Topic: Analyzing an existing PR campaign and identifying the

various communicative elements contained within it, while

evaluating its efficacy. (1500 words)

YOU’RE NOT YOU WHEN YOU’RE HUNGRY

Opening

In 2009, a well-known chocolate brand in worldwide called Snickers, had

successfully conducted a campaign as known as “You’re not you when you’re
hungry” in order to increase the penetration among its opponents and get over
the tricky situation of the time.

I.General information of Snicker:

Snickers established in 1930. It is a chocolate brand that belongs to Mars Inc.

and the most renowned item is a chocolate bar fills with enlightenment and
satisfaction. A single advertisement of Snickers is considered to be a Star-
studded Affair. It capitalized on celebrity popularity, mainly featuring A-list
actors in its ads. In addition, by showcasing relatable “hangry” moments with
celebrities, Snickers captured audience attention. Although Snickers ranks in the
4th place in top American chocolate brands, it is facing an issue of competing
with its opponents such as M&M’s, Hershey’s, Reese’s and others are heading
to “hunger satisfaction” pattern.

II.The research before the campaign:

From 2007 to 2009, Snickers had fallen behind other global chocolate
brands, both in relative and absolute terms. The candy market was huge and
every brand was vying to be the one customers reach for before the checkout
line. It was growing but losing market share and this resulted in the decrease of
its growth. Sickers decided to make a research in order to seek the solution for
this problem. After the research it conducted, Snickers came to the realization
that there were 3 types in its target audience, including physically
participated(1), highly getting involved in team-building activities(2) and
decrease stress by playing, joking with each other(3). Specifically, when
Snickers focused on this truth, it noticed that the teamwork spirit could be
affected when one’s behavior was “brainless” and this state came from the
hunger, anger, exhaustion,… these symptoms might affect the way they showed
their abilities throughout the matches.

III. The challenges:

Once they have done their research, they had to build the strategies for the
campaign. However, they had to turn them into the center of the market with
their communicative tools as well as the word-spreading effect. In other terms,
Snickers needed a platform that was inherently outstanding for the purpose of
connecting to various groups of age yet keeping the masculine image that it had
already built. From these terms, the question is: what challenges did they face in
order to return to its crown? There are three major challenges for Snickers that I
would like to demonstrate:

1, The communicative activities: These activities were really inconsistent and

not in-sync. For the fact that chocolate is an impulse category, so it was
necessary for Snickers to be more and more recognizable. Snicker had always
been a brand that showed loyalty to men. For this challenge, there would be
“male codes” for men in each country, each area. For example, the Russians
always took care of physical strength. However, the Australians concentrated on
the competitiveness, which is a crucial element. At this period, Snickers hadn’t
found the one “mutual intersection” male codes for the masculinity in general.
2, The framing: The idea of campaign was based on the “guy culture” of men.
Ironically, Snickers had made a male frame in every country around the world,
which made it unrealistic and fictional to the consumers.

3, Jokes were no longer interesting and appealing to the audience: Technically,

mostly all of the jokes that made by this chocolate brand were dull and boring to
the customers. The customers got them all and they were no longer captivated.
Advertisements brought to the audience became less appealing and attractive.
Having known this fact, they still continued to exploit the “guy culture” idea but
Snickers chose to approach this element in a more profound and attaching way
in order to influence, to attract not only males but also every gender in the
world. This viewpoint has been expressed through its joke once again: “If
someone in the pack feels hungry and almost lose one’s self, a joke goes along
with subtlety and snack from one’s friends will be a perfect solution to gain
back the spirit”.

IV.The process:

According to these challenges, Snickers had come to another realization that

completely changed the brand itself: Snickers needed fame. From this term,
they had come up with a creative idea that helped them to outshine other
competitive brands:

“YOU’RE NOT YOU WHEN YOU’RE HUNGRY”

How was this idea constructed? BBDO (Barton, Durstine & Osborn) New York
had come up with a campaign. This idea is a universal human truth everyone
can relate to. It tells a story – there are universal aspects of hunger (crankiness,
weakness, anger) and when you’re hungry, you can’t be part of the “pack.”. In
this campaign, Snickers’s target audience was male group from age 18-49 and it
was a mixture between human truth (the empty tummy can change the way
people take action) and brand truth ( A Snickers bar will be the best solution to
alleviate the hunger of the consumers). Eventually, this platform was successful
that it spread worldwide. This idea was operated not only in America but also
being recognized in plenty of markets with an in-sync tone of voice: Truthful,
hilarious and widely attachable.

.
After that, to emphasize the message and make the brand truly stood out,
Snickers had selected many celebrities in join this campaign. Snickers also
employed a multi-channel approach, multiple platforms such as social media,
television commercials, online advertisements and influencer partnerships to
amplify its “You’re not you when you’re hungry” campaign. Additionally, they
utilized trade promotion by paying retail stores to serve their purpose which was
strategically place their product, their feature in a favorable position within the
stores to increase the sales.

On their first year of operating the campaign, Snickers had invited 6 celebrities
that were particular well-known on the entertainment industry that had influence
to the American culture in general. This selection of these “acquainted” faces
was an important part of the strategies that made Snickers to create the effects
of word-spreading right after the campaign’s debut. To create the audience’s
sense of curiosity and impression about the rold of celebrities, Snickers had put
them on specific situations and each celebrity represented a symtomp of hunger.
Interestingly, all of the guest invited to join were the notorious comedians and
Snickers had utilized their subtlety to make a story of “You’re not you when
you’re hungry” to a funnier story with much more enjoyable details.

After the selection, the activities were arried out. These activities below were
parts of the operation of the campaign:

1,TVC: The TVC’s are oraginzed in the below method:

On 2/2010, Snickers brought the TVC called “Games” that had a length up to 30
seconds to the most exciting event in the USA – Super Bowl 10. This was a
smart opening of Snickers because Super Bowl was a perfect stage for the it to
take the “spotlight”. In the opening of the video, Betty White, who is known as
a famous actress, was struggling on a mentally puzzling football match. This put
a question on audience mind that: “How could be a woman that is over 60 still
be able to play football with the youngsters?” Until the question arised: “What
are doing, Mike? You’re playing like Betty White out there” and the appearance
of the Snickers bar came along. The audience suddenly noticed that the old lady
on the football team was a man known as Mike had been turning old because of
the hunger. This really attracted the consumers as a whole to purchase the
Snickers’ chocolate bar and this was a perfect opening for this chocolate brand
to gain reputation again.

2, Print:

On this activity, Snickers had problematized the circumstance that hunger made
everyone behaved in an unexpected way. These photos showed the exaggeration
of negativity mixed with a little bit of humor when presenting the “You’re not
you” situations. Moreover, Snickers had exploited the “resource” that they had
to bring it to the Print Ads (Logo, background color, tagline,…) and its elements
were essential to connect to the consumers, to build a bond relationships with
customers.

3, PR:

After the TVC “Games” became viral in Super Bowl, Snickers had positively
brought Betty White to variety of renowned TV shows such as The Jay Leno
Show, Larry King live, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Saturday Night Live,…
Throughout these TV shows, Snickers brand could be recognized more and
more.

In terms of Print Ads, to make the message more valuable, Snickers brought its
Print Ads to the notorious magazine that contained a great amount of followers
such as Rolling Stone, MAD. Furthermore, the connection between Snickers
and the males in general was still a key factor. For this factor, this chocolate
brand had chosen the Autoweek magazine – the magazine that mainly attracted
the males.

V. Achievements & Results:

On this campaign, the aim of Snickers was increasing the penetration in order to
accelerate the market slaes. To meassure their influence, Snickers focused on
looking at the way that the campaign pushes the brand recognition as well as
how Snickers entered the Pop culture via the effect of word-spreading.

Over the past few years, Snickers “You’re not you when you’re hungry” has
won awards at every major gathering, including Cannes Lions, The One Show,
D&AD and the Emmys. It has also scooped every major effectiveness award,
including two Effectiveness Lions, an IPA gold, and global and local Effies and
AME Awards.
In it’s first full year, the campaign reached the 1st place on US Today Market,
18.000% of an increase on Youtube search. Moreover, this campaign had
reached 34 markets in worldwide (Compare to 49% of Snickers’s global value)
and the sales went up to 3,1 times.

Conclusion

With the campaign as known as “You’re not you when you’re hungry”, Snickers
had successfully regained its reputation affter increasing the penetration,
entering the Pop culture,… This campaign is still remaining in today and it is
known as one of the best campaigns over these years. Snickers is looking
forward to developing more and more in order to increase its regconition and
bring the enlightenment, the joy of a chocolate bar to a wider range of
consumers in worldwide.