New Skittles Sours are so unbelievably sour they literally have the power to awaken suppressed feelings that all of us keep deep inside. We knew that we had to awaken those feelings in the supermarket – the place where two-thirds of candy decisions are made.

Our insight was that we needed to find a suitable way for our target audience to experience the joy of a shared joke.

We drew inspiration from another brand that encourages people to reveal their true self – Cards Against Humanity. Cards Against Humanity has poked so many holes in everyday realities globally but it was banned in Saudi, although local consumers still searched for it more than 3,600 per month.

Our innovative idea was to create a unique ‘LetOutTheSour’ Card game modelled on Cards Against Humanity, a truly entertaining game for Sour people that would only be available in-store with the new Skittles flavours.

To write relevant card content, we partnered with local comedy superstar Ali Al-Sayed, a man who knows how to poke fun and walk close to the line of what is allowed.

Cards included:

‘I failed my driving test because of Ali baba and the forty goats’

And

‘I wish there was a Skittle that tasted like a sweaty yoga mat!’

Our activation strategy was to let the cards do the talking. In Saudi, we partnered with the ‘Sa7i’ team where comedians such as Khaled Al-Farraj, Amira Al-Abbas and Ibrahim Al- Bukairi played the game on their hit YouTube show.

In the UAE we worked with the biggest radio stations to get our game played live during breakfast and drive-time.

Skittles assets were also utilized, encouraging fans and key influencers to share gameplay moments.

In-store we made Skittles Sours the star, with high-profile point of purchase and point of sale executions.

We created a new brand experience that encapsulated everything that Skittles stands for.

We introduced a new generation to non-mobile gaming and created genuine standout in the shopping aisle. At one Carrefour store, hoards of kids were seen pestering their mums and opening up the boxes in the store.

The business impact was equally impressive:

We delivered a 20% plus uplift in incremental sales in KSA and a rise of 24% in the UAE (Source: Nielsen YTD value sales ending July 2017).

We added an additional 1.5% to Skittles value share in KSA and 0.7% in the UAE.?

Our game sold out in just 10 days – tens of thousands of special packs literally walked out the door.

At a time when digital games continue to make analogue classics obsolete, we rewrote the gaming rulebook.