Looking at the entertainment market, in 2023 the gaming industry has reached twice the size of Hollywood. A strong growth factor: The casual and retro gaming sector, producing hundreds of millions of downloads.

That's a call for the world's No. 1 playful cookie: OREO. To accelerate growth and penetration across European markets, OREO brought even more playfulness to Gen X, Millennials and Gen Z. This time, we played together with retro game icon PAC-MAN, holding the highest brand awareness of video game characters (94%) and having risen to elite pop-culture status (exhibited in Smithsonian and MOMA).

The objectives were clear: Develop a cross-generational activation campaign that takes the core value of the brand “Playfulness” to the next level. Conditions: OREO must be the activation’s central element, low participating barriers and selling as many cookies as possible.

Typically, activations are built around the product. OREO goes a step further and turns the product itself into an activation. For the first time ever, the OREO cookie becomes the experience: OREO x PAC-MAN #ChasePlayfulness. A special edition, featuring six PAC-MAN embossed cookies, each being an exclusive, new PAC-MAN maze with multiple levels. Fans unlock and play mazes by scanning the embossed OREOs with their mobiles. After winning the 3 levels, OREO-Gamers try to climb up on the leader-board and keep the chance to win big.

40% of people are into gaming. Playful as we are, we felt that's not enough. And decided to turn absolutely everyone into a gamer. So, we reviewed data on consumer behavior and trends. Since lockdown, retro-gaming made a comeback and was appealing to younger consumers too. It combines nostalgia and pure playful game value: perfect match for OREO.

Core target: Gen X (families with head of households). Secondary targets: Millennials but also Gen Z. The campaign had to be cross-generational. And guess who is the most iconic character of retro-gaming? PAC-MAN. PAC-MAN was created to achieve broad appeal (across gender / age), with bright colors and a simple interface. Beyond data, PAC-MAN has the shape of an OREO cookie, and the original OREO cookie embossment looks like a maze – match made in heaven.

Our simple call to action: SCAN PLAY WIN to engage with all consumers.

Four different campaign phases: Inspire (teaser), Convert (campaign launch), Engage (explaining how to participate and what can you win) and Celebrate (focused on UGC). A 360 campaign: TV, OOH, DOOH, Retailer and Point of sale assets, collaborations with influencers and opinion leaders, Social media advertising, Youtube etc.

Consumers were targeted according to each each phase and with a relevant message, for example: Gen X relies a lot on TV in many countries, targeted them more with films. A Facebook IX explained step by step how to participate and what could they win. For Millennials, they don’t have much time to play games anymore, we showed what they could win. Gen Z have more time to play; we showcase more the gaming experience.

The campaign launched in January 2024 in the first markets, the last group of markets went like in March. Expected average of 3 month campaign in 34 markets.

Since the campaign is still active accross the markets, not many results are available yet. So far, the campaign has reached 535.7 Million impressions, sparked 2.253 Social Media conversations, 571.717 cookies have been scanned and a total of 200.979 games have been won.