Totino’s is an innovator brand, originating the category of rolled, hot snacks that first started the snackable pizza experience. But the frozen aisle has become stale with private label imitators rolling their own version of pizza rolls out in mass amounts causing stagnant sales for Totino’s. To combat this issue, we knew we needed to cement Totino’s as THE brand for snackable pizza. We set out to build brand recognition and mass reach by borrowing equity from popular creators who were winning with Gen-Z audiences.
Influencers and Gen-Z go together like peanut butter and jelly, or, actually, pizza rolls and hot sauce. But we’re not selling beauty products here, and seeing a logo often gives Gen-Z the ick. So how do we bend the rules of traditional influencer partnerships where logos are often forced in the first three seconds of a post? We partnered with content creators who, well, frankly make content that doesn’t make sense with just one watch.
Enter Grant Beans, Frankie Lagana, and Jericho Menche, our crew of ‘fever dream’ creators who are often compared to Christopher Nolan in comments as viewers get a taste of what their dreams look like in a :60 to :90-second video. Comments like “this shi made me rethink my entire life,” and “probably smells insane inside ur brain fr” are only the tip of the iceberg as viewers are taken on rides you can only think would exist in your dreams. And to make things even more cohesive, these progressive creators often appear in each other’s videos to add additional lore.
Our brief intentionally broke the conventional rules of sponsored content: Please ensure that the product takes a back seat and that nonsensical humor and entertainment are at the forefront of your content. The content we received was shocking in the best way possible. Perfectly looped videos, intentionally annoying ad reads :25 seconds into content, and video hooks including breakfast in bed with an entire five-gallon pail full of grape juice spilled into a nicely made bed.
The initial results were something out of a fever dream in itself. Our first run of posts came before the 2024 Super Bowl and resulted in an unheard-of 10% engagement rate when paired with 47 million video views and 5.4M engagements across five individual pieces of content.
So we did it again to launch our new product, Totino’s Breakfast Bites. The formula stayed the same: Create dream-worthy content that keeps your viewers guessing. Entertainment first, product second.
The results followed suit. This time driving 55 million video views, 7.1 million engagements and a 12% engagement rate organically across 6 pieces of content across TikTok and Twitter.
But the engagement and views didn’t stop there. This content was so mesmerizing and engaging that meme pages began to repost our creators’ videos. Something you would be hard-pressed to find on a run-of-the-mill sponsored post where even an earnest share with friends can be a reach.
These reposts kept streaming over multiple months. At the time of this award entry we’ve seen an additional 30 million video views and 2.8 million engagements across Facebook, YouTube Shorts, X, Tiktok and Instagram from accounts like no context memes, pickuplines400, and viralvideos.club on TikTok who spent an entire 2 minutes and 23 seconds breaking down “one of the best ads of 2024.” Thanks, Yasin!
To sum it up...this program amassed 135 million views on TikTok, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube Shorts, 12.5 million engagements across all platform, and an 11% average engagement rate. These results brought the Totino’s brand to the forefront as THE pizza roll brand to buy. And buy they did! Totino’s saw the 2nd biggest sales month in brand history following our 2024 campaign.
