Pot Noodle is the UK’s leading instant noodle brand. But we faced a growing threat from authentic noodle brands from overseas vying for our shelf space, and Supermarket’s own brand undercutting us on price. We needed to defend our position as the original and the best noodle brand in the market by proving we deliver ultimate satisfaction, and ultimately grow our market share and penetration.

We set out to prove that nothing satisfies like Pot Noodle. So we made the sound of ultimate satisfaction the star of our campaign: a big, wet, sloppy SLUUURPP. But when the nation recoiled, we realised we needed to act quickly to ensure everyone was satisfied. We issued a formal apology published in press and on social, with a QR code guiding them to a new suite of more satisfactory sounding ads online. Then we used data on audience interests to serve bespoke versions on YouTube and social of our advert replacing the SLURP with sounds we knew they would find much more satisfying. We created 47 unique versions featuring SFX from birds tweeting to keyboards typing. The bespoke sounds also ran on TV, tailoring the sounds to the programming.

Social data was integral to our campaign. We gathered data from social media to understand who had skipped our advert at the moment the SLURP began to identify those who hated the SLURP. We then also gathered data from Meta and Google to understand our audience interests and passions to re-serve them bespoke versions of our advert replacing the SLURP with sounds we knew they would love. We created 47 unique versions featuring SFX from birds tweeting to keyboards typing.

Across TV sport (specifically football and F1) was a high passion point. TV entertainment, with the highest indexing brand being Ant and Dec, was the next most prominent followed by Pets. Here we then matched the replacement sounds to interests based on audience targeting size on digital, retargeting those who have already seen the ad, while cherry picking high indexing shows, e.g. Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway, on TV.

We produced over 50 different bespoke edits in order to target individuals with their interests in mind across YouTube and social. As well as this we went live with OOH, Radio & Press. The campaign went live Feb 3rd and finishes May 12th.

The campaign landed with immediate impact, generating a 399% increase in online conversation about Pot Noodle that was sustained in the 10 weeks following launch. There were over 10,000 online comments about the advert and we achieved 15.3 million reach in earned media. Total Pot Noodle sales increased by 25% in the 4 weeks following launch, and we gained 15% market share.

Our quick pivot in strategy and the use of data to deliver bespoke and hyper-targeted adverts designed for satisfaction successfully won over the angry mob and we saw an increase in positive sentiment online at the point we switched the slurp for alternative sounds in our campaign.

Paid Media - ​​637k clicks, clickable channels only (Social, YouTube + BVOD)

Meta: 8,861,095 (engagements)

Snap: 204,656 (Engagements)

TikTok: 229,187 (Engagements)