Strategy Roundup 8/27/21
Flamin’ Hot Cheetos? Good. Mountain Dew? Great. Flamin’ Hot Mountain Dew? You know what, it’s 2021, why not.
Frito Lay’s strategy to inject their flavors into every facet of our food-based lives continues.
Whatever your feelings on the flavor itself, mashups are eye-catching and this one is sure to make people stop scrolling. You may recall Flamin’ hot ice cream at your local Marble Slab earlier this year, and Lay’s potato chips mashing up with Cool Ranch and Funyun flavors. Combining brands is a great way to earn media; this particular product run is a smart brand awareness play in a year where we’re seeing collectables and limited edition items captivating audiences.
“As a brand, Dew has a rich history of experimenting with new flavors our fans love. We certainly had them in mind when we developed the Flamin’ Hot beverage,” Matt Nielsten, Sr. Director, Marketing, said. “This is one of our most provocative beverages yet, and we’re excited for Dew Nation to taste the unique blend of spicy and classic sweet citrus flavor of Mtn Dew.”
Future mashups we’d like to see:
- Mountain Dew + Cadburry for an Easter Dew
- A Mountain Dew rotating TikTok collection of flavors capitalizing on the latest cooking craze (Baked feta is a fine start.)
- Mountain Dew, Pepsi, 7Up, Brisk and Diet Pepsi all in one bottle like that cool kid in high school who put everything together in one Big Gulp cup to assert his dominance
And yes, obviously Food and Wine magazine did profile the beverage to an audience that might not normally think about Mountain Dew.
Pinterest introduces first-of-its-kind hair pattern search for inclusive beauty results.
According to Pinterest, in the past month alone, there were over 120 million searches for hair and over 5 billion Pins were created related to hair on Pinterest. But if you have any hair type other than pin-straight or salon-made beachy waves, you know looking for hair inspo on Pinterest is a major pain.
In the coming weeks, Pinterest will now allow users to further refine their searches by six hair patters including: protective, coily, curly, wavy, straight and shaved/bald. This builds on Pinterest’s industry-first inclusive product feature skin tone ranges first launched in 2018 and is another great practical, user-centered use for Pinterest’s computer vision-powered object detection that will continue to position them as the visual search engine.
Snap Introduces New ‘Snapchat Trends’ Tool
From Kyle Jenner-cursed social media pariah to pandemic quarantine darling, Snapchat’s risen from the ashes to clock in 293 million daily active users. As advertisers are reconsidering the platform that had previously been written off by many a Gen Z-er, Snapchat’s added a new trends tool to help gather insights. Trend tools include:
Product Market Research allows advertisers to understand what products, shows, flavors, or models are most commonly being talked about.
Creative Messaging and Copywriting allows users to track and understand the way Snapchatters are evolving language. Remember when we all thought ‘cheugy’ was a thing? Yeah.
Recently, we saw a 100% increase in mentions of the phrase “third-wheeling.” After digging deeper, we found it actually was a recurring trend that peaked almost every Friday and Saturday. For the online dating industry, this language trend has been used as directional insight to help fuel new and relevant creative on Snap.
Building User Profiles and Personas could be a powerful tool, since a lot of what happens on Snapchat is hidden between users. This could lead to powerful unabashed insight into daily journeys people embark on throughout their days and weeks.
Researching Key Moments allows users to dig deeper into the moments that matter on Snapchat, from holidays to those in between moments. (National Dog Day anyone?)
Competitive Research allows users to understand consumer sentiment and competitive offerings. By analyzing multiple products in one query, users can compare the peaks and valleys of conversation over time between relevant brands and products.
The full tool can be accessed via https://trends.snapchat.com/
