How Cheetos flipped a negative feature into a positive vibe

Summary

Podcast Summary: OnStrategy Showcase – "How Cheetos Flipped a Negative Feature into a Positive Vibe"

Release Date: November 3, 2024
Host: Fergus O’Carroll

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Introduction

In the episode titled "How Cheetos Flipped a Negative Feature into a Positive Vibe," Fergus O’Carroll delves into the innovative marketing strategies employed by Cheetos to rejuvenate its brand. Hosted on OnStrategy Showcase, this episode features insightful conversations with Jacob Spurla, Director of Communication Strategy at Goodby Silverstein & Partners, and Flavia Simoz, Senior Director of Marketing for Cheetos.

Background on Cheetos' Market Position

Flavia Simoz provides a comprehensive overview of Cheetos' robust market presence:

"All this amazing work that we've been doing the past several years has led this brand to be a $3 billion brand in sales. We are currently present in more than 70% of the households in the US and we hold almost a 50% share of the category that Cheetos compete in, which we call curls and puffs."
(07:05)

Cheetos operates within the "curls and puffs" subcategory of salty snacks, maintaining a dominant position with significant household penetration and market share.

Shifting Strategy: From Families to 'Rejuveniles'

Historically, Cheetos targeted families, positioning parents as the buyers and children as the primary consumers. However, declining growth and household penetration necessitated a strategic pivot towards a younger demographic, termed "rejuveniles" by the brand.

Flavia explains the rationale behind this shift:

"We were targeting parents because we found that they were more focused on taking part in playing with their families as compared to past generations. But when we looked at a broader opportunity... we saw consumers... treating Cheetos as a badge of honor."
(09:47)

Jacob Spurla adds:

"We have this audience mindset that we call rejuveniles, which is people who are young and the young at heart... this felt like such a true insight for the audience we were trying to reach."
(12:07)

This strategic realignment opened avenues to engage with a vibrant, socially active audience, leveraging their affinity for the brand in unconventional ways.

Turning 'Cheetle' into a Positive Feature

Acknowledging the messiness associated with consuming Cheetos—commonly referred to as "Cheetle" (Cheetos dust)—the team saw an opportunity to transform this perceived drawback into a celebrated feature. Initially considered a negative by parents concerned about cleanliness, Cheetle became a symbol of playful mischief among younger consumers.

Jacob Spurla highlights:

"They were kind of using Cheetle as a badge of honor... seeing how they're talking about it and all of that."
(16:58)

The introduction of a branded term, "Cheetle," allowed Cheetos to own the narrative around the messiness, turning it into an emblem of fun and individuality.

Key Campaigns and Executions

1. Cheetos Popcorn Super Bowl Spot with MC Hammer

The launch of Cheetos Popcorn featured a memorable spot with MC Hammer, underscoring the playful use of Cheetle to avoid unwanted tasks:

"The proposition was... just show them your Cheetos covered fingertips and they'll go find somebody else."
(04:48)

This campaign set the stage for embracing the mess as a positive attribute, resonating well with the target audience.

2. Cheetos Duster with Amazon

In fall 2022, Cheetos introduced the Cheetos Duster in collaboration with Amazon, a gadget designed to grind Cheetos into fine dust for culinary use. Flavia remarks:

"We created this special gadget that allowed consumers to do their own Cheetos dust by themselves."
(16:27)

This innovation not only catered to the existing fanbase but also expanded Cheetos' culinary applications, garnering significant attention and winning an Effie Award.

3. "Other Hand" Campaign

Building on the Cheetle concept, the "Other Hand" campaign humorously showcased the challenges of performing tasks with one hand covered in Cheetle. Jacob describes:

"When you use the other hand to do stuff, you are usually not doing it very well... It's a Cheetos thing."
(29:58)

The campaign featured relatable scenarios, such as sketch artists and athletes struggling with their non-dominant hand, enhancing brand relatability and humor.

Engaging with Passionate Fans (The 'Cult')

Cheetos boasts a passionate core group of fans, often referred to as a "cult," who exhibit a deep-seated love for the brand. Jacob emphasizes:

"There's this core group of people that has this love and nostalgia for Cheetos... they're like a cult."
(24:48)

These dedicated fans actively participate in brand narratives, creating user-generated content and spreading the Cheetle culture organically.

Role of Social Media and Platforms

Social media plays a pivotal role in amplifying Cheetos' marketing efforts. Jacob discusses:

"Social is just a hugely important platform for us... allowing us to be a little bit more kind of wacky and speak the language of the people who are on the platform."
(32:11)

Platforms like TikTok and YouTube facilitate authentic engagement, enabling the brand to interact dynamically with rejuveniles and sustain its playful image.

Conclusion and Future Insights

The episode underscores Cheetos' successful transformation from a family-centric brand to a vibrant, youth-oriented icon. By embracing and redefining Cheetle, Cheetos not only mitigated a potential negative but also cultivated a unique brand identity that resonates deeply with its target audience. The collaborative efforts between Cheetos and Goodby Silverstein & Partners exemplify strategic innovation, community engagement, and effective use of modern marketing channels to sustain and grow brand relevance.

Flavia and Jacob conclude with optimism about upcoming initiatives and continued brand evolution, reinforcing Cheetos' commitment to playful mischief and consumer-centric strategies.

"We're excited to share it with you. So we'll see you live in Chicago December 5th. Until then, enjoy this."
(05:18)

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Notable Quotes:

• Flavia Simoz: "We are currently present in more than 70% of the households in US and we hold almost a 50% in share of the category that Cheetos compete in, which we call curls and puffs." (07:05)

• Jacob Spurla: "They were kind of using Cheetle as a badge of honor... seeing how they're talking about it and all of that." (16:58)

• Fergus O'Carroll: "I think it's one of those rare brands where you see some of it and again, at probably a smaller scale than I would like to admit. But the strategy for us became how do we amplify those behaviors." (25:33)

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Upcoming Events:

Fergus invites listeners to upcoming live shows, including a holiday-themed episode in Chicago on December 5th, promising a festive gathering for the advertising and marketing community.

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This episode offers a masterclass in turning product attributes into brand strengths, leveraging consumer behavior insights, and engaging authentically with a passionate audience to drive marketing success.

Transcript

[Fergus O'Carroll]

Welcome to OnStrategy Showcase. I'm Fergus O'Carroll in Chicago. Be sure to click the Follow button in your podcast app so you can get all of our latest episodes. And remember that we have an archive of close to 250 episodes on the website. These are 250 cases, 250 conversations about our fantastic world of strategy from both a marketer's perspective and from a strategy perspective within an agency. You can listen to the shows, can see the creative work, you can connect with our guests, and you can buy tickets to our live shows. Actually, this Thursday, November 7th, we're live from LA at TBWA Shy At Day. Then on Thursday, December 5th. I'm pumped about this one. We're recording right here in Chicago live. We're doing our live episode here and it's going to be a holiday themed episode and hopefully, you know, people will come dressed in their holiday sweaters or their hats or their whatever. Hell, you can even bring some cookies. It'll be a festival of the best holiday advertising from the past and the present, from both the US and from various markets around the world. So I'm pumped about it. It's going to be great. It's actually going to be better than your holiday party at work. So I actually think most people should actually think about this as this year's holiday party and just turn up at our event. You can get tickets on our website. It's going to be really a party that includes the entire advertising and marketing community in Chicago. So you can just click on the live Tour tab on our [e-mail] and get yourself a bunch of tickets for those in your office. I'm really excited about it. Here's a clip from today's episode. Let's talk a little bit about where that came from. Was that something that everybody was already aware of and it was sort of one of those. It almost was a negative, wasn't it, originally, because it was seen as being the messy part of consuming this product.

[Jacob Spurla]

Yeah, that's so true. And honestly, it's something we had been floating around and playing around with even as we were in the space of family fun. I think we knew it was a thing. Everyone knows that kind of like amazing feeling when you lick your feel lick your fingers after having a bag of Cheetos or just eating a few. But it was a difficult place for us to want to play in, especially in that space of family fun. When you talk about parents and the negative perceptions of, well, it's messy is that something I really want to give to my kids. As we expanded our audience, we noticed that people were really embracing the mess in a way. They were kind of using Cheadle as a badge of honor. They were using it in ways to kind of like talk about the world and get out of doing things, which was an awesome unlock for us. And I think by looking at this younger audience, the way that they talked about Cheadle, the way that they were embracing it, that again, it's about kind of getting the confidence by looking at our fans and seeing how they're talking about it and all of that.

[Fergus O'Carroll]

That's Jacob Spurla, Jacob's director of communication strategy at Goodby Silverstein and Partners in San Francisco. He's joined by Flavia Simoz. She is senior director of marketing for Cheetos in Dallas, Texas. Cheetos had marketed to families for decades. Parents were the buyers. Kids were the consumers. But the growth began to struggle and household penetration began to decline. That resulted in a shift in focus strategically from families and fun to more the young adult population, or what the brand calls it, rejuvenile. This shift opened up the creative landscape and allowed the brand to make what was perceived by parents as a product negative. That orange Cheetos dust that covered your fingertips and, you know, kind of angered parents because they didn't want you touching your clothes or the sofa or the pet until you washed your hands. It turned that product negative in a new target audience actually into a hilarious product feature that they embraced and it went viral online. It all started with the launch of the Cheetos Popcorn super bowl spot featuring MC Hammer. The proposition was for those who want to get out of doing things. In other words, when someone wants your help with something like doing some paperwork or moving a couch or maybe holding onto the baby, just show them your Cheetos covered fingertips and they'll go find somebody else. So here's the spot.

[Flavia Simoes]

Cheetos has popcorn now.

[Fergus O'Carroll]

Hey, I'm gonna need you to.

[Jacob Spurla]

Never mind.

[MC Hammer]

Can't touch this.

[Jacob Spurla]

Help.

[MC Hammer]

You can't touch this. You can't touch. You can't touch this.

[Fergus O'Carroll]

I trust you.

[MC Hammer]

Stop. Hammer time. I touched it. New Cheetos popcorn. It's a Cheetos thing.

[Fergus O'Carroll]

Now, we're not going to be talking about this spot in the actual conversation. We're going to be talking about what follows this, including their 2024 FE Award winning collaboration with Amazon on the Cheetos Duster, which is in essence a handheld sort of a coffee grinder. But it's for grinding up Cheetos into Cheeto Dust and pouring them onto your recipes. And also going to be talking about the latest work which is called Other Hand, which is pretty funny. You can see all of the creative work on our website. And I want to thank the Effie's for partnering with us and partnering with our show. This is an Effie award winning case. We're excited to share it with you. So we'll see you live in Chicago December 5th. Until then, enjoy this. Welcome Flavia. Good to have you here.

[Flavia Simoes]

Hi Fergus, good to have you to be here too. Pleasure to be talking about this beautiful brand that we love so much and share a little bit about our journey.

[Fergus O'Carroll]

And Jacob from Goodby, welcome. Jacob.

[Jacob Spurla]

Hi Fergus. Thanks so much for having us.

[Fergus O'Carroll]

So it's great fun to do this. We're going to try and cover three different initiatives, three different campaigns. We all have our. Unless we've been under a rock. We heard the MC Hammer work that launched this whole initiative, this multi year initiative. And so we're not going to focus on that particular execution. We're going to kind of move on from that point. But I thought we could start off. I got a bit of a head cold today, a bit of a cough, so hopefully it'll go away. We're going to start off Flavia, with a little bit of a background on Cheetos itself. Tell us about the size of the business, the scope of the business, the share, just to give us a loose sense of where Cheetos sits in the marketplace.

[Flavia Simoes]

Yeah. So all this amazing work that we've been doing the past several years has led this brand to be $3 billion brand in sales. We are currently present in more than 70% of the households in US and we hold almost a 50% in share of the category that Cheetos compete in, which we call curves and puffs. So it's a pretty spectacular journey.

[Fergus O'Carroll]

What is, what is the name of. How did, what was the label you just use for curls?

[Flavia Simoes]

Curls and puffs.

[Fergus O'Carroll]

Curls and puffs.

[Flavia Simoes]

You know, when you go to the aisle you see those chips that they sometimes look like Cheetos. Like it's curls and puffs. That's where we compete in.

[Fergus O'Carroll]

And that's a subcategory of chips.

[Flavia Simoes]

Exactly. It's a subcategory of what we call salty snacks. And then within salt is next. There is all these different subcategories such as popcorn, tortillas, everything that you can see kind of in the aisle of the chips. But yeah, we call it salty internally.

[Fergus O'Carroll]

You call it chips so $3 billion in the United States alone, or is.

[Flavia Simoes]

That in the United States alone?

[Fergus O'Carroll]

Unbelievable. How much does a pack of Cheetos cost, roughly? A regular sized pack? A couple of dollars?

[Flavia Simoes]

Yeah, A couple of dollars.

[Fergus O'Carroll]

That's a lot of Cheetos.

[Flavia Simoes]

It's a lot of Cheetos. It is a lot of Cheetos, man.

[Fergus O'Carroll]

I've got to say, I don't know that I've. Well, I have probably tasted a Cheetos, but I tell you, doing the work on here, I'm gonna have to go buy a bag. Yeah, get totally into it. So, Jacob, when does Goodby get introduced to the brand? Was it, was it back in 2016, 2017 or when was it?

[Jacob Spurla]

Yeah, right around that time. Could be. Got kind of brought in. I think there was, again, it's amazing opportunity to work on a brand like this. You. You hear a lot about it. You kind of study the strategy in a lot of ways. I think when you're in the industry and from the outside looking in, it's. It's one of the most exciting brands that you kind of just want to jump in and be a part of. It's so iconic, it's such a unique product in this space that it's like, it's just an amazing thing to be able to kind of like lean in and say, like, okay, now I'm doing this. Now I get to kind of like think about what the future of this brand is. So really excited that we got to kind of jump in, be a part of it, and help shape where the brand goes.

[Fergus O'Carroll]

But it wasn't originally that exciting, Flavia. I mean, we'd had a completely different focus in terms of its marketing message in the past, and it was struggling back in 2018. It was losing sales, it was losing penetration. Why had that happened, do you feel, in retrospect?

[Flavia Simoes]

Yeah. So as I mentioned before, this is a 75 year old brand and it truly grew up with Americans here in us and across the globe. And in the past, we had been really focusing our messaging in a certain group of people with a certain strategy, sorry, if you will, that we call the family fun. Within that strategy, we are targeting parents because we found that they were more focused on taking part in playing with their families as compared to past generations. But when we looked at a broader opportunity, we looked and we saw that we were only speaking with a small part of the total potential that this brand could have. It was just about 22 or 25% of the total opportunity were under the family fun concept. If you will. And at the same time, we are looking and seeing consumers, especially doing a lot of, you know, social media research, really looking at this brand and treating Cheetos as a badge of honor. So what we did, we truly opened the aperture of the brand, and we're going to talk about that a little bit, how we move to that strategy. But instead of being like a childish, cheesy, fun snack brand, opening the aperture of the brand truly helped us to better position ourselves as a playful, mysterious, mischievous, fun, cool brand to the younger generation.

[Fergus O'Carroll]

So that seems to me like it with Jacob, that it would be that at least there'd be some anxiety among the brand, inside the brand, to in essence sort of shift away from focusing on the family, focusing on the parents as buyers, the kids being the consumers of the product, and then moving it to a sort of an older aged group, at least teen plus, that are, you know, you're getting this great fuel from the, from social. Was there a concern that you needed to make sure that the message you put out to this older audience would not alienate the established base?

[Jacob Spurla]

I mean, there's always a concern in that. I think when you're, you're trying something new. I think we built a lot of confidence around the fact that we were seeing so much positivity from the exact new people that we were trying to reach in social. Um, we have this audience mindset that we call rejuveniles, which is people who are. It's the young and the young at heart. And you can see how families can be rejuveniles, parents can be rejuveniles, but at the same time, there's this whole other subset that is a huge opportunity and a huge, like, I feel like a rejuvenile. That's something that I really kind of resonate with, which is just like, sometimes life gets a little too serious. And I think that was something at the time that we were seeing come to life in a lot of different ways and with a lot of different audiences. It's not just parents, but it's, you know, it's people in that 18 plus age range. It's Gen Z, it's Millennial. You're kind of seeing it everywhere. So, yes, it was scary, but I think we had a lot of confidence at the same time because this felt like such a true insight for the audience we were trying to reach.

[Fergus O'Carroll]

So, Flavio, what would you say was the greatest growth challenge of the last few years outside of the new work? I'm just talking about in the past Was it changing tastes? Was it sort of parents that were being more conscious about what they were buying? Was that a factor in you sort of feeling that you needed to discover a new audience?

[Flavia Simoes]

I think there are a couple of things that have happened that kind of fed to the change that we did. I would say the number one thing is continue to drive distinction among the sea of options that consumers can choose from. As I mentioned before, this is a pretty large category. So we are $3 billion in sales and we're almost 50% of the category. So you can imagine the total size of the market and there's just so many different brands out there. So keeping and continue to drive distinction throughout this process was critical for us. And what we've done is really using innovation as a tool to compete and grow. Not only bringing to consumers amazing flavors that they could find with Cheetos, but also expanding Cheetos into new subcategories such as, you know, Cheetos, Mac and cheese, for instance.

[Fergus O'Carroll]

We'll be right back. We're thrilled to be supported by the effie's. For over 55 years, effie has been the global authority on marketing effectiveness. They lead the way with the largest, most prestigious marketing effectiveness awards across 125 markets worldwide. And their coveted FE Index ranks the most effective brands, marketers and agencies globally. But Effie is more than awards. They're dedicated to helping all marketers, from seasoned CMOs to those just getting started, understand what makes marketing effective by equipping them with insights, tools and inspiration they need to succeed. Learn [e-mail] that's e f-fie.org One of.

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[Narrator]

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[Fergus O'Carroll]

Now back to the show.

[Flavia Simoes]

And I would say that the second thing that also you can imagine happening at the same time that we are moving into this new strategy was Covid, right? So as we think about the past couple of years and now that we are actually entering a post Covid era, if you will, consumer shopping behaviors had dramatically changed, their media consumption had dramatically changed, the value perception had dramatically changed. So we're always keeping our fingers on the pulse of, you know, go to market strategy to Ensure that we're not missing out any opportunity.

[Fergus O'Carroll]

So is that where did you see sales go up during COVID Yes. Interesting. So, Jacob, the original work around Cheadle and this and this, you know, the. The dust was prior to Covid. So let's talk a little bit about where that came from. Was that something that everybody was already aware of? And it was sort of one of those. It almost was a negative, wasn't it, originally, because it was seen as being the messy part of consuming this product.

[Jacob Spurla]

Yeah, that's so true. And honestly, it's something we had been floating around and playing around with even as we were in the space of family fun. I think we knew it was a thing. Everyone knows that kind of like, amazing feeling when you lick your fingers after having a bag of Cheetos or just eating a few. But it was a difficult place for us to want to play in, especially in that space of family fun. When you talk about parents and the negative perceptions of, well, it's messy. Is that something I really want to give to my kids? As we expanded our audience, we noticed that people were really embracing the mess in a way. They were kind of using Cheadle as a badge of honor. They were using it in ways to kind of, like, talk about the world and get out of doing things, which was an awesome unlock for us. And I think by looking at this younger audience, the way that they talked about Cheadle, the way that they were embracing it, that, again, it's about kind of getting the confidence by looking at our fans and seeing how they're talking about it and all of that.

[Fergus O'Carroll]

So is it from. You just brought up a point I want to make sure I don't forget to follow up on. Is this like a chicken in the egg thing? Meaning the market was already talking about Cheadle and what it was allowing them to use as an excuse not to do things, which led to the whole MC Hammer spot, I believe. So did you notice that, or was that something that you planted? Was it something you observed through social listening, for example?

[Jacob Spurla]

Yeah, it's something we observed definitely, both in our own experience and then. And through social. Social listening. But it was something that then we wanted to amplify. It was a behavior that we. We thought was really exciting. It was embraced by fans, but also, you know, it was happening at a. At a smaller scale. So by leaning in, we could kind of, like, blow that up. We could make it sort of become a thing. I think it's something that, as you hear it, you. You sort of Know it, even if you haven't heard it before. So it took just planting the seed for people to kind of latch onto it and give it a life of its own. So actually, even within that campaign, we had Cheeto added to the dictionary. I think most people at the time were just calling it Cheetos Dust and they were talking about it like I, you know, leaving a little bit of Cheeto Cheetos Dust on my homework. So my teacher knows that I was eating Cheetos at the time. It was like little nuggets like that that we could kind of take with and blow out, so. So we could kind of invite more people into the brand through that.

[Fergus O'Carroll]

And so my first reaction when I, when I was reading up on preparing for the. For this conversation, Flavia, I was actually questioning in my own mind, I was like, why create the word Cheadle when Cheetos Dust seems more memorable to the brand? It's like it actually includes the brand's name. Was that a conscious decision of the agency or of the client, you. You guys, to actually create Cheadle as a thing, or did Chead exist as a name?

[Flavia Simoes]

Yeah, we. We created as a fame. Right? Definitely. Cheeto Cheetos or in Dust is pretty intuitive, but we want to make sure that we're taking ownership, if you will, of the Cheeto covert fingertips. And it is so intuitively Cheetos that we thought would be a great opportunity to own that word and to start sitting and to create awareness and helping consumers know exactly what that is. And it's something that only Cheetos can deliver.

[Jacob Spurla]

Right.

[Fergus O'Carroll]

Jacob, what about you? Where did that sort of. Where do you remember that coming from?

[Jacob Spurla]

I think we. We often look back at, you know, playful mischief as this sort of center of the brand. And Cheetos Dust is like, it's. It's kind of serious in a way, when you start talking about something as Cheadle and putting a definition on it and just the word is silly and kind of fun. And it has this sort of like, brain stickiness that I think we were all really loving. So we could have gone in and called it Cheeto's Dust and gone in with that. But Cheadle is sort of this embracing of playful mischief that we try to emulate in our fans, but also try to just be as a brand. So, yes, I think we could have called it Cheeto's Dust, but Cheadle just, again, there was something to it that we couldn't quite put a finger on. Again, sticky.

[Fergus O'Carroll]

Right? So, hey, Flavia, before We start to talk about the work. There is this sort of character called Chester. So Chester has been around, right? I think you said maybe, maybe he been around since the beginning. He's sort of this cool cat character, mischievous character. He doesn't play a role in this, any of this new work that I've seen. Is he sort of on hiatus or what's the role that he plays for the brand now as a distinctive brand asset?

[Flavia Simoes]

Yeah. So he's definitely a brand distinctive asset. Right. He's our brand. Mischievous Stoke Cheetah, if you will. And to your point, he made his first appearance a long time ago, I think was about in 1980, if I'm not wrong, in a national advertising where we launched the tagline, it ain't easy, it'll be cheesy. And obviously it was really sticky. And the rest is history now. So as we continue to advance this brand, just like Cheetos have done, Chester has truly evolved to stay kind of a cool, very relevant with our audience and what he does. He has become this recognizable icon. He does appear regularly on social media. Some advertising used to show up more in advertising. We took a conscious decision to rethink his role in advertising as we were growing up the brand, if you will. And there was some tied to Chester as a more nostalgic, childish character. So we consciously paused him in national media for this next.

[Fergus O'Carroll]

Specifically, one thing I've always been curious about, maybe I'm just a cynic when it comes to this. In marketing in general, when I hear marketers or agencies talk about their passionate fans, I'm always skeptical of that because I just don't really think anybody loves a brand. People say everybody talks. Everybody bitches and moans about the Lovemark book that was produced a couple of years ago. So I'm just curious because everybody was like, love. Maybe I like it, but I don't love it. So I'm curious, how do you guys think about this Core, because you have these. I can't remember the term you use, but maybe it's fans or core. Passionate fans. Tell us about them. I mean, how do you feel you can activate them and what do they want from you? Or from the company? From the brand, from the product in terms of. In order to become propagators of the message.

[Jacob Spurla]

Yeah, it's funny, I love this question because I feel like I call our audience brand lovers so often on so many different clients and so rarely is it true. It does feel like with Cheetos, there is this. Again, it's probably much smaller than people realize, but there is this core group of people that has this love and nostalgia for Cheetos and they talk about it in a way that is really interesting. And we actually originally we were kind of calling them a cult. They're like a cult.

[Fergus O'Carroll]

That's the, that's the term I was trying to remember. A cult. Yes.

[Jacob Spurla]

You know, they're obsessed with Cheetos. They kind of, they want to take a bath with it. Literally, there's like photos of people taking a bath with Cheetos. And I was like, that is just insane. Like, never have I. I've called people brand lovers, but never have I seen it that come to life in such a visceral way. I agree with you. I think history in general talks about their brand lovers a little more than consumers ever do. But at the same time, it's one of those rare brands where you see some of it and again, at probably a smaller scale than I would like to admit. But the strategy for us became how do we amplify those behaviors? How do we make those behaviors feel really aspirational in a way to invite more people in and to want to be a part of it?

[Fergus O'Carroll]

IT listeners will be familiar with the MC Hammer super bowl spot. We're not going to spend any time on that, but let's, let's talk about what followed on from that. The type of executions. There was also. There was Ashton Kutcher and Milo Kunis. That was another super bowl spot. It wasn't me that played off the shaggy theme. But then a couple of really interesting things started to happen following that. Flavia, can we start there and then we'll bring ourselves right up to the latest work.

[Flavia Simoes]

So one obviously very fun activity that came after that was the launch of Cheetos duster. In fall 2022, we launched this gadget, this kitchen gadget Cheetos fans never knew they needed. We created in partnership with Amazon ahead of the holidays. And the reason why we did that was because we saw consumers, our fans, incorporating Cheeto in their recipes across the truly making the extra or the ordinary into extraordinary with Cheetos. And we started to really see that taking off during the time on TikTok. And, you know, in partnership with a great partner such as Amazon, we've created this special gadget that allowed consumers to do their own, their own Cheetos dust by themselves.

[Fergus O'Carroll]

Let's explain what this is first. So the Cheadle Duster is, in essence, you can think about it for the listener here. Just think about it. It's like a coffee Bean grinder or a spice grinder. And you guys work this as if it's an infomercial where people can buy this orange version of this duster that creates Cheeto dust. So, in essence, you put your Cheetos into it, you grind them down into a fine dust, and you can use as an ingredient in recipes.

[Narrator]

In 2022, the Cheetos Duster changed cooking forever. It sold out quickly, causing mass pandemonium. So, backed by popular demand, the Cheetos Duster, it turns Cheetos into the perfect ingredient for all your recipes. Put Cheeto dust on tamales, skillets, popcorn balls, and meatballs.

[Flavia Simoes]

Even on my layered sardine loaf dust.

[Sketch Artist]

Yeah.

[Flavia Simoes]

Wowee.

[Narrator]

The Cheetos duster, available on Amazon.com while supplies last again.

[Fergus O'Carroll]

So there's kind of phases to this. There's the recognition of the dust with Cheeto dust on your fingertips. It then goes to this sort of branded Cheadle and this product. And now there's a next phase in that there seems to be this evolution that's happening. Tell us, Jacob, about what the latest work is. And before you do that, sorry, I want to mention that for this cool Cheadle Duster, you guys won an Effie for that. That work. So congratulations on that. But, Jacob, let's talk about the latest work, which is another super fun execution of that same strategy all built off that same platform.

[Jacob Spurla]

Yeah. So it's a Cheetos thing. I think we've often looked back and said, like, is this the right thing? Does this need to evolve? I think you kind of get that itch when you've had a campaign for a few years where you're like, I think we need a new line. I think we need a new something that has just never come up. I think with the Cheetos thing, it's felt so rich as a territory of a space for us to kind of keep playing in. So if the early kind of going, if the MC Hammer, if establishing Cheadle with the Duster was really about amplifying the cult, introducing Cheadle, introducing this idea of it's a Cheetos thing, the evolution was really about, okay, now how do we continue kind of building on these behaviors? How do we keep inviting people into the brand? How do we maybe create new things and new insights that can kind of help drive the work from there? And that landed us on this campaign that's called the Other Hand, which, again, it's such a silly, simple insight, and I'm embarrassed at how long it took to land the plane on it.

[Fergus O'Carroll]

What do you mean by that? What took so long to land one on?

[Jacob Spurla]

So there's this. The other hand is basically this idea of when your, you know, dominant hand is covered in cheadle, you have to use your other hand to do stuff. And when you use the other hand to do stuff, you are usually not doing it very well. So whether that's kind of like I have to write with my left hand, I have to try to type, I have to try to text. Doing things with your other hand again, I, I think when you hear that, you're like, wow, that. Yeah, duh. There's that like duh moment.

[Fergus O'Carroll]

It's so great. I mean one of, one of the things that I was watching it this morning actually. What are those guys called? They're sketch artists. So the sketch artist in the police station. That's so great. I'm gonna drop it in here. So people as well describe it so they know what it is. So you open up and you see this guy, he's describing his attacker. And the sketch artist is there. And you're looking at the front of the sketch artist and he has his one hand up, his good hand up, and he's covered in cheetle dust. And then he's sketching with his other. And then he turns it around. It's like, you know, it was sketched by a two year old, but it's so great.

[Flavia Simoes]

So the sketch artist was one of them. There is a baker, there is also a surgeon, there are two friends also playing, you know, trying to high five. When they're football, their soccer teams score. So we had a lot of fun.

[Sketch Artist]

99% of people eat Cheetos with their dominant hand. Mr.

[Jacob Spurla]

Guy.

[Sketch Artist]

Even sketch artists, we'll catch them. And sports fans.

[Jacob Spurla]

Oh, and he's done it.

[Sketch Artist]

And bakers and football players and even plastic surgeons. How's it look using your other hand? It's a Cheetos thing.

[Jacob Spurla]

What I love about this campaign is we took this along with two other ideas into testing and. And they were all some iteration of kind of this insight around using your other hand. And do you need different things, tools to use your other hand more effectively or basically different ways to kind of.

[Fergus O'Carroll]

That was probably great too.

[Jacob Spurla]

Yeah, it was funny. So we brought this in. We had three ideas on the table, we talked to fans and when we showed this work, we really latched onto it. And what they started doing was telling their own stories and building their own kind of equity with this idea. And that's when we kind of knew the Aha moment didn't happen as we were trying to find the insight. The aha moment happened when we listened to fans kind of talk about this idea, which again, I think is even more brilliant. Aha moment. Because it doesn't require quite as much thinking from me. It just requires getting out of the way.

[Fergus O'Carroll]

So, Jacob, what's your perspective on the role of socialism in, in the campaigns?

[Jacob Spurla]

It's huge. It, it completely dictates how we even build ideas and how we ideate and, and what we choose to bring and bring into testing. If we just have a script, that's usually not enough. We kind of need something that sits a little bit, that feels a little bit bigger, that can be embraced in maybe as a script, but definitely as social. Like, how would an influencer take and activate this big idea? How could this show up and out of home? And social is just a hugely important platform for us both in its reach. I think we know TikTok, YouTube, you know, Gen Z's obviously an audience. We're kind of constantly trying to figure out and trying to figure out what's the best way to kind of approach them. And leaning in on TikTok, leaning in on YouTube and not just as cut downs, but as ways that feel a little bit more authentic to that. I've worked on so many brands that are, they're just a brand presence. They're just there to like, talk at people. And that's a really challenging thing to kind of be relatable as a big brand because you're like, you kind of like, can call bullshit on it pretty quickly as a, as a fan and as a consumer, you're like, why are you talking to me like this? But then when you have some, you know, a character like Chester, it's a little more, you can kind of like, lean in a little bit more. Allows you to be a little bit more kind of wacky and speak the language of the people who are on the platform. And I think that's really awesome. And as Flavia said said, lean in on the behaviors that are also happening there. Obviously we use those to kind of inspire the creation of ideas and the insights that kind of lead us to new places. But it's also like, we can just lean in on recipes. People love this stuff. In social, how can we kind of do it, amplify it, take that playfully mischievous spin on it and really embrace the platform not just as like, it's a place where we can scale the work more, but as a place where we can kind of engage with our fans and get on their level from time to time.

[Fergus O'Carroll]

It is Flavia Simoes. It's S I M O E S. If you want to track her on LinkedIn, you can connect with her there. She's senior director of marketing at Cheetos and she is in Dallas, Texas. And it is Jacob Spurla, director of comm strategy at Goodbye Silverstein and Partners. We're a huge fan of the agency. They've just done phenomenal work over the last number of decades. And Jacob is based in San Francisco. Thank you both for, for coming to share the Cheeto story. Yeah.

[Flavia Simoes]

Thank you so much. This was great.

[Jacob Spurla]

Thanks so much, Ferguson. This is awesome.

[Fergus O'Carroll]

And we will see everyone on the next episode.