Why is this work relevant for Direct?

Mars Bar Sticky Search-uations twisted a behavioural truth—our tendency to Google for help dealing with problems—into an entry mechanic to win a year’s supply of Mars Bars. Closing the loop between online and real world by turning the common challenge of looking for help on Google, into a gamified experience with a physical, edible reward. This interception of behaviour put Mars Bars in the hands of people dealing with life’s toughest problems and, at the same time, proved that a Mars Bar truly is “Enough Chocolate to Deal With Anything”.

Background

Mars Bar, once Australia’s #1 chocolate bar, had just launched their new brand platform Enough Chocolate To Deal With Anything. Moving away from its old ‘energy’ heritage to attract a Gen Y/Z audience, this platform positions Mars Bar as a big, bold chocolate that can give you a positive lift to deal with the everyday challenges of life. But like any new platform, we couldn’t just say Mars was Enough Chocolate To Deal With Anything. We needed to prove it. We needed young Australians to really appreciate and understand the relevance of a Mars Bar when facing daily challenges. And to think, when they have to deal with any problem great or small, a Mars Bar is something that can help them out.

Describe the creative idea (30% of vote)

Mars Bar: Sticky Search-uations. Google how to deal with something. Get enough chocolate to deal with anything. We partnered with Google so that when people were searching about how to deal with a sticky situation online, they were given Enough Chocolate To Deal With Anything in the real world. If they searched terms like “How to get mattress out of pool?”, “How to remove tattoo of ex’s name?” or even “How to stop dad from flirting with my girlfriend”, they were served with a Google Link Ad, Display Asset or YouTube video. This took users to our dedicated website, where the lucky first visitors were rewarded a year’s supply of Mars Bar to help them ‘deal with it’. And the rest were given directions to their nearest retailer. Our winners’ prize packaging was incredibly insta-worthy, ensuring they would share it with their networks as they ‘dealt’ with their challenges.

Describe the strategy (20% of vote)

We knew we needed to get a new generation to see Mars Bar as a brand relevant to them. We discovered an interesting insight in their search patterns. A study conducted by Google showed high search volume from users under the age of 30 always asking ‘how to…’. This active, task-based language showed that, when they needed a question answered fast, they were no longer asking their parents. They were asking Google for help or YouTube to show them. By flipping searches into data points, we didn’t have to ask anything from people. Instead we inserted the Mars bar brand into an existing behavior - the very moment that people we’re dealing with something.

Describe the execution (20% of vote)

Though search analytics, we found the strangest, weirdest and most awkward “how to” searches, that only chocolate could help with. And placed a suite of relevant Search, YouTube and Display assets behind each one. Users simply googled a problem, clicked one of our assets and landed on a microsite that would tell them if they’d won. There, they’d fill in a quickform and a whole year’s supply of Mars Bars was shipped to them right away. Once a term was found, the link ads would update in real-time and divert following users to a “Find Nearest Retailer” page. First or not, Mars Bar was there to help. We also partnered with popular lifestyle blogs armed with a story about the ‘weirdest questions being asked to Google’, and an explanation of the campaign mechanic. And leveraged Google’s creative suite to updated our assets in real-time based on Australia’s search behaviour.

List the results (30% of vote)

The campaign was executed on less than a US$100k budget but we were still able to drive impressive numbers for the brand: - Over 17 million impressions - 1,068,651 “disrupted searches” - Over 4,000 Mars Bars delivered to help people deal with anything Overall, alongside existing TV assets, the campaign helped drive 4.2% in growth over the campaign period. All in all, a solid way to bring a brand platform to life and prove that Mars Bar is Enough Chocolate To Deal With Anything. By literally helping poor souls searching across Google for advice, deal with anything.