Canadians have a serious obsession with potato chips. Nearly one billion dollars of chips are ingested nationwide every year. This love for thinly sliced, fried potatoes was a serious problem for Hershey’s MIX, a snack composed of four different sweet and salty ingredients.

The battle for the snacker’s stomach is intense, particularly around major sporting events. Hershey’s MIX was targeting the same occasion for which chips had become a mainstay: NHL game nights.

The heightened challenge in 2019 was that MIX was launching a brand new product - Popped Snack MIX - with a fraction of the media spend of category leader and dominant NHL sponsor, Lay’s. The agency’s goal was to generate buzz around the launch and drive trial of Popped MIX as a game-time snack, with specific objectives to sample 10,000 consumers and deliver 20MM impressions.

The NHL target audience is drawn to the couch to watch hockey because of the thrill and unpredictability of the on-ice action. But the team saw that their mundane chip routine wasn’t reflective of the game’s inherent excitement. Chips were actually making the experience boring.

The strategy was to position chips as being dull as dirt and to challenge sports fans to up their snacking game. The company set out to tell fans that Popped MIX was a more exciting option. But actions speak louder than words. The approach would have to go beyond promising excitement; it had to deliver excitement.

To liven up the game-watching, snacking experience, the team introduced Hershey’s MIX IT UPgrade, an interactive program to get hockey fans to upgrade their snack and leave their chips behind. Or, at least, get them to add Popped MIX to game night snacking.

With an engaged audience, an innovative sponsorship opportunity was created that seamlessly made Popped MIX part of the action.

First, the team created MIXologist, Popped MIX’s witty, snack-discerning spokesperson. Working closely with broadcast partner, Sportsnet, The MIXologist and his ‘Upgrade Your Snack’ sign showed up in unexpected moments throughout live games and highlights. Wherever the action was, Popped MIX would be there.

When fans spotted the MIXologist, they had to quickly visit the URL on the sign to claim their free bag. Maximizing impact, in-game activations were synced with digital buys to reach fans through multiple media while they watched the game.

To launch, hockey’s biggest weekend - The NHL All-Star Game - was targeted. The team activated upgrades through the season and even transformed in-game closed captioning, arguably the world’s most boring media space. Captioning was paired with synced digital placements, so if fans turned to phones during breaks, Popped MIX could offer them an upgrade.
The campaign drove outstanding consideration, generating a whopping 59,027 unique sessions at UpgradeYourSnack.ca, exceeding expectations by 400%+. The campaign drove stunning engagement levels with sharing on social media driving 18,209 sessions.

Entire batches of 500 samples were claimed in under two minutes, with all 10,000 units trialed. The campaign’s targeted media mix performed incredibly effectively, generating 40MM impressions, doubling goals.

Ultimately, the buzz-worthy sponsorship activation performance blew away objectives. MIX even became the highlight of the All-Star Game for one viewer who responded to a Reddit rant about the game’s poor quality with: “Somebody didn’t get their free Hershey’s snack mix pack!”

Popped MIX was firmly positioned as a more exciting snack than the boring potato chip and the brand was set up to take a big bite out of the competition. Mission accomplished.