By Rick Stanton
I love smart promotions. Years ago, our agency did one with the now-defunct Pay N Pak in which we gave away airfare, lodging and four tickets to the MLB All-Star game. I got to work with Hall of Fame announcer, Mel Allen, the voice of the New York Yankees, who did the voiceover for our TV and radio ads. It was an audio session I’ll remember forever. As a baseball junkie, that was a once-in-a-lifetime dream come true.
It was a wildly successful promotion, with a lot of moving parts, and it made perfect sense, given Pay N Pak’s demographic and the time of year.
Now Cheetos is out to prove that a smart promotion is still relevant in today’s marketing mix. This new contest asks Cheetos lovers to find individual Cheetos whose shape reminds them of something else. The prizes are pretty awesome. Check out the link below.
Find a Cheeto that looks like Italy and off you go to Rome, Florence and Venice. Find one that looks like Elvis and you can win a trip to Graceland…
Not only does this spur the consumer to buy more product in pursuit of prizes, when you couple that with our Washington State pot laws, you have the all-time greatest promotion ever—leaving lotteries in the dust. Get smoked up, buy 30 bags of Cheetos and look for likenesses! My guess is that Cheeto sales will spike 1,000% in Washington. Add in the other eight states with legal recreational pot, and somebody at the agency of record is going to get a promotion and a big raise.
But here’s the dark side of this promotion: compromising the health of people with processed food. According to the Journal of American Medical Association’s research, 35% of women and 32% of men in the U.S. are ranked as obese, not just overweight. I’m pretty sure that Pepsi, the parent company of Cheetos, is aware of those stats.
To my way of thinking, the heavily processed food brands are just as culpable as the cigarette industry for compromising the health of Americans. We make some really bad individual choices, and there are brands that prey on that fact.
From a pure marketing standpoint, this promotion is brilliant. And short-term marketing success rarely has a conscience. That belonged to the previous agency, right? I have to admit, I’m a little conflicted. But I’m betting it will be one heck of a successful promotion—especially given the demo: if the second link below is accurate.
[Speaking of the lottery, we never pursued that account because of our concern that the wrong people (think lower income) buy the majority of lottery tickets. In my mind, that was preying on the weaker side of hope.]
P.S. I just hope someone finds a Cheeto shaped like a Seattle World Series trophy. The way the Mariners are playing lately might require that kind of dumb luck.
https://www.thedrum.com/news/2018/07/11/cheetos-asks-what-shapes-you-see-your-cheesy-snacks-contest
https://www.infoscout.co/brand/cheetos