more-ish than nuts – peanuts, to be specific. However, there’s also a big barrier stopping people from enjoying them. Namely, the negative perceptions attached to standard peanuts.
This was one of the challenges facing Planters as they prepared for a UK launch. Their range consisted of healthy options to satisfy every snacking need. But first, they needed to communicate how different they were.
To help them do that, we focused on cracking the “busy lifer” audience. Why them? Because this mid-20’s to mid-40’s crowd works hard, cares about a balanced lifestyle… and is always running low on time. But more importantly, because the following food insight made them a perfect match for Planters.
“They want their snacks guilt-free, tasty and in no time.”
The ideal place to reach out to them was on social media, where we could engage, entertain, build hype and create awareness. It also meant we could establish the brand’s digital identity in the UK, and get people familiar with Planters way before the grand launch (and grand TV commercial!).
A dashing 100 year-old peanut sporting a monocle would prove instrumental in doing so. We would bring Mr Peanut, the iconic character that helped make Planters the top nuts brand in the U.S, to life in a new market.
“We would give Mr Peanut the (digital) microphone and let him introduce the nation to NUT-rition”
With a memorable character, and memorable messaging that made Planters’ healthy positioning loud and clear, we were on our way to revolutionising British snack times forever.
WHAT WE DID
To create a distinct social media launch of Planters Nuts in the UK market, we created a content strategy which delivered a variety of consumption occasions, with a unique and humorous voice.
Messaging & Strategy
Our main objective was to establish Planters as a healthy yet tasty option, using the brand’s overarching “NUT-rition” messaging. However, we went further and split content into categories based on the core needs of hunger, habit, energy and treat. We then distilled these into very real, need-based messages (“Wake me up”, “Sustain me”, “Refuel me”, “Keep me going”, “Treat me”). This let us create highly specific content that we could use to accurately address every occasion.
Content
With no other supporting media or ATL activity in the first three months, it was our job to introduce the brand to the nation. We created an eye-grabbing animated visual style that was well-suited for Facebook. We also weren’t afraid to go quirky and funny with our content, which let us turn functional posts into something fun.
Identity
Mr Peanut is an iconic character, but a very American one. We crafted and adapted the brand’s voice and personality in a way that reflected the same values and sense of humour, but also felt at home with a UK audience. Having established Mr Peanut as the brand’s digital spokesperson, we were able to make the product and health messaging a lot more entertaining!
The Finale
We packed a lot of punch with limited resources, significantly outperforming many of our objectives. Might have something to do with the energy boost from all those nut-ritious peanuts! Here’s a handful of results to help paint the picture: 5,000 page likes in 5 months (way above our target of 3,000), 65 million people reached, 3.7% average post engagement (more than 3 times the industry standard) and a page sentiment of 97%.
Results
