Snickers – Extreme Branding

snickers_billboards.gifsnickers barThere’s been a lot of marketing buzz about the recent massive Snickers campaign using distinctive made-up words without any actual mention of the brand itself. Snickers, owned by Mars, Inc., has billboards, bus & taxi ads along with broadcast commercials relying on font and color recognition to promote their brand.

There are many blog posts about the campaign, both good and bad. Personally, I’m impressed. My first thoughts are the actual strategy behind the campaign must be to reinforce the brand. This is obvious since anyone not already familiar with the candy bar would have no idea what they were looking at. Words like Nougatocity and Peanutopolis would be confusing to those that don’t recognize the brand’s distinctive, yet very plain, image.

What impressed me, even though they’ve had millions of dollars and years to do it, is how successful the Snicker’s branding actually is. Just the simple font and colors are enough to generate instant recognition for millions of people. Well, that and I like the candy bar :)

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Brian on March 26, 2009 | Filed Under Advertising, Offline Promotions

20 Comments

Sheryl Loch  on March 27th, 2009

Hey Brian,
I think for big companies this is fine.

I bet once the kids see this, the words Nougatocity and Peanutopolis will be used by them. Think of all the cartoon or show characters that say some nonsense word that parents just have no clue what it means but, every kid in 2nd grade knows Exactly what it is.

I also bet that you like Snickers because they are a sponsor for Nascars best driver!

Sheryl Lochs last blog post..Shyftr for RSS Feeds

Brian  on March 27th, 2009

Kyle BuschOh yeah,  forgot you were a Kyle Busch fan Sheryl LOL

As far as the made up words being used by kids I’m not sure. That would probably be considered a huge success by Mars but it would bother the rest of us. The words seem a bit long and far too many of them to catch on in a big way. I certainly hope not.

Joyce Sanders  on March 27th, 2009

Hey Brian,

Snickers has done a great job of branding. Think about what the Geico, uhhh, I mean the Gecko lizard has done for that company. Good blog. Keep on keepin’ on.

Brian  on March 27th, 2009

Hi Joyce, I love that little Gecko lizard. I bet the ad firm that came up with that one is doing very well.

Household products seem really be in front of the pack. Look how we call many products by their popular brand such as Reynolds Wrap, Scotch Tape or Brillo Pad. Mostly irrelevant to what most of us do online but I find it interesting and who better to learn from than the giants.

Brad West  on March 27th, 2009

Recognition marketing has been around forever it seems. the frequency that you can put that image in front of people is the key. Now take a look at social networking, how do you know who you are talking to first you look at the avatar, that gives you something that is very powerful to tie to your name. Visual recognition is overlooked by allot of people and shouldn’t be.

A color is somewhat tied to that in the same visual respect. Just link your forum Brian I couldn’t tell you specifically what your banner looked like. But I most defiantly remember that it was red and white.

Cool Snickers Idea though, Wonder how much they would pay to place images on web sites.

Brad West ~ onomoney

Brad Wests last blog post..Toddler Craft

Hesham  on March 27th, 2009

Actually I think by this way this will gain more credits for their brand :)

so smart, some companies lunch advertisements say funny things about their products to make people talk about it, and spread it more by doing this kind of ways!!

I think this is a creative advertisement idea Brian, no matter what to say or not to say.. just make people talk about it all day :)

Heshams last blog post..New Cherry Truffle WordPress theme from Elegant Themes

Brian  on March 28th, 2009

You bring up a great point about the avatars Brad. We build our online brands, even if we are the brand, with pictures, graphics, names and even slogans.

You have a pretty good memory Brad:
old sample logo
Name recognition is just as important. I can remember ‘onomoney’ from years back too. Earlier this week I received an email from you that just showed ‘onomoney’ as the sender and I knew right away that it was you.

Brian  on March 28th, 2009

You’re right Hesham, humor is used a lot in advertisements, both print and broadcast. Between you and me the funny commercials are the best. I’ve wasted many hours on YouTube watching funny commercials.

Brad West  on March 28th, 2009

I knew there was a little black on that logo also I didn’t remember the graphic itself but of course Extreme was the connection.

Now as far as “onomoney” I sign everything I do on the net Brad West ~ onomoney for a couple reasons.

#1 reason is Brad West is a real bugger to brand, there are so many of us. and fighting for the top spot on Google would be a waste of energy for me.

#2 reason is when you reach the bottom of something I have written you will always see mi sig time and time again.

#3 reason is because when I post I want the bots to always associate Brad West ~ onomoney with the content for indexing purposes. Even if I misspell and write stupid stuff. LOL!

So there are many ways to brand with recognition. It can be a word, a picture, a sound. even a flavor. Sometimes it is the little things that make the difference.

Brad West ~ onomoney

Brad Wests last blog post..What is ooVoo?

Kikolani from Blogging, Poetry, Photography  on March 30th, 2009

I saw one of those billboards… it is very eye-catching, and actually did make me hungry for a Snickers at the time I saw it. That’s the strength of having such a great logo – even if the text changes, it is still universally recognizable.

~ Kristi

Kikolanis last blog post..Fetching Friday – A Mashup of Resources

Brian  on March 30th, 2009

Hi Kristi,

Yep, they’ve done an awesome job of branding with the font and colors.

The power of advertising. Just like the power of suggestion. Ok, you ready? Frozen Snickers Ice cream bar! Did it work? lol

Actually my wife is on her way right now it get us a couple so it may have backfired.

Kikolani from Art of Blogging  on April 2nd, 2009

Frozen Snickers Ice Cream… snickers, ice cream. Now you’ve triggered midnight sweet tooth. But that is the power of great products… even after not having them for a while, I can till imagine what they taste like!

~ Kristi

Kikolanis last blog post..A Comprehensive Guide to Using RSS

John from Professional Web Design  on April 6th, 2009

I think Snickers did a great job on their advertising. Although they do not need such different words because the brand name speaks for itself already it still is amazing that they came up with such witty ideas. It goes to show that their company never grows tired to promote. Let it be an inspiration to other companies.

Kinda cute when every kid takes a bite he/she will say “mmmm.. nougatocity.”

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http://www.jsws.com.au/web-design

Douglas from promotion products  on April 7th, 2009

A successful marketing campaign by snickers but I don’t really believe they counted on this much free publicity; it could as well have backfired.

Brian  on April 7th, 2009

@John: That’s a good point John, Even a brand that already has a large market share still launches huge marketing campaigns.

@Douglas: They did get a lot of free publicity. Just a quick search of Nougatocity and Peanutopolis shows a bunch of online publicity.

Steve | Trade Show Guru  on April 15th, 2009

hey Brian,
I wish I had seen one of the billboard ads before I read your title with Snickers in it. I’m not sure if I saw a billboard out of context if I would know what it was about. Hmmm… I guess it’ll probably work for them, and they’ll get a lot of free buzz because it is a cool idea.
But it would be interesting to see how many people driving down the road know what the billboard is about…
~ Steve, the trade show guru
PS. Snickers is in my top three favorite candy bars.

Brian  on April 15th, 2009

You’re right Steve, I should have let readers try to guess themselves. I got it the second I seen the first billboard but I’m sure that differs person to person.

BTW, it you haven’t already tried it do yourself a favor and try the frozen ice cream snickers.

Photoshopper  on August 14th, 2009

I would like to ask one thing: Why did Marathon change their name to Snickers?

Brian D. Hawkins Reply:
August 14th, 2009 at 8:35 pm

It took me a while to figure out what in the world you were talking about lol

This post right? Extreme Advertising Turned Landmark
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Slide  on October 7th, 2009

I am in Thailand but also know this brand