The Situation:

Krispy Kreme had been in declining value growth for the last three years and to reverse this trend Krispy Kreme had to engage with the demographic with the biggest growth potential– adults aged 25-34 aka millennials. But millennials were also the most infrequent Krispy Kreme buyers, and whilst there was strong familiarity and fondness for the brand this wasn’t translating enough into purchases.

The brief:

To re-engage millennials by turning their latent affection into action.

The business objectives:

- A YOY uplift in sales of 3%.

- A 15% increase in eCommerce sales.

To remind millennials of their once favourite sweet treat, we tapped into the nostalgic 90’s gaming culture to create the Throwback Party Arcade, turning Instagram into a world-first virtual arcade machine.

This hosted four mini-arcade games for mobile, each inspired by a doughnut flavour from the Throwback Party range and a well-known console classic, giving players a taste of their childhood: Fairy Bread Fantasy, Brownie Batter Bash, Cookie Dough Krispy Kart and Finger Bun Fighter - each taking inspiration from a childhood console classic from Mario Kart, to Street Fighter.

Through Instagram Stories and hosted through a handheld console online, players were transported back to a simpler time, complete with the retro-art graphics, sounds, gameplay and glorious 8-bit environments this generation grew up on.

THE INSIGHTS:

THERE WAS A GROWING APPETITE FOR NOSTALGIC THROWBACKS

From ‘Stranger Things’ to the return of the Tamagotchi and the famous Nokia 3310 – there was a growing enthusiasm amongst millennials for things that took them back and reminded them of their childhoods.

KRISPY KREME HAD LEGITMACY TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THIS TREND

Krispy Kreme already had a nostalgic space in many millennials’ hearts, having been a popular treat when they were growing up.

INSTAGRAM WAS THE PERFECT THROWBACK PLATFORM TO ENGAGE WITH OUR AUDIENCE

Instagram is in itself a throwback to an age of vintage photography, by creating our virtual arcade within Instagram we weren’t just reaching our audience through a platform they heavily used, but also using a platform that was the perfect home for our campaign.

The work ran on social media platforms Instagram and Facebook for 6 weeks.

REACH:

· 93 pieces of coverage equating to over 24 million free media impressions.

· Ad recall was 40.2% which is 276% of Facebook’s norm, according to Facebook this has been one of their most successful social campaigns in Australia.

ENGAGEMENT:

· Total time spent playing the game amounted to a whopping 208 days of continuous play.

· Unique mobile users +50.9%

· Time spent on website +18.9%

· Number of sessions on website +29.8%

SALES:

The Throwback campaign has been the most successful NPD campaign for Krispy Kreme ever:

· A YOY increase of +6.3% in retail sales (over 2x the target).

· +30.09% in eCommerce sales (over 2x the target) – which also accounted for 25.3% of the all Krispy Kreme eCommerce sales during the campaign period.

‘Throwback Party’ is now also expanding globally.