Leading British crisp brand Walkers has a range of snacks that had lost momentum, with its sub-brands Quavers, Monster Munch, Wotsits, French Fries and Squares experiencing long-term declines in share of market and penetration losses (from 7/10 of households purchasing to less than 5/10). Walkers believed that re-awakening these sleeping giants could add £80m to the portfolio overnight.

With low saliency the barrier to growth, Walkers briefed us to identify a rich insight and build a fame-driving, integrated campaign around it that would instantly reignite brand love.

Specifically, the campaign needed to:

• Rebuild Walkers Snacks saliency; measured by 10% increase in YouGov’s buzz index

• Regain Share of Voice from key competitor snack brands; measured against Pringles, Hula Hoops and McCoy’s

• Accelerate Walkers Snacks growth; measured by 5% increase in Retail Sales Volume (RSV)

Britain LOVES crisps. It has the highest per capita consumption of crisps in the world.

So with Walkers snack brands in the market for over 50 years, those who ate these fun-shaped snacks as kids feel deep nostalgia for them. We needed to find a way to reconnect with these people, who now have families themselves.

Consumer research into the snacking habits of 2,000 families found that 2 in 3 parents hide their snacks because their children eat them. Social listening showed parents even hiding in cupboards for five minutes’ peaceful snacking.

Clearly parents - who would otherwise do anything for their kids - needed to keep something for themselves.

Playfully tapping into this insight led to the creative idea: Walkers snacks are “Too Good to Share (Sorry Kids)”. Reconnecting with our audience by light-heartedly validating this humorous snack-hiding behaviour, it gave parents that ‘I do that too!’ moment.

Our strategy was to position Walkers as a facilitator, humorously supporting parents in their snack-hiding endeavours. Our message was simple: It’s ok to keep some things to yourself!

We inputted our target audience into social listening tool, Pulsar, and discovered inventor Colin Furze, whose ambitious creations had gained him 10.9 million YouTube subscribers that mapped perfectly to our audience.

Our strategic approach was to tap into Colin’s huge reach with three talkable assets (one for each of Walkers’ leading sub-brands) designed to be released one at a time in a three-phase approach, teasing, building and then launching the integrated campaign for maximum impact.

Fernando Kahane, Senior Marketing Director, Walkers: “This campaign shifted the dial for us at PepsiCo. It truly reignited consumers’ emotional connection with these nostalgic snack brands and set us up to keep delivering record-breaking results, not only for the brands themselves, but also for the category.”

We challenged Colin Furze to create a mind-blowing range of ‘Unhackable Snack Hiding Devices’ out of everyday objects and release instructional videos on how to make them at home.

For added talkability, we paired Colin up with Peter Bleksley; a former undercover detective from world-famous Scotland Yard. Peter’s role was to advise Colin on the best household items to transform.

As part of the final video we also challenged Walkers ambassador and football legend, Gary Lineker, to try and discover the hidden snacks, driving further impact.

On the day of launch, we drove fame for the YouTube videos and campaign stills by turning our research that informed the strategy into a ‘Walkers Snacking Report’, releasing it alongside hiding tips from Peter and a blueprint for an easier hiding device. We also offered interviews with Peter to the nation’s top radio stations to discuss the whacky new devices and report’s findings.

Thanks to our unique insight which was used to inform Walkers’ TV and ATL assets, as well our innovative approach to assets that could be repurposed for Walkers social channels, the campaign reached 88% of the nation with a frequency of 9.5 times.

According to the Office for National Statistics, we reached 7.1 million of a possible 8 million parents aged 18-44 (target audience). +3.6million new households were recruited to the snacks portfolio (more than 10% of the UK population!).

Against objectives, the campaign delivered:

Saliency: 14% increase in buzz measured by YouGov (target was 10%)

Share: 1st position in the category for share of voice according to Nielson, overtaking competitors Pringles, Hula Hoops and McCoy’s for the first time in a decade, taking 30% share compared to a previous share of 9%

Growth: +19% in retail sales volume (target was 5%) on the overall Walkers snacks portfolio. This is despite demand for Family Snacks outstripping supply for the first time in years.

- The campaign also had a halo effect of +3% on the rest of the Walkers portfolio

PR results:

310 million Opportunities to See

100% positive / neutral sentiment

100% of coverage referenced the insight

100% of coverage contained our key message

65% of coverage mentioned priority sub-brands (Wotsits, Quavers and Monster Munch)

PR’s use of Colin Furze delivered 65 million impressions and 6.1 million combined organic views on YouTube, with an audience retention rate of 66.1% versus 37.5% industry average, supporting key message delivery and awareness.