Why is this work relevant for Media?

KitKat had never developed a campaign on TikTok before, but was looking to engage a new generation with the brand in a way that felt unique, own-able and real. What the campaign achieved was to initiate a genuine conversation around an iconic brand (and an iconic product) on a previously untested platform, in a highly relevant and newsworthy way. The combination of channels played a key role in first initiating the conversation on TikTok, then amplifying it across Twitter, owned channels, and creating enough controversy to gain substantial earned media.

Background

‘Have a break, Have a KitKat’ has been an iconic brand idea for 65 years. But to young people, iconic means old. So we needed to make an ‘old’ campaign excite a new generation and make the brand relevant to a younger audience that didn't necessarily have as strong a connection to the brand as previous generations did.

Describe the creative idea / insights (30% of vote)

Rather than trying to persuade a new generation to adopt ‘Have a break’, we invited them to reject it instead, by dismissing one of the world's most famous product rituals. We acknowledged a long-running internet debate about the 'right way' to eat a KitKat, and unofficially gave our audience license to 'Have a bite' by ignoring the age old product ritual and taking one giant bite out of the iconic bar. We knew the resulting posts would be triggering, and generate some passionate discussion, so we planned to capitalise on that cultural moment in order to recruit this new generation to actually start defending 'Have a break' in its classic form.

Describe the strategy (20% of vote)

Our sceptical Gen-Z audience doesn't want to be told what to do by brands. So instead of over-investing in paid media, our strategy was to seed a conversation through social, encourage their self expression and create a cultural moment they would want to be part of. We identified that how people ate KitKats had proved controversial in the past, so decided to reignite this existing online debate. To ensure it triggered a response, we made it feel organic and not manufactured by the brand. To really engage the community, we carefully selected TikTok creators based on their active audiences and style, giving them flexibility to create content based on our brief, in a way that they knew would resonate with their followers. The triggering nature of the issue meant that there’d be some controversy – controversy we could amplify to maximise our earned media.

Describe the execution (20% of vote)

We began by partnering with TikTok creators to seriously trigger their followers by taking one big bite from their KitKat instead of 'breaking' a finger the official way. The internet reacted in a big way and debate raged, creating a huge amount of conversation in the first 48 hours. When the controversy was at its peak, KitKat took the opportunity to break their silence. A special cut of the recent brand TVC starring Aussie screen legend Michael Caton officially acknowledged the issue and asked 'Is this wrong?' via other social channels, before a packaging re-design, series of social polls, and live social interactions with other brands and Aussie celebs, also threw more fire onto the debate. The issue was so polarising that it was covered in a 2 minute segment on national news.

List the results (30% of vote)

4.3 million views in 48 hours 11.16% engagement on Tiktok (4X the market benchmark) 27M social impressions (50% over KPI) 56.3M in PR reach The issue was so polarising that it was covered in a 2 minute segment on national news.