Frozen novelty treats are a crowded, competitive, and evolving +$4.9B annual segment, dominated by national multiline majors (Unilever, Nestle) and private label brands also vying for freezer space. Bomb Pop’s historic media spend couldn’t compete with our large national rivals, so we needed to take a smarter approach.
Already a preferred summer treat for teens and tweens, we wanted to move beyond limited occasion purchase by deepening relevance with the Gen Z audience. Our main goal was to amplify Bomb Pop’s cultural status beyond Food & Beverage to take its place alongside the most iconic tween lifestyle brands, ultimately driving sales.
To break into culture, we did extensive research to understand the audience in a deeper way, and what we uncovered was not only something to celebrate, but something that connected to the very DNA of the Bomb Pop brand and product. What makes Tweens unique and special is how they refuse to pick a lane and lean into one way of being; this is the most multi-faceted, culturally diverse, gender-fluid, and widely creative generation that has learned to embrace who they are, rather than try to pick a box. Just like the product, which has three flavors in each pop, our Tweens are not one thing. Now the question was, how to bring this to life in a meaningful way.
To ensure authentic connection it was vital that we didn’t tell tweens to be authentic, but instead let them lead the way, so we featured real Tweens and their passions in our film spots. We did a nationwide casting call where we got to see Gen Z and its best, ultimately identifying 6 talented Gen Zers to feature in our spots. The films were dynamic, fast-moving, and designed to mimic the social channels they are so familiar with. Of course, to reach Gen Z we needed to push out to other engaging media channels, so we created a Snapchat Lens and Filter, and a TikTok hashtag challenge…which we flipped on its head.
Instead of treating the hashtag challenge as a straight forward media buy, we used it as an opportunity to celebrate tweens across the country and inspire them to live out their multidimensional and unique truths, passions, identities, and talents. As digital and social natives, our tween/teen audience grew up learning how to express every side of themselves in fun, creative, and interesting ways across social platforms, so we decided to create the first awards show EVER on TikTok, the #BombPopAwards.
We launched the award show with a TopView takeover unit, introducing the concept to all of TikTok with a video from one of Gen Z’s favorite influencers, Brent Rivera. Gathering submissions through our sponsored hashtag challenge, we invited fans to show us every side of themselves for a chance to win up to $15K. Along with Brent we enlisted 5 other influencers to help us drive the excitement, with each posting about every side of themselves on IG and TikTok. Highlighting winners with influencer duet videos, we celebrated the talent and diversity of our audience on their favorite stage. Ultimately, we awarded 9 people $1K as our daily winners, and our grand prize winner got $15K and a call from Brent!
Not only was the campaign effective in celebrating the authenticity of tweens and teens, it also drove the bottom line objective we set for ourselves at the beginning of the campaign: to take our place as an iconic lifestyle brand amongst tweens, ultimately driving sales. The Bomb Pop Awards itself played an important role, ultimately generating 11.2 billion views, 24 million hashtag challenge page views, and 1.9 million video submissions.
But most importantly, we achieved a 12% sales increase, literally maxing out the factory.
