How does a 57-year-old gum brand return to relevance with consumers less than half its age?

Objective: Return Trident to growth by focusing on core business: increase relevancy and reverse category decline.

In 2020 as consumers transitioned to WFH and avoided gatherings, the need for fresh breath was disappearing. They needed a reason to buy Trident when gum wasn’t on their mind.

Target: Gen-Z. As the most tech-savvy generation, their needs are simple: get emotional uplift out of stress relief and mindless activity.

Knowing our target is social, tech-savvy and brand aware, we needed a program that combined technology, music, and shareability to drive authentic engagement.

Using a custom filter, we turned packs of Trident gum into AR keyboards and Trident fans into music producers with a simple scan, play, and share mechanic, allowing them to create custom tracks, tunes and even music videos on social.

We Partnered with seven influencers across the music and lifestyle spaces who appeal to Millennials and Gen Z. Our partners were each given one of the four Chew Tunes flavors and tasked with creating their own original beat. They shared their #ChewTunes creations on Instagram, showcasing the new packs, sweepstakes and filter feature while encouraging their followers to create their own beat.

As the gum category struggled to find relevance in 2020 with consumer behavior shifting drastically, Trident uncovered an insight connecting the transformative power of music with the gum-chewing experience.

We leaned on Gen-Zs’ (Zoomers') adoption of emerging tech and inherent desire to share creatively on social to create an innovative and shareable campaign.

Music is a strong identifier of self-expression and best for fans to get creative with content.

Their online behavior helped define and shape the program; how they use their voice to reach and help their peers:

90% of Snapchat users are ages 13-24

72% of Teens use Instagram

56% of Gen-Z uses social for creative expression

40% use AR filters/lenses to enhance content

Passions: Music is a shared interest, specifically over-indexing in rap and hip-hop.

Creative Outlets: Drawing, dance, interior design, technology.

Our Insight: We're happiest when we've found–and move–to our own inner rhythm.

The Chew Tunes program set out to connect the dots between self-expression, share-ability and flavor, drawing consumers in with an AR-enabled on-pack activation. Using a custom filter, we turned packs of Trident gum into AR keyboards and Trident fans into music producers with a simple scan, play, and share mechanic, allowing them to create custom tracks, tunes and even music videos on social.

The top four Trident SKUs featured different “genres” of sound based on musical style, letting consumers select a keyboard that fit their flavor. When combining the purchases of these pack “sound banks” with others, consumers could add even more layers of flavor and sound (and driving trial of more than one flavor). Once their musical masterpiece was complete, they could share it with the world on social media platforms for a chance at a once-in-a-lifetime prize—a trip to the Grammy's.

Chew Tunes created a connection between the power of the chew and music, coming to life through a compelling on-pack activation across highly relevant channels.

The results hit a high note, blowing past industry standards, generating millions of impressions, 100% positive sentiment and connecting with the target on a personal, musical level.

Objective 1: Increase awareness/relevance of Trident.

Result: 11M sweepstakes entries through earned & paid media, and influencer partnerships.

Objective 2: Make Trident go viral on social platforms.

Result: Paid media delivered 362+M impressions across FB/IG, Spotify, Waze, Twitter and YouTube.

* Viral benchmark is 1M impressions

Objective 3: Exceed media engagement benchmarks.

Result: Content from 7 FB/IG Influencers drove 2.5M organic content views at 13% engagement rate, exceeding industry standard by 1200%.

* Industry standard media engagement benchmark = 1%

* 62K displays shipped for programming to stores (3x prior year)

* 1.2M visits to campaign microsite