We set out to prove that nothing satisfies like Pot Noodle. So we made the sound of satisfaction the star of our campaign: a big, wet, sloppy SLUUURPP. But when the nation recoiled, we used audience data to pivot our strategy and delight the people we had disgusted. We used data on who had skipped our adverts to identify those who hated the SLURP. Then we used data on their interests and passions to target them with bespoke versions of our advert featuring sounds we knew they would find much more satisfying, transforming negative reactions into a positive brand experience.

Pot Noodle has been a British lunchtime meal for 40 years. It’s a satisfying, affordable meal in a pot, which cooks in 4 mins. It’s loved by people across the country and is a cupboard staple for most. Pot Noodle is a humble and down-to-earth brand and product that is loved by everyday people and unfairly looked down upon by foodie snobs.

The UK is a country that values etiquette and proper table manners. Slurping is considered highly unappealing!

Pot Noodle is the UK’s leading instant noodle brand. But we faced a growing threat from authentic noodle brands from overseas vying for our shelf space, and Supermarket’s own brand undercutting us on price. We needed to defend our position as the original and the best noodle brand in the market by proving we deliver ultimate satisfaction, and ultimately grow our market share and penetration.

Social data was integral to our campaign. We gathered data from social media to understand who had skipped our advert at the moment the SLURP began to identify those who hated the SLURP. We then also gathered data from Meta and Google to understand our audience interests and passions to re-serve them bespoke versions of our advert replacing the SLURP with sounds we knew they would love. We created 47 unique versions featuring SFX from birds tweeting to keyboards typing.

Across TV sport (specifically football and F1) was a high passion point. TV entertainment, with the highest indexing brand being Ant and Dec, was the next most prominent followed by Pets. Here we then matched the replacement sounds to interests based on audience targeting size on digital, retargeting those who have already seen the ad, while cherry picking high indexing shows, e.g. Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway, on TV.

We used campaign engagement data on who had skipped our adverts at the moment the SLURP began to identify those who hated the SLURP, and Meta and Google data on audience interests and passions to serve bespoke versions on YouTube and social of our advert replacing the SLURP with sounds we knew they would find much more satisfying. We created 47 unique versions featuring SFX from birds tweeting to keyboards typing. The adverts also ran on TV, tailoring the sounds to the programming.

Data was a huge part of the Slurp campaign, we used it to target individuals who were unsatisfied by our hero campaign due to the SFX. Through data we identified those who had skipped the ad when the slurp noise started. We then we looked at their data to find out what actually satisfies them and re-targeted them with new edits tailored specifically to their satisfaction. Each edit was the same as our hero ad but with a new SFX rather then the slurp. We made 47 edits to ensure we reached as many people as possible. 47 went live on social & Youtube, and 7 on TV, targeting people based on what programmes they were watching.

The campaign landed with immediate impact, generating a 399% increase in online conversation about Pot Noodle that was sustained in the 10 weeks following launch. There were over 10,000 online comments about the advert and we achieved 15.3 million reach in earned media. Total Pot Noodle sales increased by 25% in the 4 weeks following launch, and we gained 15% market share.

Our quick pivot in strategy and the use of data to deliver bespoke and hyper-targeted adverts designed for satisfaction successfully won over the angry mob and we saw an increase in positive sentiment online at the point we switched the slurp for alternative sounds in our campaign.