You know you’re supposed to be timely and relevant in your content marketing. Newsjacking is one way to do this. Writing content that relates to holidays is another.
But have you ever thought about leveraging holiday traditions?
Cheetos is a cutting edge brand that’s doing just that. Take a look.
Cheetos’ Project TP
You arrive first at the disclaimer above, which sets the tone immediately. This is a black op, you shouldn’t TP someone’s house in the physical, and the digital experience is going to be ridiculous.
Chester, the Cheetos mascot, then enters, flying across your screen in a black Cheetos helicopter, announcing that Halloween has gone soft. He invites you to let the digital toilet paper fly.
Fail to enter an address that you want to digitally TP (which I’m doing right now as I type this post), and he’ll fly by in his helicopter demanding to know what you’re waiting for, to “enter an address, already.”
“Let’s do this,” he tells you.
It’s probably the most fun I’ve had researching an article—ever.
- Enter an address or landmark.
- Confirm the target.
- Then fly off with Chester in the Cheetos helicopter.
- Release the payload of toilet paper, and witness the destruction.
This is the house we’re now selling, all decked out for the new owners. Lol
Hey, a little holiday cheer never hurt, right?
Does this count as marketing?
Um, yeah!
The thing to remember is that marketing is far more than selling. It’s brand building, relationship building, PR, educating and more.
Create a campaign that lets people engage with your brand—just for the fun of it, not to sell to them—and you’ll create a lot of good will that can convert into loyalty and sales down the road. It’s an investment, if you will, in future sales, and is well worth the effort.
Notice in the image above what this campaign does.
First, it allows you to virtually do something you shouldn’t do in real life. And by leveraging an old “holiday” tradition, it really hits the mark.
Second, it does a fantastic job of brand building.
- There’s a picture of the product that’s sponsoring the “game.”
- The helicopter is also branded. It has the same image that’s on the black disclaimer screen: a Chester and Cheetos imitation of a skull and crossbones. And the brand’s mascot leads the operation.
- It makes it easy to share and engage, so this campaign has a good chance of going viral.
In particular, notice that there are “missions and prizes” on Facebook and Twitter. Click on the F, and you’ll end up on Project TP’s Facebook page.
How many likes are there? 1,228,251, with 6,345 talking about it. When it comes to social media promotions, you can’t do much better than that.
Now hover over the “Share with Friends” button, and you’ll be invited to tag the person whose house you TP’ed. Again, this campaign is designed to go viral.
It appeals to all age levels and offers a way to perform an outdated holiday tradition without harming the environment or your relationships. If anything, I could see you doing this to friends and family as a good-natured prank.
Smart holiday marketing builds fan engagement
Speaking as someone who grew up in an analog world, while technology has created an exciting world to live and work in, there are some things that don’t generally translate into the digital experience.
Here we are at Halloween…
How many kids will opt for a digital version of Trick or Treating?
How many digital treats will they want in their bags?
None that I can think of.
But that doesn’t mean you can’t translate a traditionally physical experience into a digital delight. That’s just what Cheetos does here. And from my perspective, it’s a project worth repeating.
What about you? Thoughts? Critiques? What would you change about Cheetos Project TP?
