Verve|Showrunner Sends Mr. Tayto on a World-Wide TikTok Trip

With most of Gen Z now getting their daily content fix on TikTok, a modern-day challenge for brands has been how to grab their attention on the platform. The Tayto Company are no exception. Though their mascot, Mr. Tayto, is a staple of Irish culture, young people don’t necessarily know his history as a fun, Irish icon. Thus, it has been a difficult task to connect with that audience. 

Having teamed up with creative agency Verve|Showrunner for an exciting new campaign, Tayto Co. made the bold decision to take Mr. Tayto off their packaging in May. For several weeks a mystery grew around his disappearance, until they finally revealed that the crisp icon had been taking time from work to prepare for a globe-trotting adventure. One that would bring him to a series of exotic destinations to tick off items from his lengthy bucket list; a perfect way for him to break out with his target audience. 

The Mr Tayto’s Bucket List campaign has released over 50 videos across social media, filmed in three different continents. An unprecedentedly ambitious move for the snack company. The launch of these well-received traveltok videos has given the crisp mascot strong footing as it continues to take Ireland’s TikTok scene by storm.

First on Mr. Tayto’s list was southern Africa, with daily travel themed content being released on all his socials. Over the course of his road trip through both Namibia and Zimbabwe, he climbed sand dunes, saw Victoria Falls, and even met an elephant on safari.

Throughout this leg of the campaign, Tayto’s socials used online polls and competitions to have fans engage with where he was going next.

Before long Mr. Tayto was hinting that his time in southern Africa was wrapping up and he was moving on to new shores. Then a new video dropped, kicking off the next stint of his bucket list the United States. We saw him exploring all the must-see destinations in California like Joshua Tree, the Walk of Fame, and The Venice Strip.

New York was the crisp connoisseur’s next stop, as he took a stroll through Central Park, visited the Statue of Liberty, and had a kick about with New York’s finest GAA players.

To spread the campaign’s net as widely as possible, videos of Mr. Tayto recreating various TikTok trends were released. 

With the American section of his trip complete, Mr Tayto made his way back to home soil, finishing off his bucket list along Ireland’s Wild Atlantic Way, with stops in Kinsale, the Cliffs of Moher, and the Gap of Dunloe. 

To really push this campaign with the Irish audience, Mr. Tayto ran live events throughout the campaign, meeting fans on the streets of Galway and Dublin, taking selfies and popping into pubs. 

He even managed to get together with the popular TikTok dance troupe Cairde for an impressive jig.

Over the course of the campaign, Mr. Tayto had social media interactions with a series of celebrities and popular brands such as the Two Johnnies, Paul Heaton, Barry’s Tea, the Wild Atlantic Way and Mr. Peanut.

With that Mr. Tayto’s Bucket List journey had come to an end. Having let off enough steam on his world tour holiday, the potato tycoon was back to work by Monday.

Mr. Tayto’s Bucket List was seen more than 30 million times and grew the brand’s followers with the TikTok demographic by 185%. The campaign’s success in breaking into that Gen Z audience will be a feather in the cap of the crisp company, and we can’t wait to see what they do next.

For anyone looking to check out more from the Mr. Tayto’s Bucket List Campaign, you can see the entire stream of content on Tayto’s detailed microsite whereismrtayto.ie or check out any of Tayto’s socials @MrTaytoIreland on Instagram, Twitter and TikTok.