Next up in our Brand Marketing Spotlight Series — a giant in the food industry, but ironically one of the smallest snacks you could have — Planters’ Mr. Peanut!
In this series, GLM will continue to highlight a well-known brand and dive into how they achieved their level of success from a marketing standpoint and offer tips on how to utilize their methodology for your own strategy! Here are three ways to increase your brand awareness, community, and bottom line:
EVOLVING
The Planters Peanut Company was founded in 1906 and just a few years later, it launched the iconic brand mascot, Mr. Peanut, in 1916. We all know and love him! Did you know he was born out of a contest to design the company’s brand icon? A genius move from Planters to tap into its community and create a symbol of collaboration.
Mr. Peanut’s likeness has been updated over the years, with the latest configuration introduced just two years ago. What made it a transformation to remember was that after debuting the commercial where Mr. Peanut dramatically dies in 2020, the company brought him back in the form of a #babynut and continued to age him until he grew into his current form. This was another tactic implemented to get its audience engaged and invested in the mascot’s journey!
While Planters has been around for more than a century and its brand awareness and loyalty remain at an all-time high, the company understood the importance of a brand refresh.
For Mr. Peanut, it’s been a slight elevation in his appearance every couple of years. For your business, perhaps that translates to a logo, colors, font, and overall brand refresh. Don’t be afraid to take your business’s branding up a notch and show your audience that you’re still here, still offering value, and have your finger on the pulse.
GIVING BACK
In 2021, Planters launched the yearlong “A Nut Above” campaign which redirected its $5 million Super Bowl marketing budget to awarding individuals who were making the world a better place through acts of “substance.”
Consider incorporating campaigns that “give back” into your marketing strategy to increase brand visibility, make a bigger impact, create a strong community, build goodwill, and build brand loyalty.
For small businesses, this can be difficult if your funds are limited. We get that! Start small with a campaign that works with your budget, i.e., hosting a contest that supports a local cause with the prize being a gift card or merch.
Customers prefer to do business with brands that support causes they care about. It’s no secret that the market is saturated and more competitive than we’ve seen in the past, so consider ways to differentiate your brand with community activations such as those recommended above.
LEVERAGING SOCIAL MEDIA
When you think of the biggest stage in marketing in America, you think of the Super Bowl. The annual championship game draws in millions of viewers, many of which tune in just for the commercials. Planters is one of the companies that audiences could expect to see in the rotation of multi-million dollar advertising campaigns.
Planters teamed up with Twitter to launch the “Real Time Crunch Time” campaign which engaged with audiences IRL via Tweets during the 2019 Super Bowl.
A 3D animation of Mr. Peanut reacted to every play during the game. Within seconds, it went viral!
Capitalizing on all of the engagement they were fostering during the Big Game, Planters used Mr. Peanut to launch a #CrunchTimeGiveaway which featured Mr. Peanut, along with cameos by Alex Rodriguez and Charlie Sheen, and offered viewers the chance to win fun personalized prizes.
It reeled in 4.6 billion earned media impressions, 10 million organic impressions, and a 5.6% increase in nut consumption.
Mr. Peanut was the REAL MVP because Planters pursued and succeeded in its innovative social media campaign and you can too!
The latest interactive campaign just launched and it’s truly nutty!
In June 2023, Planters introduced its 2023 class of “Peanutters” that will captain the NUTmobile on a yearlong tour of the country. What is a NUTmobile you ask? Oh, just a quaint nut-shaped vehicle. The Peanutters hand out product samples alongside Mr. Peanut to communities throughout the nation.
Fans can ask the NUTmobile to stop at their events (youth sporting events, neighborhood block parties, 5K races, etc.) by submitting a request at RequestTheNutmobile.com.
Here’s where the social media strategy comes in — the NUTmobile has its own Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok pages that journal its adventures for the audience to tag along AND challenges fans to snap a pic of it and tag the page.
It’s all about getting your audience engaged!
Producing a strong brand story, mapping out a growth plan, and proposing ways to expand your digital footprint are all within GLM Custom’s capabilities. You define the goals, we’ll build the roadmap. Together we make connections.