Now more than ever, consumers long for simpler, happier times. Our challenge was to unlock the equity of this nostalgic brand during the peak candy-buying season, (1) increasing salience for the Dum-Dums brand around the Halloween occasion to make it top of mind for seasons to come, and (2) increasing relevance amongst a younger audience, convincing them to add Dum-Dums to their candy repertoire.
The lollipops themselves—with their iconic shape and colorful wrappers—were the inspiration for this sweet, coming-of-age story set in a magical, whimsical Halloween world. As the only “pop” of color in the otherwise black-and-white animated video, the brand’s signature product was seamlessly woven into the storyline, serving as the catalyst for a series of joyful moments.
30- and 15-second cuts were used across social media and streaming services, with an increased focus on engagement.
The goal of this campaign was to build brand salience for Dum-Dums around the Halloween occasion. Creative was optimized for engagement and awareness, and exceeded goals for both objective types. The campaign resulted in a 12.7pt estimated Brand Recall Lift on Facebook (compared to 5.4pt CPG industry average), nearly 15 million video views, a 66.97% engagement rate on Facebook ads, and a 22.8% engagement rate across social platforms, all while beating CPM and CPE benchmarks by as much as 75% (Instagram CPE, actual: $0.03, benchmark: $0.12).
While Dum-Dums is a household name and our branded campaigns are historically competitive, the results for these campaigns blew even our internal benchmarks out of the water. That was due to a media/audience strategy designed to land at the feet of Halloween candy lovers with creative tailormade to engage and delight.
Better than the metrics, over a hundred comments were what told us this campaign was a hit:
