To effectively launch New 5 React, an innovative black stick of gum that allows each chewer to have their own flavor experience, it was important to look beyond traditional media vehicles to fuel and deepen consumer involvement behind the launch. Our goals were threefold: generate lots of visibility for the brand and React among a mass audience, offer a social type of engagement for our fans, and effectively communicate the unique proposition. So we tossed the conventional 360º message wheel out the window and sequenced the work so that one experience led to another. This approach allowed us to fold our mass-reaching TV, Print and Digital communications into a larger plot: a total experience that would help to deepen the brand story and offer a more exclusive journey for our Facebook fans—those we hypothesized, given their love of social currency, would to follow us "down the rabbit hole."

Psychological inkblot imagery was utilized as the creative thread through the campaign to telegraph the React proposition – also a single black stimulus that everyone experiences differently.

We decided to leverage our Facebook fans to create anticipation prior to the React launch. Fans were lured by a mysterious video to 5React.com’s epic testing facility where they and five friends were offered an opportunity to receive a black envelope in the mail. The envelopes contained 3D glasses, an exclusive pack of React and a code to be entered at 5React.com. The mission: test React and document your personal experience by creating a 3D inkblot-style image and posting for all to see.TV and print were then released featuring the same mysterious tone as the digital sampling experience and utilizing inkblot imagery as a metaphor for 5 React’s amorphous flavor. The work featured a simple and enticing warning: "Experience may vary."

In its 4th year, 5 Gum was becoming predictable and sluggish. An innovative product would infuse energy but required an innovative approach to maximize engagement and buzz among our core fan base. For New 5 React – a gum everyone would experience differently – the consumer journey succeeded in not only generating mass awareness and trial, but in leveraging the social nature of the product to re-inspire active brand engagement and advocacy. By luring brand fanatics into a shared social experiment with an intriguing hands-on mission we were able to both richly communicate that everyone experiences React differently and get our consumers talking about us again. Solidifying a database of brand enthusiasts would give 5 a unique messaging channel—a team of brand advocates and influencers that could be harnessed for years to come. Our efforts in this space are now helping to define a new approach to consumer marketing.