Smith's

HOUSEKEEPING: I'm in the process of updating the media player - so keep an eye out for the music symbol at the bottom of some assets. Onto the work! 

 

Having led Smith's always-on SOC creative for the past year, we've done a lot. A big part of the ethos was to be as 'true-native' on socials as possible. That meant a strong focus on avoiding making Smith's SOC work look like an 'ad' to maximise organic reach. The work had to be lo-fi and have casual air that would stop the unconscious ad-scroll-skip reflex which is getting faster by the day.

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Notably as a major part of the brief, we brought back the Gobbledok and into the 2020s. We weren't the first to try, but where previously he (it?) would get wheeled out for a nostalgic play with Gen X and older millennials, or feature in social content that still felt like 'ads', we asked PepsiCo to let us don the suit and bring GD 2.0 to Gen Z on their terms.

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The success of our approach came from Gobbledok getting a life. Making friends, exploring hobbies, getting a job, trying to find someone to love and an expansion of lore that evolved GD's canon. In the cocaine-fuelled boardrooms of the 80's someone pitched a potato alien who's obsessed with Smith's chips and that's pretty much where they left it. We set out to change that.

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Gen Z was wary at first - there were some rough-as comments - but after a couple of months of seeing Gobbledok living a life they could relate to  (supercharged with TikTok trending audio & meta-modern memes) they got on board.

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Beyond Gobbledok, we brought back Smith's Tomato Sauce & Tasty Cheese in a SOC-only launch, drove momentum on Smith's Double Crunch and ignited the core range with an audience that had little brand affinity with Smith's.

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The result after less than a year of work is millions of organic views, thousands of comments, a view-through rate above the top benchmark for snacks at PepsiCo, a significant brand love uplift with Gen Z and Smith's sales are lookin' good.

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