It’s a bird. It’s a plane. It’s…popchips? The snack brand launched its “popchips to the Rescue” campaign to drive brand awareness, promote product trial, and “save one snacker at a time” from fatty fried chips.
To target those unfamiliar with the brand and fried chip lovers, popchips kicked off the campaign with a video posted on the brand’s YouTube and the Facebook channels. In the video, “pop” star Katy Perry and her fried-fighting felines save the world from the evil, greasy snack provider Fat Cat. A digital coupon is also included below the video on the brand’s Facebook page. Perhaps, as a reward for watching the spot.
“You put cats, wigs, Katy, and popchips together and you get fun craziness,” says Michael Parisi, SVP of marketing at popchips. “We want to put the fun back into snacking.”
Umm, okay? Because Katy Perry and cats in fluorescent wigs is exactly what most people think of when shopping for healthy snacks. Personally, I prefer my snacks to be hairball-free.
In addition to the video, popchips declared June 13 #popchipstotherescueday and hosted 30 pop-up sampling events in several major U.S. cities, including Chicago, Miami, Los Angeles, New York, and Boston. The brand also teamed up with Walgreens to provide consumers with a “top of mind destination” to try the chip, says Parisi. If snackers didn’t want to visit one of the pop-ups or participating Walgreens locations, they could tweet a story of why they needed to be rescued to @popchips with the hashtag #popchipstotherescue for the chance to win a free snack case. And for the snackers who couldn’t get their tails down to one of these locations, they still have the chance to participate by posting a photo or a story to Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram under the same hashtag. On June 21, popchips will host a national social media day and randomly select 20 winners who will win a month’s supply of popchips.
Parisi says the campaign generated more than 8,000 tweets within the first 48 hours. And while all the participation creates positive buzz, he says it can also pose a challenge if marketers aren’t prepared.
“You’re going to get a lot of responses, but you have to be prepared to handle those response—ie: the overwhelmingly tweets and keeping up with them,” he says. “You have to think a couple of levels through…If you do have a call to action, how well are you equipped to handle it?”
But popchips didn’t want Katy Perry and her crime-fighting kitties to be the only ones bringing justice to the world. Every time a consumer uses the 50 cents-off digital coupon to purchase a popchips bag, popchips will donate 50 cents to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA). Consumers can then enter the pin provided on marked bags of “katy’s kettle corn popchips” for the chance to win the opportunity to see Katy Perry in concert.
