For more than a century, PLANTERS has brought people together over nuts. MR. PEANUT was vital to that mission. For Super Bowl LIV, our challenge was to create a breakthrough program to get the world talking about Mr. Peanut, and drive brand love with existing and new fans.  

No idea was off the table – to win this key snacking moment, we had to enter the cultural zeitgeist leading up to the Super Bowl in ways that had never been done before. 

We started deploying thousands of pieces of content to let the consumer market dictate what works, and where brands should go. This gave us a firm understanding of the role of Mr. Peanut in culture in 2019, especially how much people loved him. This key learning, among others, contributed to our Super Bowl program. 

After synthesizing our learnings, we dug into pop culture and other ways iconic characters have evolved in the traditional hero’s journey. Many times, these cultural figures had to die or disappear to remind fans of their dormant admiration. Given the love for Mr. Peanut, we believed we could tap into the cultural impact of a beloved character passing away that would subsequently cause an outpouring of emotion, conversation, and togetherness from fans across the world.

Our campaign kicked off in early January, when Mr. Peanut went on the ultimate Super Bowl road trip with his celebrity friends Wesley Snipes and Matt Walsh. On January 21st, our spot was leaked. It showed Mr. Peanut sacrificing himself to save his friends after a fiery NUTmobile crash. We confirmed that Mr. Peanut was dead shortly after the leak. In the weeks leading up to the Super Bowl, we continued this thread by creating a world where Mr. Peanut was gone. With an outpouring of love, fans rediscovered the importance of Planters iconic, 104-year-old mascot. 

On the day of the Super Bowl, we broadcasted the funeral of Mr. Peanut, which was attended by several well known brands. With a magical teardrop from KOOL-AID MAN, Mr. Peanut was reborn as BABY NUT who quickly captured the hearts of fans everywhere. 

With 11.4 billion earned media impressions, three Saturday Night Live skits about Mr. Peanut and Baby Nut, two New Yorker cartoons, and 16 mentions on morning and late-night TV, we accomplished our goal of breaking into pop culture and getting people talking. 

Some other impressive results:

- Highest lift in awareness of all brands in the Super Bowl time period: Source - YouGov

- #1 Trending Topic on Twitter: After he died and when he was reborn 

- 70K+ New followers on Twitter

- 189K+ New followers on TikTok

- #25 US Trending Video on YouTube.

- 96% Positive/Neutral Sentiment across social platforms

- 934K Brand Mentions across social platforms

- 11.4 Billion Impressions

And, with everyone talking about the death of Mr. Peanut before the Big Game, we’d won the Super Bowl before it even began.