With a little sprinkle of James Harden, Trolli’s Weirdly Awesome became Beardly Awesome. The partnership bore fruit in the form of Trolli Weird Beards -- a gummified taste of Harden’s iconic beard. By launching an integrated campaign to forge an undeniably weird connection with a pop-culture star, Trolli created a slam dunk with fans at the shelf.

Getting bags of Weird Beards in-store was only half the battle. To announce the launch, James Harden’s beard held a live press conference while taking questions on Twitter. On Trolli’s Instagram we grew followers by sporting a tiled image of a never-ending beard, brimming with hairy goodness. We followed up on Snapchat by inviting fans to Weird Beard themselves with an exclusive filter. For the cherry on top, Trolli threw a sick launch party, asking fans to Weird Beard themselves during a Houston Rockets game for the chance to win a novelty check worth their weight in gummies.

With the buzz at our backs, we continued the onslaught with TV spots, digital video and a barrage of gifs, all cross-promoted through Trolli, James Harden and 7-Eleven. Strategic media placements included Snapchat Discover Live videos, Adult Swim and several media outlets, including ESPN. Everywhere you looked was floor-to-ceiling, wall-to-wall beard.

Our Weird Beards integrated campaign performed up to the standard of the NBA all-star himself. Trolli reached 162 million impressions through TV and new media, and 112 million on social, driving the highest new candy product velocity in convenience stores. With a sales sonic boom of 5.8x the previous year, 7-Eleven brought Weird Beards on board as a permanent fixture. And once national retailers got themselves a taste of the Weird Beard, they hopped on the beardwagon too.

More than just making an impression, Weird Beards straight up stole hearts on social media. Engagement for Trolli hit unprecedented levels, with a Snapchat campaign boasting an 82% completion rate, driving 7% follower growth and a 53% engagement rate — prompting Snapchat to use Weird Beards as a best-practices case study.