getting gen z-ers to crave DIY milkshakes

Challenge: F'real milkshakes and smoothies have been around for over 10 years. But because they're only available in convenience stores and on a few college campuses, the only way to know about them, is, well, to know about them. The brand needed a boost in overall awareness to drive sales, and a more solid social strategy to get traction with their uber-connected 14-21 year old audience.

Insights: After putting-on our best Gen Z hats and playing with Snapchat for a couple weeks, we realized that f'real shakes have four things in common with their target: 1) they’re spontaneous—no one really plans ahead for a 2am milkshake run; 2) they want to feel like they’re in control—you blend f’real yourself at the convenience store vs. waiting for someone at a drive through to make it for you; 3) they demand transparency—f’real is not highbrow foodie gourmet and we’re 100% owning it; and 4) they want to be entertained above all else—and obviously, milkshakes are always down for a good time.

making it f'real

We brought all of our insights, and multiple taste tests, together to build a strategic platform for all brand messaging throughout the coming year: However, whenever, whatever you make it—Make it f'real. Then we activated a multichannel attack to get f'real seen, shared, and slurped.

RETAIL campaign

The initial scope was for an 8-week flight of retailer specific, geo-targeted OLA and pre-roll ads. Inspired by the "make it f'real" platform, the specific storylines were based on the mystery and magic that happens inside the f'real "blending bar" machine when you make your own shake at your local KwikTrip. It's entirely possible that it's being blended with crocodile tears. Who knows? But however you make it, make it f'real.

SOCIAL VIDEO SERIES

In the absence of a formal social strategy, the brand was posting content without any real guidance around storylines, objectives, or even production values. So I brought an unsolicicted proposal to the client: we'd invest halfsies in creating a library of :15 videos for use across all social channels, giving them some much needed consistency and direction. They said yes, and in a span of two weeks, we concepted, storyboarded, lined up a studio and production crew, built props, and shot 10 original videos. Because they were intended as branding vs. a retail push, we broke from the campaign construct just a bit to dive into the world of internet meme absurdity. You can see four of the videos here, best enjoyed with sound.

results

Over 8 weeks, the initial Make it f'real campaign garnered more than 39 million engagements—not impressions—smashing all previous benchmarks for the brand, and undoubtedly causing massive brain freezes everywhere.