Snack food brands regularly launch limited-edition flavors to gain market share and share of voice. Pringles does this, too. But since Pringles historically has much smaller budgets than its market leading competitors, standing out in the sea of limited-edition flavors is challenging. The reality is that Pringles doesn’t have the luxury of TV media to reach people when launching these flavors. So, to get America talking, Pringles needed an idea that would create organically shared content and get people across social platforms involved. To do this, we partnered with a brand known for pushing boundaries on social media: Wendy’s. Together, Wendy’s and Pringles strategized to not only launch a crisp based on the fast-food chain’s most famous item. But to create a completely new, unexpected, and retweet-worthy way to eat this food.

Americans love dipping savory Wendy’s food in Wendy’s Frosties. For decades, millions have dipped French Fries. Many even dip their Wendy’s Nuggets. But Wendy’s’ most famous item, the Baconator Burger, has always been too big and clumsy to dip. So, Wendy’s and Pringles teamed up to solve this injustice, while earning the attention of millions of Americans who love dipping food in Frosties. We launched: The Dippable Baconator. We crammed each flavor of the Wendy’s Baconator Burger into the perfectly dippable shape of a Pringles crisp. In other words, you can dip your burger into your shake now. And that testament to America’s remarkable gastronomy deserved its own delivery system. So, we created that, too. People could tweet #DippableBaconator plus an ice cream emoji to get Baconator Pringles and a Frosty delivered to their door. All of this got the media and America talking (and dipping).

Both Wendy’s and Pringles are American icons that aim for mass appeal. So, our target was general market America. One thing we know is that general market Americans love unusual food combinations. Like, fried chicken with syrupy waffles. Another of these popular combos is dipping French fries in milkshakes. And Wendy’s is the brand at the center of this dipping phenomenon. It seems odd at first, but there’s something about dipping hot fries from Wendy’s into a thick Frosty that everyone loves. And since Americans aren’t holding back when it comes to creating surprising food pairings, we set out to challenge the extreme lengths they’d go to satisfy their cravings. We noticed that unlike fries, Wendy’s’ most famous item, the Baconator, is too clumsy to dip. So, we introduced America to The Dippable Baconator. And used online video, social, PR and a delivery activation to get America talking (and dipping).

It started with Pringles and Wendy’s’ working together to craft each flavor of the Baconator Burger into a Pringles crisp. This collaboration culminated in the product first reaching shelves around mid-June 2020. A few weeks later, once nationwide distribution had been achieved, we announced this new product on social, with dipping videos informing America that their beloved Baconator was finally dippable. Next, we had Instagram and TikTok influencers post videos of themselves dipping on their social channels. And America quickly caught on, with the press picking it up and people immediately posting their own dipping videos across social. Then, once the idea had been successfully seeded, we launched the Dippable Baconator delivery system, so that everyone could try it. People could tweet #DippableBaconator plus an ice cream emoji, to get Baconator Pringles and a Frosty for dipping, delivered right to their door.

The campaign was picked up by multiple major TV networks, as well as news and magazine outlets – gaining 507 million earned media impressions. #DippableBaconator became a trending topic worldwide. People’s homemade dipping videos got over 5 million views on social. During the peak of the campaign, #DippableBaconator was used over 25,000 times in two hours. And more than 1.1 million cans sold out in less than 3 months.