Oreo's 'Daily Twist' on Social Marketing
Oreo cookies have been celebrating 100 years of dunking in grand fashion over the past 100 days, with a social media campaign, in equal parts whimsical and aggressive, that has had enormous reach. Today the campaign comes to an end after multiple agencies and a dedicated team of four designers worked to deliver 100 consecutive "Daily Twists" - creative portraits crafted from straws, empty glasses, milk and of course, Oreo cookies.
Shared over Facebook, Tumblr, Pinterest and through their "Daily Twist" website, each new "Twist" was created to honor holidays, celebratory weeks, trending events and major news stories.
The campaign kicked off with a splash on June 25 after Oreo posted multi-layered cookies with creme colored to evoke a rainbow flag in recognition of LGBT Pride Month. The image, accompanied by the phrase "Proudly Support Love!" stirred up controversy and quickly pushed the "Daily Twist" into the viral spotlight, racking up a quarter of a million "likes" on Facebook.
The campaign's success was not solely reliant on headlines. Cindy Chen, director of marketing for Oreo at Kraft Foods, told ABC News, "The biggest reach of one single post during the campaign was not the Pride, but the panda daily twist in honor of the birth of the Chinese panda Shin Shin's baby. As a result of such strong global engagement the post's reach was 4,409,344 - more than 21,000 higher than Pride."
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Now that 100 days have passed, the cookie is crumbling. Today in Times Square Oreo set up a "virtual office" from which it narrowed its final "Daily Twist" design down to three crowd-sourced potentials: the anniversary of the first high-five, recognizing the day that "The Twilight Zone" premiered, or a tribute to a recent news nugget.
At the "virtual office," Chen expected "more than 10 real-life cookie creations of various 'Daily Twists' from throughout the campaign" as the final design was created live. Many "Daily Twists" during the campaign were turned around from concept to completion in as little as six or seven hours, Chen told ABC News. Today was much the same.
Other brands have pushed to achieve social marketing success with clever brand images, with mixed results. KFC ran a campaign inspired by Some-e-Cards for its Chicken Little sandwiches; it barely moved the needle. More successfully, Dr. Pepper's has dressed its can as Forrest Gump and placed it with a stack of pancakes. Pizza Hut Middle East has scored fans with some of its crazier concoctions, from cheeseburger crust pizza to fried Kit-Kat bars.
Will we see more Oreo art in the future? Chen said, "We cannot predict the future, but I can tell you that Oreo is committed to the fundamentals of what this campaign is all about - showing how a 100-year old cookie can stay relevant in today's world by offering timely, interesting content that helps our communities to 'celebrate their inner kid.'"
Chen cited Elvis Week and Talk Like a Pirate Day among her favorites. What are yours? To see all the art from Oreo's campaign you can also visit their website right here. You can also learn which "Daily Twist" won the final slot: the winner has been revealed on Oreo's Facebook page.