The Snowpiercer story was a comic book and award-winning film with a rabid, hard-to-impress fanbase. We knew we could reach those fans and their friends at San Diego and New York Comic Cons with the news that TNT was turning Snowpiercer into a series. But in order to win their trust and turn them into advocates for the series we needed to bring them something unexpected and shareable.

The Snowpiercer story starts after a global consortium blasts millions of tons of particles into the stratosphere in an attempt to reduce global temperatures. The plan backfires and hurls the planet into an ice age where the only surviving humans live aboard a massive train that never stops moving, the Snowpiercer.

The poor passengers in the back of the train subsist on protein bars made of congealed bugs. That’s super gross to western audiences, but bugs are consumed by more than 2 Billion people as normal food and have an incredibly low environmental impact: Crickets in particular are 12 times more efficient than cows at converting feed to protein while using .05% of the water and producing 99% fewer greenhouse gases.

So we made custom Snowpiercer bug bars and dared fans to taste one of the ways we can help prevent a real Snowpiercer situation from happening.

Consumer research showed that the biggest fans of the Snowpiercer story cared about the environment and sustainability, were enthusiastic attendees of comic conventions, considered themselves tastemakers within their social groups, and were more likely to try new things and share those experiences on social media. We also knew that two of the biggest conventions (SDCC and NYCC) were famous for offering very expensive and limited food options for attendees. We knew fans would appreciate a literal taste of a story they loved and that those unfamiliar with Snowpiercer would be intrigued by a free snack they could review for their followers on social media.

We teamed up with EXO, a leader in automated cricket farming, and their 3 Michelin starred chef Kyle Connaughton to turn 4 million crickets into 25,000 peanut butter and jelly cricket protein bars. Each bar was individually wrapped in custom Snowpiercer packaging.

We distributed the bars through custom digital vending machines in ice-covered booths at San Diego and NY Comic-Con attendees while capturing their email addresses to send them exclusive behind-the-scenes content and tune-in information for the series. We also sent ammo boxes full of bars to press as a purpose-driven apocalyptic snack.

The bars were a massive conversation starter with 20 publications and thousands of social posts generating 19 MM impressions (comscore, crimson hexagon) proving our offer to taste Snowpiercer for real was the perfect way to build buzz around the show. We also built a 25,000+ member email list of fans who wanted exclusive series content sent to their inboxes. Fans didn’t just love the bug bars. They tuned in and made Snowpiercer the #1 new cable show the month it launched and the biggest premiere in 2+ years for TNT.