Both Old El Paso’s portfolio and the salty snack categories are growing at Walmart. Old El Paso HHP and frequency were up, even as number of units were down. Increases in trips meant more exposure opportunity for Fiesta Twists. However, Shoppers are not expecting or looking for OEP in the category, where family pleasing is the priority and Doritos is their family’s current chip of choice. To launch in this new space, we needed to build trial and awareness of this product in a highly competitive and noisy aisle.

PUT A TWIST ON IT at Walmart. To break Old El Paso out of its taco night shell and get shoppers to look for new Fiesta Twists in the snack aisle, our classic brand partnered with the master of twists, Olympic snowboarder Shaun White. Together we put a twist on the shopper experience across the Walmart ecosystem. We twisted everything, bringing a snowboarding ramp to NW Arkansas, a crunchy snack to a golf tournament and an Olympic snowboarder to the skatepark. Along the way we served up Fiesta Twists, showing shoppers that Old El Paso was more than taco nights, and could bring the fiesta to snack time too.

No one does taco night like Old El Paso. Families associate it with that iconic crispy taco shell in the yellow box, always found in the taco aisle. So, when they decided to launch in a new category at Walmart – with a Mexican inspired crunchy snack, they had a big challenge. Especially knowing their competitors dominated the chip aisle and shelf space. We had to figure out how to get shoppers to associate our brand with snacks, plus look for it in a whole new aisle. Since Old El Paso put a twist on their iconic shells, we dropped into the snack aisle with a few twists of our own. By partnering with Shaun White (the master of twists) we demonstrated “twists” on classic sporting events represent the twists we’ve made as a brand and highlight the look and name of our new product.

General Mills and Walmart teamed up to create a unique brand experience for Walmart customers to drive awareness of new Old El Paso Fiesta Twists during the limited 6-month exclusivity. The campaign began with a pre-launch phase with product sampling at a local Arkansas event and an exclusive video from our campaign celebrity spokesperson, Shaun White. The core launch phase consisted of national media on and off of Walmart.com leveraging their first party targeting data to further drive awareness of the new product. To generate excitement and trial, General Mills created an action-packed event, Fiesta Twists 360, in Rogers, AR with additional amplification support including WMC paid media, on-site features, in-store custom pallets and end caps. Walmart customers had an exclusive opportunity to meet and greet with Shaun White at the event, while also enjoying trampoline jumpers and snowboarders perform stunts on our snow ramp.

Our total campaign delivered a double digit percentage sales lift (compared with non-exposed audience) and a positive return per dollar of ad spend of about $1. Specifically at the key 360 event, we delivered 100% positive sentiment to the 1,052 total attendees and drove over 800,000 impressions with the associated media for the event.