Planters asked America how they at their mixed nuts on Twitter, all together or one at a time. Turns out the country was split. Nearly in half. Shockingly. So we went all in and created an entire campaign around this insight, getting different influencers to weigh in on whether they at their nuts all together or one at a time. Turns out they all had very strong opinions on the subject and created content that spoke volumes, inspiring UGC and comments in support or against. Their followers engaged, along with the rest of the country.

With the brand recognizing mixed nuts are often an overlooked snack, we needed to bring them to the forefront of America’s minds to get them on the biggest snack tables of the year - Super Bowl snack tables. Our objective? Get people talking about mixed nuts leading up to and during game day.

At a time when the internet was a primary cause of dividing people down to every minor difference of opinion, we chose to have fun with it and stir up a nationwide debate over the right way to eat mixed nuts. Once you ask someone if they eat their mixed nuts one at a time or all together in a big old handful, people can’t not weigh in. We leaned into this insight and it delivered. Everyone has an opinion on this seemingly simple question. And as soon as you ask it, people suddenly become very passionate about mixed nuts.

Our team has seen, both online and offline, that people have been conditioned to take a passionate stance on trivial debates, especially if it’s about self behavior. Mixed nuts are inherently a product that can be eaten two very distinct ways, yet this has never been discussed. We had every reason to believe stirring up an argument around one’s behavior of eating mixed nuts would be an instant hit with this audience. And it was.

A famously bickering pair of friends, Ken Jeong and Joel McHale, have a disagreement over how to eat mixed nuts - is it one at a time, or all together l? The initial execution started as a teaser with the two discovering each other’s nut-eating method and a subsequent blown-out-of-proportion argument, followed by a social rollout stoking the debate that ends up in a Super Bowl spot where Jeong attempts to settle it via a live twitter poll, causing national chaos made apparent in a bar just seconds after.

We had 280 Million Engagements across the brand and 2 billion media impressions. Just as predicted, on every piece of content, we saw people passionately defending their personal way to eat mixed nuts. In a time in America, where no one can put out an opinion without it leading to politics, this is a topic people could stick to and had a 95% positive/neutral sentiment across all touchpoints. We gave America something to argue about, but in a sense, brought them together no matter what side they were on.