• Situation

In January of 2019, Cheetos didn't have anything to release or talk about. So we gave our mascot Chester Cheetah some vacation time, and we gave our fans a big – and we mean big – surprise.

• Brief

In light of the situation, we had to surprise our audience somehow, even though we had no surprises to unveil. Summer is the most important season for savory snacks, and if we didn’t come up with some campaign during the period, it would have a direct effect on sales.

• Objectives

To create an activation that would produce PR without featuring any specific product, since we wouldn’t be introducing any new products just then.

And at the same time, we had to work with and boost Chester Cheetah’s relevance to the public.

This summer, the most important season for savory snacks in Brazil, Cheetos hadn’t tweaked any of its products and didn’t have anything new to launch.

But that problem became an opportunity: a chance for the brand’s mascot and poster boy, Chester Cheetah, to finally go on vacation.

To really surprise the brand’s audience, which was already used to unique activations, our storytelling would have to go to the next level.

That’s why we took Chester Cheetah off the packaging, planted fake news items saying that he’d disappeared, revealed the truth, and built his house from the ground up in a style based on his personality. We created paintings, rugs, clothing, entire rooms, furniture, family memorabilia, and everything else you’d expect to find in a true celebrity’s mansion. The result: the place became one of the most-visited attractions in town, and one of the most Instagrammable places in Brazil.

Our target was young millennials who don’t like traditional advertising and are looking to interact differently with brands. More than standalone pieces, they prefer all-around experiences. Although the mansion was located in a specific city, our goal was to use PR to reach the target across Brazil, so that they would come away with a younger, more innovative perception of the brand.

We wanted to prove to our young audience that Cheetos is more than a savory snack.It’s a bold brand that steers clear of mainstream channels,just like they do.

Everything went down in the biggest city in Brazil, São Paulo. But the PR it generated swept across the country – as you can see with our 17.3MM Potential Reach.

Chester Cheetah went on vacation and forgot to lock his house. So, he asked some friends to take care of his things while he was away.

We chose a group of influencers to keep Chester Cheetah's House safe, but they got excited and threw some house parties in the mansion. Of course, they were very careful not to leave anything out of place.

On Avenida Paulista, the mansion became the must-visit place in the city during the summer. Instagrammable environments like the Cheetos pool and the secret Tazos® room were the biggest hits with consumers. Not to mention the amount of Cheetos available for all the guests. The invasion of Chester Cheetah's mansion first took place on January 25-27 and February 9, but due to the huge success we opened for another weekend.

In the press, we had 146 publications, + R$ 7MM in ad value, +19MM unique visitors, and +70MM page views. When it came to digital, we had +1.4MM interactions, 17.3MM potential reach, 861 publications, and +2k mentions using #casadochestercheetah.

Through over 10,000 organic posts, we proved to our young audience that Cheetos is more than a savory snack. It’s a bold brand that steers clear of mainstream channels, just like they do.