Tic Tac® wanted its launch of the new Summer Ice Pop flavor to resonate with its Millennial target audience and gain traction for the brand. Social listening insights revealed that Tic Tac® fans are passionate about its unique flavors and view social media as their primary source for product news.
These insights prompted Tic Tac® to undertake its first digitally-focused product launch. We built a microsite, gradually revealing the new flavor as consumers interacted with @TicTacUSA. Over a two-day period, each mention of #TicTacMystery brought @TicTacUSA one step closer to the full reveal.
The day of the reveal, we hosted a Twitter chat to get fans excited and maximize hashtag usage. Throughout, we dropped hints and clues urging followers to guess the next flavor as the microsite simultaneously revealed the color of the mints. Finally, we revealed the new flavor on all owned channels. Consumers met the news with enthusiasm and immediately flooded the brand's owned channels asking where to find Summer Ice Pop.
Our efforts generated more than 195 million media impressions. The Twitter party garnered 29 million impressions, engaged 858 Twitter users and generated nearly 4,000 tweets. The hashtag #TicTacMystery was a trending topic for nearly the entire 1-hour duration of the Twitter chat. We generated so much unexpected demand the brand completely sold out of the stock they produced. Stores sold out of Summer Ice Pop in a matter of days and placed so many restock orders that the limited-time offer became even more limited than expected.
The Tic Tac® brand was challenged to generate buzz and word of mouth awareness around the launch of its new Summer Ice Pop flavor from April through August 2014.
Our observations during community management and social listening reports revealed that fans of Tic Tac® mints are most passionate about the flavors of the mints themselves. Fans flocked to social media to share their love for existing flavors, request the return of retired flavors and suggest ideas for new flavors in the future. Out of the social content that Tic Tac® brand has shared in the past year, content around the flavors has seen some of the highest engagement rates. Additionally, research into the Millennial demographic revealed that Millennials are more likely to look to friends for product recommendation than to any other source.
The Tic Tac® brand's first social media-focused product launch was supported by traditional media efforts as well. Our media strategy was to pitch and secure first taste opportunities to top-tier media outlets to generate buzz and wide reach. First taste exclusives were followed by outreach to target trade and food news outlets with information on the new flavor and interview opportunities.
Prior to launch, we identified 250-300 millennial influencers that fell within our top interest categories and activated them to drive consumer sampling of the new Summer Ice Pop flavor and support the launch in the digital space. We invited the influencers to redeem a "Top Secret" Tic Tac perk around a new flavor that has yet to be revealed. In exchange for guessing the name of the new product, participants would be compensated with a 12-pack of the new product for themselves and to share with friends.
To kick off the launch in the digital space, we built a custom microsite that gradually revealed the new flavor as consumers interacted with @TicTacUSA. Over a two-day period, each consumer mention of hashtag, #TicTacMystery, brought @TicTacUSA one step closer to the full flavor reveal. We also partnered with an influencer group, leveraged existing influencers and engaged with active Twitter users to host a Twitter chat on the morning of the reveal to get fans excited and maximize hashtag use. Throughout the chat, we dropped hints and clues urging followers and fans to guess the next flavor in the mix as we simultaneously revealed the individual color of the mints on the microsite. At the end of the chat, the flavor was revealed on the microsite, followed by posts on Facebook and a tweet. The news was met with enthusiasm as consumers immediately flooded the brand's owned channels asking where to find Summer Ice Pop.
Once the product was announced, we leveraged 20 top-tier influencers to promote the launch of Summer Ice Pop by creating original branded content injected with creative storytelling. The content was designed to drive consumer engagement in social media and amplify brand messaging around Summer Ice Pop.
We kept the momentum going in traditional media throughout the summer by pitching online lifestyle and home editors for inclusion in 4th of July entertaining posts highlighting Summer Ice Pop as a festive finish for table tops or party favor for guests. We also targeted bloggers to review and share their thoughts on the latest and greatest flavor.
Our efforts generated more than 195 million media impressions. The Twitter party garnered 29 million impressions, engaged 858 Twitter users and generated nearly 4,000 tweets. The Twitter hashtag, #TicTacMystery was a trending topic for nearly the entire 1 hour duration of the Twitter chat. Overall, the efforts generated so much unexpected demand that the brand sold out of the limited stock they produced. Stores sold out of Summer Ice Pop in a matter of days and placed so many restock orders that the limited time offer became even more limited than expected.
