At South by Southwest Interactive (SXSWi) 2014 in Austin, Texas, Mondelez International and its OREO brand hosted a large-scale activation called “Trending Vending.”

The objective was to further distinguish OREO’s brand innovation thought leadership in a crowded snacking industry space with key audiences. With Trending Vending, OREO leveraged connectivity and customization in a creative, fun way to create an engaging consumer experience. SXSWi is a crowded space with many competing to have their ideas heard, so PR was a critical component in achieving these goals.

OREO challenged and explored the existing snacking paradigm where companies decide the cookies that consumers eat, asking, “What if consumers could customize cookies according to their mood of the moment?”

OREO created two proprietary vending machines that enabled SXSWi visitors to create custom snacks based on trending Twitter conversations. Using transparent touch screens, users could literally taste the trend by scrolling through a list of trending topics, with each trend representing a particular flavor combination and pattern.

Leveraging tactics including a press release, traditional and social media outreach, as well as on-site media liaising, The Trending Vending activation propelled one of the largest spikes in OREO social conversation and media attention since the brand’s “dunk in the dark” tweet of the 2013 Super Bowl. Buzz on the ground was tangible, with approximately 10,000 visitors, or one-third of all festival attendees. The activation garnered 6 million media impressions in two weeks and over 360 Trending Vending mentions on broadcast channels, including local, national and international stations.

The plan was implemented in Austin, Texas at SXSWi beginning the week before the five-day festival, with ongoing outreach and coordination throughout the weekend.

The team developed a press release and pre-pitched interviews with spokespeople under embargo, arming them with talking points to help ensure pick-up of key messages. On the ground, the turnout of media and festival-goers was higher than anticipated, so the communications team remained on-site at all times – not just around scheduled media interviews – to answer questions, direct reporters to the appropriate spokesperson, and ensure participants had positive experiences.

In parallel, OREO executed a geo-targeted social media plan on Twitter and Facebook, and created a unique hashtag, “#EatTheTweet,” to encourage attendees to share their experiences.

To create an appealing atmosphere, the team created a lounge feel, complete with a milk bar to complement “milk’s favorite cookie,” a DJ, and free Wi-Fi and charging stations.

Trending Vending generated meaningful excitement and buzz, with results including:

• 10,000 visitors, or 1/3 of SXSWi attendees, who waited in line for 2+ hours for a chance to be part of the experiment

• 42+ million online/print and social media impressions

• Trending Vending was one of the most talked-about activations at SXSWi, with positive Twitter sentiment beating OREO and CPG benchmarks

• Highest Twitter engagement at SXSWi among comparable food and snacking brand activations, despite higher spend by competitors

• Nearly 5,000 tweets mentioned OREO and SXSWi together

• 360+ broadcast mentions in local and national TV outlets