After more than 20 years of media silence, Cheez Doodles fell off of consumers' radars with the exception of the Boomer loyalists. Snack brands like Cheetos, Doritos, Skittles, M&Ms, and Snickers are leading the youth snacking market with serious distribution and spending upwards of $30MM+ each in media, annually (Kantar Media, 04/17).
Cheez Doodles is not only battling uphill in consumers' minds for snack brand awareness, but they also have to fight through a mess of content (both branded and unbranded). Our solution not only needed to stand out in the marketplace, it needed to stand out in culture and entertainment to drive brand awareness and affinity amongst Millenials and Gen Zers.
In today's culture, there's serious on top of serious. We live in a world with headlines that one couldn't imagine would be real a decade ago.
When we step back from that seriousness of life, we're free to see the world the way we did when we were younger. Life was simple. Smiles were ours for the taking. These fun moments of play are what we live for, and their abrupt absence in adult life is confusing Millennials to say the least.
Eating Cheez Doodles is a fun, crunchy, and cheesy experience that takes you to another place, far from the responsibilities of adulthood, and into a more carefree time. It's your inner child to the rescue just when you need it most, the simple joys of life, and a more playful version of you.
With what's happening in the world today, everyone really needs a moment of lightheartedness…
Enter, "The Doodle Method".
In the tone of "The Office" and "Waiting for Guffman" the campaign provides a hilarious look into the world of our hero, Lindsay Conner – a New York City Life Coach, that uses Wise Cheez Doodles as the tool to help her clients heal their emotional wounds and find their inner child.
The Doodle Method is a series of exercises and techniques (all of course involving Cheez Doodles) that help us to better ourselves. The secret to a happy life is to live young, and nothing takes you back to the inhibitions of your childhood like Cheez Doodles.
The story of Lindsay and the The Doodle Method was brought to life by humorously showing her pursuit of becoming a "pop-culture icon" through a personal blog, online videos, social media, and her ultimate goal – a published self-help book.
Six three-minute episodes were posted to The Doodle Method Facebook page as a complete playlist in addition to seven produced vlogs. This Facebook page became the hub for the overall campaign and allowed the series to be seen less as advertising, and more as content produced solely for entertainment. Cheez Doodles & Wise Snacks social accounts shared The Doodle Method content, drawing current brand followers' attention to the series – but these shares were done as if the brand discovered the series rather than produced it.
Additional memes and "Lindsay-isms" from the series were created and posted on the series' Facebook & Instagram pages, as well as shared within contextual trending conversations – crediting The Doodle Method. Fans began to interact with Lindsay and The Doodle Method as if she and The Method actually existed in the real world.
An unpaid push activated the actors' social media accounts. Each actor crafted their own posts to draw attention to the series within their social feed. Combined with our $100K paid plan with Thrillist – we leveraged all facets of social and our video content, extending Cheez Doodles into today's Millennial & Gen Z mindset as we intended – entertainment first, with our brand message of "Live Young" clearly communicated throughout.
