When Mars Chocolate finally released bite-sized versions of Snickers and Twix in 2014, they were three years behind their biggest competitor, Hershey’s.

Since they were so late to market, we created a campaign that attempted to answer the question on everyone’s minds: “Why didn't they think of these years ago?” The campaign looked back to the brands’ fictional past to provide some entirely plausible reasons why they didn't introduce them sooner.

TV commercials featured Snickers and Twix employees from the 1950s to the 1990s coming up with the idea for Bites, only to have it quashed by some trend or technology from the era.

On the Web, we uncovered more reasons with a series of retro-themed films perfectly suited for Throwback Thursday (#TBT)––a day when social media looks back in time.

And in print, we announced 1-844-WHY-SO-LONG, which let consumers dial any year between 1980 and 2014 to hear 34 unique reasons behind the delay.

The launch was a tremendous success, with Bites becoming a hit on the Web and in households across the country. And our campaign helped them become the new leader of bite-sized chocolate.

The campaign launched with a series of TV commercials running on national television––each execution looked to the past for reasons why Bites weren't introduced sooner. Reasons included intercom malfunctions, leisure suits, too much hairspray and a misunderstanding featuring Billy Ocean’s “Get Outta My Dreams, Get Into My Car.”

We then continued our retro theme by using the communication of years past––a print ad and a 1-800 number. At 1-844-WHY-SO-LONG, consumers could dial any year between 1980 and 2014 to hear 34 unique reasons behind the delay.

Finally, we reached our Millennial demographic through a retro campaign rooted in Throwback Thursday. So we created content for Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and BuzzFeed Rewind that appeared every Thursday for a month. We even created a film that challenged viewers to sit through 20 minutes of the dial-up modem sound as Twix employees try to download plans for Bites.

The campaign was a tremendous success. The films received an average of 8.1 million social media impressions each Thursday––the same amount seen for a week-long Twix social campaign. And we made social media’s most hashtagged day, Throwback Thursday, synonymous with the brand.

• Paid media on Thursdays fueled 4x the amount of organic views.

• 75% of views reached our Millennial demographic; which TV buys were not able to produce.

BuzzFeed generated a 30% earned lift and drove significant additional reach of the campaign with a 91% overall positive sentiment across six different social reactions.

The phone number received over 12,000 calls, with an average call time of 2.5 minutes despite running a mere 27 times.

And we increased household penetration to 5.9 points for Bites and its parent brand, helping them become the new leader of bite-sized chocolate despite being outspent by Hershey’s.