As one of the fastest growing brands in the ready-to-eat popcorn category, SkinnyPop is one of the rising stars in the snack world. Once folks try it, they usually come back for more. Why? Because SkinnyPop understands that people want snacks that don’t weigh them down - physically or emotionally. Snackers want to eat what they want and not feel bad about it, so SkinnyPop partnered with BuzzFeed to increase awareness of the brand in order to encourage more households to opt for an uncomplicated snack that’s undeniably good.

Approach

SkinnyPop’s objective was to increase awareness and purchase intent, particularly amongst its core target base of young, active, educated women. The SkinnyPop target loves her simple, daily indulgence of SkinnyPop because she not only feels good about her decision, but it’s also incredibly delicious and satisfying. SkinnyPop doesn’t let her down (it’s delicious and simple). That’s why she loves our product and why she keeps coming back for more.

To reach them, BuzzFeed created two pieces of original branded content that aligned with SkinnyPop’s brand values and personality - carefree, full of life, positive, etc. Both pieces celebrated snacking and snackers alike without judgment or complexity.

The first piece, 6 Steps To Having The Blanket Fort Movie Night Of Your Dreams, was a simple how-to guide that showed how SkinnyPop can be an active ingredient in a fun evening spent at home. BuzzFeed specifically targeted people who had engaged with DIY content and also loved movies.

The second piece was a quiz - - that celebrated the everyday moments that avid snackers know too well. For this piece we sought out individuals who had engaged with Tasty and our other food content.

The second piece was a quiz - What Percentage Of Your Mind Is On Snacks? - that celebrated the everyday moments that avid snackers know too well. For this piece we sought out individuals who had engaged with Tasty and our other food content.

Results

SkinnyPop’s content was well-received by the general BuzzFeed audience, but saw particularly strong engagement from the target. The content was consumed by women 18-34 at a rate 3.4X higher than the internet average.

Combined, the two posts yielded more than 650,000 views with a social lift of 1.2X (for every 10 people who saw the SkinnyPop content, two additional people saw it via sharing).

The quiz performed particularly well yielding more than 220,000 completions at a rate of 81% - 10 percentage points higher than the BuzzFeed benchmark! Furthermore, respondents did truly have snacks on their minds with the majority of respondents falling between 75% and 85%.

To measure the impact of the program content on consumer awareness and purchase intent, BuzzFeed and SkinnyPop conducted a GfK Dimestore Brand Impact Study. Two groups were surveyed - a control group that was not exposed to the content and an exposed group that consumed the content.

By focusing the creative on constantly having snacks on the mind, we saw a significant jump in purchase intent at +19.0% points. While SkinnyPop already had fairly high brand awareness, engaging with the content got them excited about actually trying the product and drove purchase intent.

Focusing on the many places in which SkinnyPop can be enjoyed resonated with their on-the-go mindset and yielded +18.5% and +27.9% point increases in awareness and purchase intent, respectively. The results we saw for those exposed to SkinnyPop on their mobile device fall within the top 25% of all BuzzFeed deltas for both awareness and purchase intent.

Key Takeaways

BuzzFeed’s battle-tested formats (DIY guides, quizzes) proved to be a natural, seamless fit with the SkinnyPop brand voice and tone. Furthermore, SkinnyPop’s target demographic aligned perfectly with BuzzFeed’s audience and gave the brand a great platform for inciting engagement and intent without being overbearing.

“We thought long and hard on who the first partner for SkinnyPop Popcorn would be, but BuzzFeed was the obvious choice. BuzzFeed provided not only a great and targeted platform but also a collaborative partnership for SkinnyPop so we could talk about what our brand really stands for: simple ingredients with incredible taste.”

- Kyle Banahan, Brand Manager, Amplify Snack Brands