With the launch of custom Snickers bars that featured individual traits such as “Anger”, “Rebelliousness” and “Spaced”, Mars wanted to draw attention to their new range with a pre-roll commercial on YouTube.

Challenge

More often than not, pre-roll commercials are skipped as soon as possible so that the viewer can watch their selected video.

Objectives:

Our challenge was to convince the viewer to stick around for the duration of the video.

The film features an irate wrestler driving a school bus full of children. As well as the children testing his patience, everything and anyone who crosses his path gets on his nerves – sending him into an ever mounting rage. Whilst watching this unfold, the viewer has the opportunity to also actively participate. By using the pause button they can help “catch” a Snickers for the hungry character and turn him back to his normal, bus-driver self.

A constant flow of Snickers run across the bottom of the screen from right to left, passing the Wrestler’s constantly outstretched open hand. If the viewer manages to time the pause perfectly when the bar passes his hand, they discover a still-image of his normal self.

Our films were designed to be played as pre-roll ads on YouTube, and automatically played before our target audience’s selected videos. People were also directed to the videos from the Snickers’ social media pages.