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Snickers disguises itself in the app store, rewards hungry people for stupid downloads

Don’t drink and drive, don’t text and drive and now don’t app when hungry. Or do. Snickers New Zealand has gone down a rather unexpected route for its latest campaign via Colenso BBDO. The chocolate bar brand has made the most out of the amount of time Kiwis spend on their phones by offering free Snickers vouchers under the guise of utterly useless apps, with the idea that people would ‘download’ them because of the brand’s famous tagline — ‘You’re not you when you’re hungry’.

For the campaign, Snickers played with the idea that we all do stupid things when we are hungry, and with the average person spending 4.7 hours per day on their smartphone, a lot of these stupid things happen on those devices, according to a release. 

To take advantage of this, the campaign was built around three of the “dumbest apps the world has ever seen” including ‘Liquishield’ that waterproofs the phone down to fifty metres, ‘Is My Phone On?’ to see if the phone is on and ‘1,000 Silent Ringtones’ to play the silent version of the user’s favourite songs.

When those who do download them, from the Google Play store or Apple App Store and attempt to use them they are asked ‘What were you thinking?’ and warned not to app when they’re hungry. To curb the hunger they are then rewarded with a mobile Snickers voucher.

The apps were promoted through mobile ads, social posts, street posters, cinema and local key influencers who were in on the joke.

In only a week over 2,000 people were caught downloading the apps “while hungry”, according to the release.

Colenso BBDO digital planning director Neville Doyle said the apps allowed Snickers to get into the hands of the hungry in an unexpected and entertaining way.

“We know that mobile is the most important platform in the lives of most consumers these days, and we saw that as a chance to bring the Snickers platform of ‘You’re not you when you’re hungry’ to life in an entirely new way.”

In a 2012 Snickers spot, Colenso BBDO tapped into Paul Henry’s inner ‘hangriness‘ in the local leg of the global ‘You’re not you when you’re hungry’ campaign.

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