Oreo is always looking for new sources of growth. In China, most of their customers are female. Recruiting male consumers has proved difficult in a market where sweet treats are seen as cute, not cool. The brief was to identify ways to increase the popularity of Oreo among men, and to raise the proportion of male buyers above the standard 35% of prior campaigns.

TBP faced the opposite challenge – nearly all admirers of the novel were male. Since any existing TBP content was fan-made, the story struggled to break into mainstream culture and reach an audience beyond sci-fi loyalists.

A partnership could satisfy both their cravings, allowing Oreo to connect with an engaged male fanbase, and bringing TBP the recognition its fans knew it deserved. For this collaboration to successfully entice TBP fans to indulge in sweet snacks, Oreo would need to demonstrate an authentic understanding of the IP.

TBP tells the tale of a clash between human and alien civilizations. All the existing fan content focused on astronomy and attempted to explain the astrophysics problem at the core of the story. Oreo’s brand platform is ‘Stay Playful’ and messaging focuses on bringing fun-loving moments into the everyday.

The creative idea was to make these two worlds collide and design a playful experience that anybody could engage with, built upon key elements from the novel which had a deeper significance to the core fanbase.

The Oreo x TBP experience had to first hook core fans to engage, purchase, and share within their own communities. We could then use this momentum to reach new audiences, who were intrigued by the hype and wanted to see if they could crack the TBP code.

The top three snack brands in China identify female consumers aged 23-44 as their key demographic and over 67% of the ads for the top 10 snack brands were aimed at women. Conversely, data from TikTok revealed that over 80% of the consumers interested in IP-licensed goods, such as Marvel-themed products, were male.

Research into potential IP partners for Oreo revealed that in China the sci-fi genre often attracts high proportions of male fans. The biggest and most engaged fan base by far was for TBP and 80% of the fans were male.

Driving sales was the core objective so TikTok was selected as the primary platform. By the end of 2022 it was one of the fastest growing e-commerce platforms in China and stealing market share from e-commerce giants like Alibaba. Additionally there were more than 115m monthly active TBP fans on TikTok for Oreo to engage with.

A 30-second film showcased an iconic moment from the book when a message is transmitted between Earth and an alien civilization via satellite, triggering a war. The film ran on TV and social and introduced a special telescope-shaped giftbox. The giftbox was available to buy in-store and online, but could only be opened by cracking a code which used TBP symbols. Inside were limited-edition Oreos embossed with iconic TBP imagery.

We seeded the pack with relevant influencers to produce their own un-boxing videos and host livestream selling events.

Inspired fans created large volumes of UGC showing them cracking the code to open the box, and even creating tutorials on what the code meant, and how to solve it for new fans.

To expand our playful experiences, we developed naked-eye 3D ads and these combined with in-feed ads drove traffic directly to the TikTok Shop.

This moonshot campaign delivered rocket-fuelled results: 115 million impressions and 3.4 million engagements, setting a new record for Oreo and beating any prior TBP collaboration. ROI in terms of sales on TikTok peaked at 2.27 in a single day (averaged 1.21 across the campaign.)

The giftboxes sold out in-store within one month. In the TikTok store, they were gone in days. 96% of TikTok purchases were from new customers. Male consumers accounted for 70% of giftbox buyers – a 100% improvement on regular campaigns.

And the benefits were not limited to Oreo. Survey results showed that over 70% of people who engaged with the Oreo x TBP content on TikTok became new TBP fans.

Liu Chun, Director of the TBP Universe surmised the campaign’s strong performance well: “The partnership embodied the perfect combination of a good story, a good product, and a good time.”