Being a century old brand has its advantages. With 98% unaided awareness, Planters is one of the most well-known nut brands in the world (1). The disadvantage? Being 104 years old doesn’t help you sell nuts. As the snacking category explodes with new innovations, offerings, and flavor profiles, Mr. Peanut’s cultural relevance isn’t what it used to be, especially with younger audiences driving the snacking purchases. As we approached the Super Bowl—the biggest snacking day of the year and one of the most critical moments in time for a salty nut—we just weren’t top of mind, or even in the consideration set of most buyers. With private label demand increasing in retailer and customer preferences, we had a major strategic challenge: reignite love for Mr. Peanut to drive earned media and increase both favorability and preference for Planters with consumers.

Our idea was simple – remind people of their love for Mr. Peanut by taking him away. So in a bold bid for attention, we killed off our mascot, a first for any brand. We took a century of brand equity and eliminated it in just a few moments. It was a risky move, but it paid off – we were able to leverage the way culture reacts to icons leaving us to create a full campaign around Mr. Peanut’s death. We then capitalized on this cultural moment and reinvented him as Baby Nut, who would eventually grow up into a new and improved Mr. Peanut in the months following the Super Bowl.

Planters and its iconic mascot, Mr. Peanut, had lost relevance. To change that, we gathered data on thousands of pieces of content, analyzing them to understand where Mr. Peanut stood. We found that he was indeed an icon, but that he had become wallpaper. This, combined with a study of how pop culture responds to fictional character deaths, led to the big idea: Losing something makes us appreciate it. Introducing this shock early in the Super Bowl cycle and setting up the Super Bowl as its conclusion, we’d hook people on a multi-week journey as snacking’s biggest day approached.

It started like any other campaign – we teased Mr. Peanut’s road trip with his celebrity pals Matt Walsh and Wesley Snipes. Then things took a turn for the worse. Footage of Mr. Peanut getting in a freak accident was “accidentally” leaked on our Twitter page. Speculation took hold, and we were forced to put out a statement confirming that Mr. Peanut had died, sacrificing his life to save his friends. From there, tributes poured in from celebs, brands, the world’s biggest publications and culture’s biggest movers. We created memorial content across platforms and introduced limited edition products that allowed people to celebrate Mr. Peanut’s life. During the Super Bowl, we broadcast his funeral, where Mr. Peanut was reborn as Baby Nut. In the months following the game, we followed Baby Nut as he grew into a new and improved Mr. Peanut in time for Super Bowl LV.

By the end of the Super Bowl Program we had 11 billion impressions, were the #1 trending topic on twitter twice, and generated a 963% sales increase (Jan - Mar YoY). Other brands and publications were interacting with and amplifying Planters like never before, with a level of support that no brand has seen since. The loss and rebirth of Mr. Peanut brought brand Twitter together, and that trickled into real world memorials and news coverage. We forever changed the status of the Planters brand in pop culture.