Pretzel Crisps Delivers a Delicious Social Media Campaign
Earlier this week, my colleagues and I were treated to a wonderful social media campaign and bags of delicious snacks, courtesy of the folks at Pretzel Crisps. It turns out the Pretzel Crisps folks had seen my tweet griping about the snow flurries and thought some tasty snacks would make the day better (and they were right!) Shortly after sending them my address, Lisa Parady, Field Marketing Associate for Pretzel Crisps dropped off two recyclable grocery bags filled with nine different varieties of Pretzel Crisps – we were lucky enough to sample the entire Deli Style and Modern Classics varieties.
Not only did Pretzel Crisps manage to make an entire agency happy with delicious snacks, but I was so impressed by this campaign that I had to hear more about what Pretzel Crisps is doing. Jason Harty, Director of Field Marketing, and Jacqueline Landers, Boston Field Marketing Manager, were kind enough to respond to the following questions:
How did Pretzel Crisps come up with the idea of doing a social media campaign? Who was involved in pulling this together?
The idea behind Pretzel Crisps Social Sampling campaign originated with Jason Harty. The idea is simple; Pretzel Crisps listened to relevant online conversations, targeted people in need of a little snack and reached out to them. It’s been the best way for Pretzel Crisps to introduce the brand to a new consumer and become a catalyst for social conversation both online and off.
How long are you doing this campaign? How many cities are you taking the campaign?
Pretzel Crisps has focused on Social Sampling as a key tactic in our marketing mix since July 2010 and runs year round. We have industry-leading, in-house field marketers in five major markets including Boston, New York City, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and San Diego.
How are you monitoring the conversations? Any keywords, or particular groups you’re monitoring?
We’re interested in joining conversations that we belong in. Searching for people who are hungry, throwing or going to a party, people eating other products that taste good paired with us (hummus, for example) and dozens of other keywords. We use search.twitter.com primarily and are able to narrow down the cloud of conversation to specific geographies and topics for the brand to participate in.
How are you measuring the success of this campaign?
There’s no silver bullet. No magic app we can reveal that links earned media to purchase intent. That said, we do measure the number of impressions we generate from each interaction and the reach that has through each users’ following.
What’s next for Pretzel Crisps?
Using the practice of Social Sampling as example, we’re very much focused on what’s happening, and the conversation of, right now. Our Facebook page has experienced triple digit growth in recent weeks and currently you can find a buy one get one free coupon there. We’re going to continue to introduce consumers to the brand in a fun and unique way and remind them they can find us in the deli section of their local grocery store. It’s simple, we rethought the pretzel, now we’re rethinking marketing.
I have to be honest that I had never heard of Pretzel Crisps before they tweeted with me, but I’m impressed with how Pretzel Crisps is leveraging social media to help spread the word and build its brand. The company is definitely on my radar screen now, and with over 35,000 “likes” on Facebook, and 1,800 Twitter Followers, it’s clear to me that the company is doing all right.
