With Slim Jim Bacon Jerky hitting the marketplace, the product needed a socially driven marketing campaign that highlighted how different the bagged product was from its flagship meat stick. The objective was to drive awareness, build equity and drive purchases for the unique product, which was seeing expanded distribution due to America's unrelenting love for all things bacon.
Ideation centered on concepts that would resonate with Slim Jim's primary target audience, 18- to 24-year-old men working blue collar jobs. Social community insights showed that while the target persona was in a relationship that he cared about, whether they be dating or married, he still had a humorous view on relationships altogether.
Deeper brand research revealed that the target valued relationships and his family, but at the same time was also captivated by the idea of taking a break from the stresses of adult life, often through consuming humor online. Consumer love and passion for bacon had garnered media attention and sparked daily social conversation, creating an opportunity for Slim Jim to not just take part in the dialogue, but to instigate widespread appeal. Edelman wanted to leverage the insights to inform the approach. More than just promoting bacon consumption, the campaign needed to communicate why Slim Jim Bacon Jerky is a phenomenal way to get one's bacon fix – it's not the lazy way to satisfy bacon cravings, but the smart way.
Edelman created a campaign rooted in the brand voice/tone which inserted Slim Jim Bacon Jerky into relatable scenarios that the target would resonate with to show why it's "Better Than" a lot of things…including an actual relationship. In an extensive series of content, Edelman shared more than two dozen unique reasons why Slim Jim Bacon Jerky is "Better Than a Relationship" on owned social media channels.
The how-to, man-guidebook-style images allowed Slim Jim to use provocative, edgy humor that we knew our target would understand and appreciate, but could also have a double meaning to soften the message. An example: Reason #47 why Bacon Jerky is better than a relationship: "It's always down for late night action. Gaming action." The on-image copy stated "Instant Satisfaction" with two-step guidebook directions for opening the bag, which brought the concept back from the edge while still pushing toward the double entendre. Through the series, all creative had an innuendo, combining everyday guy stuff and more proactive territory than the brand had historically explored. An over-the-top approach to humor, the content featured quick-hitting one-liners supplemented by an illustration brought each reason, and double entendre, to life.
Social listening, analysis of community behaviors and past engagement performance metrics informed the brief. Slim Jim content achieved best results when the target consumer could easily visualize oneself acting out the situation, even if unlikely to occur in real life. This inspired creative direction, which leveraged animated characters who embodied the consumer (vs. a spokesperson or brand ambassador).
The illustrated nature of the images brought in an artistic element that added additional humor to the bawdy posts as well as allowing the ridiculousness to be cranked up a notch. Posts featured bald eagles, a bucking bronco, the "No" symbol over pants, a DNA strand and even a pig's family tree diagram filtering into bacon strips.
The 29-part series, which ran between March and May (2015), produced 14 unique social posts that were featured across all Slim Jim owned social properties including Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Supplemental supporting content was created for Instagram posts which utilized two templates, allowing for efficient use of creative for incremental equity for the series. The first template, used seven times, mirrored the illustrative style from the 14 primary posts. The second template, used four times, mimicked a screenshot from a Tinder-like dating app where a guy sender was Slim Jim Bacon Jerky and texts a companion. Instagram-optimized content was shared across Twitter as well to increase impressions.
By appealing to a sense of simple, snackable humor that set up safe-but-suggestive scenarios on relationship stereotypes, the campaign appealed to not only its core community, but extended beyond the significant others to those who have recently aged out of the target. Smart targeted content delivered well over projected results.
The campaign generated top-performing results within its year-long social content portfolio, not only compared to Slim Jim fiscal year averages, but also compared to other brand campaigns reaching a similar target, based off in-depth competitor research of Jack Links and Hot Pocket. Armed with quality, engaging creative, the posts performed well from the start, excelling in community reception and positive comments, particularly on Facebook, Slim Jim's primary and largest social community. Charged with building equity and awareness for Slim Jim Bacon Jerky, the campaign reached nearly 15 million people and generated strong engagement and community sentiment from comments.
Facebook Results:
Instagram Results:
Twitter Results:
