Since 10 years Snickers has claimed that their bars are the most satisfying on the market. A promise that has been carried by the now famous tagline “You’re not you when you’re hungry.” But if this promise has often been illustrated, it has rarely been demonstrated. How can we prove then, that Snickers are indeed irreplaceable in case of hunger?

In France in November 2019, we imagined the consequences of hunger on the Snickers’ production teams in the real world. We replaced Snickers bars with Bounty bars, without touching the wrappers and before placing them at points of sale. Then we waited for the consumer’s reaction. 24 hours later, everyone demanded the return of their beloved Snickers on Twitter, thanks to the #SnickersGate. We revealed the hoax via a film posted on the conversation.

The #SnickersGate operation is totally organic and needed no media investment. The entire strategy was based on an insight: to complain about a product defect, digital natives have been systematically using Twitter. A veritable Damocles sword for brands. A formidable opportunity for Snickers to push their claim’s promise “You’re not you when you’re hungry” to its climax.

Snickers decided to use this behaviour to its advantage by orchestrating a vast production line error due to a hungry employee. But above all, the brand took the risk not to respond for 24 hours, to let the conversation naturally swell.

Once the Snickers had been switched with Bounty, without touching the wrappers, we placed them in vending machines at metro & train stations, and universities. In zones of high digital native traffic and absent of any salespeople meant that consumer’s only avenue of complaint was on Twitter. #SnickersGate was rapidly launched by angry consumers, relayed by influencers and embraced by online medias such as Melty. In only 24 hours the hashtag rose to the top ten most discussed topics on Twitter France. The brand refused to respond, leaving the conversation to swell naturally until the peak was reached. Then, Snickers revealed the hoax with a film posted on Twitter on the hashtag #SnickersGate. The film was then relayed by the French press and all over the world.

Once finished, the operation had generated over 18 million social imprints and 275,000 interactions (source: Talkwalker). The brand tripled its rate of engagement for the period. And once the viral video reveal went public, the initial bad buzz was transformed into a veritable good buzz for the brand, with a 98% positive reaction rate on Twitter. (Source: Twitter France)

As for the press, they didn’t take long with their praise for the campaign: “Nuttiness without actual nuts” said Vice, “Snickers’ most ambitious gag to date” Muse by Clio, “a memorable and disruptive prank” said Melty. And Mashable, “Snickers took its tagline to the next level.” We estimate that in total, up to 65 million people were reached by the operation in the media: as much in France as in other parts of the world – Germany, Poland, Italy, Austria, Japan, USA…