Necco is a great, classic American company. The Sweethearts brand has been a best-selling Valentine’s Day candy for decades, evolving and remaining culturally relevant. Still, we felt there was an opportunity to grow and revitalize the brand by presenting it in a nontraditional way, while adhering to the brand’s core identities associated with conversations, sharing, and fun. We sought to identify an engaging, modern means for bringing the Sweethearts experience to life for Valentine’s Day, 2014.

'Tweethearts', was a social solution that allowed users to create customized Sweethearts candies using Twitter. The sweethearts.com site invited users to send a personalized tweet to @tweethearts. Users then received a tweet with an image showing the words from their tweet on Sweethearts candies. They could then order a 1-lb. bag of candies for delivery, share the image socially, or both. The site also featured an original song and video celebrating the gift idea.

The following are some of the key results from this program, as related to the consumer-audience response and engagement:

Over 2,000,000 impressions, with a media budget of $0

2,464 users have created a Tweetheart — almost 2.5x our initial goal of 1,000.

1,405 retweets

Average time on site: 50 seconds

Celebrity Mindy Kaling posted a #Tweetheart on Instagram and Facebook.

Inspired by a #Tweetheart we sent, BuzzFeed organically picked up the program and featured it on its homepage. The article captured over 53,000 total views.

Twitter’s official advertising account referenced #Tweethearts as an example of best practices for brands on Twitter. The program generated significant press coverage, including BuzzFeed, Agency Spy, New York Times, Forbes, Boston.com, Yahoo, Digiday, Media Post, and others.

The client was thrilled with the program and its ability to generate buzz, drive engagement, and position Sweethearts as a classic brand with a contemporary approach. All participation results exceeded client expectations.

First we launched the @tweethearts handle, after thorough testing of the automated image response. Simultaneously, tweethearts.com went live, both to provide more information about the program and to allow users to purchase the personalized candy they’d created. With a media budget of $0, we had to be very diligent and strategic in using a comprehensive social-media outreach plan and PR to help drive activation. We identified a list of influencers likely to engage with the product (because of an affinity for candy, romance, or even a tie to Necco’s home city of Boston), and sent them bags customized to their personality. We also looked for both PR and outreach opportunities, such as the trending Twitter hashtag '#RejectedCandyHearts', through which we engaged with many users (turning their #RejectedCandyHearts into images) — including a BuzzFeed writer who then picked up the program for buzzfeed.com.