For many years Cheetos marketing focused on winning over Millennial parents with “family fun” messaging. While initially fruitful, this strategy eventually pigeonholed Cheetos into the family-snack realm. The brand was beloved, but it was rarely top of mind during snacking occasions because adults saw it as a messy, dusty and overwhelmingly orange treat that they’d outgrown.

To get our audience to pay attention to Cheetos again, we needed to re-frame our messiness and put it into an unexpected new context. We decided to unapologetically embrace our product truth: the messy, sticky orange Cheetos dust gets all over your fingers, leaving you unable to touch or do much else. And that can be a good thing.

Hands-free technology is one of the fastest-growing industries in the world, with multi-billion-dollar investments from companies like Apple, Tesla, Amazon and Nike. It’s everywhere: from self-driving cars to voice assistants--and even hands-free shoes.

And whether these companies know it or not, every single one of these hands-free innovations allow our fans to live their lives whilst their hands are covered in Cheetle (a.k.a. Cheetos dust). Which made us wonder: What if Cheetos was the inspiration behind all hands-free tech? And furthermore, what if we could take credit for it?

So that’s exactly what we did. Through an integrated campaign, we showed the world how Cheetos has been influencing technology throughout the years. And then Cheetos started showing up wherever and whenever people were thinking about hands-free tech.

Snack innovations rarely make waves in culture. On the other hand, tech innovations have the power to dominate headlines, inspire our minds and reverberate in culture. So to spark new intrigue and attention around Cheetos and its core products, we hacked this multi-billion-dollar business through a campaign that asked one simple question: Was this entire industry built by Cheetos lovers who just wanted to live their lives with their fingers covered in the brand’s iconic orange dust?

If Cheetos influenced all hands-free technology, it was time to position ourselves as more than a snack company. It was time to start acting like a tech company too. As a result, this campaign went beyond our usual way of thinking about creative and media. Instead, we made sure that Cheetos started showing up whenever and wherever people were thinking of hands-free technology. After all, if it’s hands-free, it’s a Cheetos thing.

Every element of this finely orchestrated 360 campaign was in service of delivering a simple message to our audience: If it’s hands-free, it’s a Cheetos thing.

We started with a full-page ad in the New York Times mischievously crediting Cheetos with being the inspiration for a list of now-ubiquitous hands-free technology. This was quickly followed up with a :60 film (TV/OLV) that showed the “true” story of how they were invented.

From there we went after the big tech companies with contextual OOH outside of their stores and pre-roll videos that preceded their content. We even bought their keywords, so whenever people searched for their products, Cheetos showed up.

Finally, we showed up at major tech conferences SXSW, and, in partnership with Amazon, created a fully immersive hands-free house. There was even an online virtual tour that doubled as an e-commerce experience that allowed fans to purchase hands-free products.

We set out to spark new intrigue and attention amongst adults, and so far, all signs point to success. After less than a month in market we’ve garnered 1.1 billion impressions, with 99.7% neutral or positive sentiment. At SXSW there was a 2+ hour wait for Cheetos fans to get inside the house, marking it as one of the highlights of the conference.

Best of all? Dollar sales of Cheetos are up +11.2% in Q1 vs. last year.