Born in 1912, OREO was about to turn 100. And, when you’re that old, you might be loved and revered, but you can also be seen as old-fashioned.

Indeed, having spent the past century communicating mostly through TV ads that played to classic, intimate family moments, the brand had developed quite a traditional image.

Our challenge: how to solve the paradox of using a centennial anniversary to actually rejuvenate OREO?

Instead of focusing on the past, we decided to focus on the present.

“Daily Twist” was born: 100 ads developed over 100 days in real time, spread through the brand’s social networks, showing the trending news of the day through the playful eyes of an OREO cookie.

The campaign didn't reflect the news – it became the news.

The Daily Twists have been seen 433 million times in total on Facebook and spontaneously celebrated by major broadcasters, social media outlets, late-night shows, and even economics magazines and fellow marketers.

Their impact on pop culture – and the brand’s rejuvenation – can best be understood by reading what others said about the campaign:

― Think of branding as breathing… Inhale, exhale, but this time the stuff of respiration is not air but culture. OREO turns out to be really respiratory. – Harvard Business Review

― Can OREOs become the next Google Doodles? – The Atlantic Wire

― Although it’s a century old, OREO continuously taps the news stream to create ideas that help keep the brand current and participating in the conversation – Forbes

Take a $2 billion brand, which has been around forever and is known by everyone, and make it become so newsworthy that everyone would discuss it.

To do that, we wanted to double the average post-engagement rate of OREO Facebook fans and create more than 75 million media impressions (based on previous similar programs) over the course of three months.

Also, despite record-breaking results achieved in the first quarter and limited media budget availability, we still needed to achieve yearlong growth in order to meet our yearly target.

– The Daily Twists were seen 433 million times around the world on Facebook.

– “Pride” alone reached a total of 4,388,864 individuals.

– We doubled our Facebook engagement rate, with 1.3 million total interactions (195% average increase) attracting 1,055,601 new fans to the OREO page.

These conversations generated more than 2,600 media stories and 231 million media impressions in just 100 days.

From major broadcasting news to late-night shows like Jimmy Kimmel Live, The Daily Show, and The Colbert Report to economic institutions like Forbes and the Harvard Business Review, everyone celebrated the effort.

In Q3, by the end of Daily Twist, OREO base growth was at +4% – a remarkable result, considering the size of the brand and a 28% drop in media spending compared to the first quarter.

According to NBC’s Brand Power Index, Daily Twist made OREO the brand with the highest increase in buzz in 2012 (+49% vs 2011).

Daily Twist tapped into contemporary culture – in real time, on a daily basis.

A creative editorial team of agency and marketing representatives scoured the news every morning for trending news, which a creative team turned into a brand-new Daily Twist by the end of the day. Every day.

“Pride,” our first Twist, reflected the pride parades happening across the country. Our six-layer, rainbow-colored creme cookie became one of the most discussed images of the year, impacting culture, not just the brand. And we still had 99 to go.

In the ensuing weeks, we acted like a publisher celebrating the extraordinary and the everyday, from the summer’s first heat wave to the Mars Rover landing.

And most of all, we took a simple cookie and managed to get everyone talking about it.

It was a first – yet important step on our way to keeping the brand contemporary for the days to come.

The anniversary represented a big opportunity to impact the OREO brand image, making it more contemporary. Given a limited budget and our desire to communicate through contemporary media in a contemporary way, we decided to focus on generating PR through social media.

OREO had a strong social network community, particularly on Facebook. We knew they all “liked” us (an easy achievement in today’s digital world), but the fans’ level of engagement wasn't high, as expected with a brand perceived as being old.

We wanted them to actively talk with us, about us, and think of us in a brand-new way.

To make OREO a more contemporary brand, we decided not to dwell in the past, challenging the backward-thinking perspective typical of other brands communicating their centennial anniversaries.

Instead of communicating 100 years of history, we decided to communicate the very present.

Celebrating the culture of the day, every day.

We created 100 ads in 100 days. Each morning, we identified trending news stories, gave them a playful OREO twist, and pushed out a brand-new ad to our social networks by the end of the day.

In doing so, we didn’t just seize the everyday nature of digital platforms, but also reminded everyone of the playful delight that an OREO cookie can bring in their daily lives.