Reese's: #Alltreesarebeautiful, 6

Credits & Description:

Agency: Arnold Worldwide, Havas Worldwide New York
Brand: Reeses
Country: USA
Advertising Agency: Havas Worldwide New York
Entrant Company: Arnold Worldwide, New York
Media Agency: Havas Worldwide New York
Pr Agency: Havas Worldwide New York
Production Company: Havas Worldwide New York
Additional Company: Havas Worldwide New York
Social Editor: Omar Khan (Havas Worldwide)
Social Editor: Kristen Ablamsky (Havas Worldwide)
Copywriter: Therese Guggenberg (Havas Worldwide)
Associate Creative Director: Adam Samara (Havas Worldwide)
Head Of Social Media: Jennifer Fleet (Havas Worldwide)
Global Chief Creative Officer: Jim Elliott (Arnold Worldwide)
Executive Creative Director: Mathew Jerrett (Arnold Worldwide)
Associate Creative Director: Michael Camarra (Havas Worldwide)
Art Director: Andrew Williams (Arnold Worldwide)
Copywriter: Jameson Rossi (Arnold Worldwide)
Art Director: Jp Regaldo (Havas Worldwide)
Head Of Strategy: Sara Bamber (Arnold Worldwide)
Social Editor: Tattiana Bamba (Havas Worldwide)
Designer: Paul Kim (Havas Worldwide)
Executive Creative Director: Tim Flood (Arnold Worldwide)
Campaign Description:
At a time when social tolerance is at an all-time high, how could Reese’s Trees be treated so unfairly? Especially because it’s still a Reese’s. And still delicious. As fans put it – who cares what Trees look like when they taste this good.Enter #AllTreesAreBeautiful. A way to spin the conversation by introducing a new injustice: tree shaming. This was a tongue-in-cheek way to turn the conversation back on the haters and give our fans an idea to rally around. We hijacked a popular social topic - that judging others and being focused on negative criticism is all about having the wrong priorities.
Strategy:
Because it’s such a beloved candy, fans jumped to the defense of the “turds.” Our fans were on our side. So we took the conversation to the same place it started: Twitter. With 200K followers and the eyes of the media, this gave #AllTreesAreBeautiful the perfect platform to use our community to help seed and spread our message. We put the solution right in the hands of our biggest fans—and right next to the tweets that started the controversy to begin with. The campaign’s message of tree inclusion and diversity was also taken to facebook to help fuel momentum.
Synopsis:
This holiday season, Twitter users noticed something was… off with their Reese’s Trees (a Seasonal product in stores over the Holidays every year). This year, they bore an unfortunate resemblance to, as never-shy consumers put it, “turds”. Blogs, news sites, and even TV shows quickly picked up the story, officially making Reese’s Trees a controversy. Our challenge was to utilize our loyal fan base to help spin the conversation away from how our product looked and towards how great it tasted. To leverage the cultural buzz to turn a quality control PR problem into a brand and sales-building opportunity.
Outcome:
• Tier 1: Outcomes/awareness - change in behaviour, shifts in stakeholder decisions, brand equityThe resulting positive image and sales results illustrated to The Hershey Company that a brand-led PR response can be successful if strong collaboration between Corporate PR and the brand/agency team exists. Constant information sharing allowed for rapid stakeholder approval and is an excellent case for them about how to handle product quality issues.• Tier 2: Knowledge/consideration - coverage depth (quality/quantity), tone and message delivery, purchase intent (survey)Consumers and celebrities alike loved the response. And the same media that cried, “Scandal!” championed the campaign’s positivity and wit, spreading the campaign’s reach well beyond social media.Online, the campaign generated 260,000 social mentions, an 82% increase of brand mentions and 1 billion earned impressions. • Tier 3: Outputs/business results – sales, donations, site traffic, content responseBest of all, the sales of Reese’s Trees grew in 2015 by +7.4%, equating
Execution:
#AllTreesAreBeautiful was comprised of a series of Twitter and facebook posts over the course of a month/December leaning into the themes of the Holiday season. Initially, it was a response to the controversy, but it evolved into a fun, often self-deprecating campaign that resonated with our consumers and, better yet, our detractors. We themed the mini-campaign around pertinent cultural topics such as “deflategate” (#treegate), Holiday sweaters and cards (#awkwardfamilyphotos.) All featuring our tree-ish looking product.