Snack food is a hyper-competitive sector with vast choice and endless advertising. Gaining younger attention (18-34) is key to gaining market share. But this group is notoriously skeptical of marketing. So, Pringles needed an idea that would go beyond advertising to become entertainment that this generation would love.

That’s why we set out to partner with two of this generation’s favorite celebrities: Rick & Morty. The show’s two-year hiatus had left fans ravenous for content. Rick and Morty’s return would be huge. Launching their return with an episode-like TV ad during America’s biggest entertainment event (Super Bowl) would be huger. Then, leveraging the full power of Rick and Morty’s social influence in a multiphase, year-long campaign would be hugest. But this couldn’t just be a regular influencer partnership. Our target is too cynical for that. We needed to ensure that every element stayed true to Rick and Morty’s characters.

For Pringles to correctly partner with an entertainment property like Rick & Morty, everything had to remain true to the show. For this reason, we leaned into the show’s innovative premise. Rick & Morty are known for travelling to the most terrifying universes. So, we trapped them in the worst universe imaginable for our cynical young target: Advertising. By remaining true to the show, this short film would go beyond advertising and become innovative entertainment that fans enjoyed and shared. Beyond this episode-like short film, Rick & Morty got trapped in every media at Pringles’ disposal. In this way, we’d breached the walls of regular advertising to create sustained entertainment and become part of culture throughout the Multiverse.

The primary target audience was Americans 18 - 35. This group is more skeptical of advertising than any generation – 84% don’t trust it. 46% pay for ad blockers. When it comes to getting this group’s attention, traditional advertising doesn’t usually work. But how do you advertise to people who dislike advertising? We needed to create a buzzworthy, earned-centric narrative that this group would engage with. We needed shareable content that would naturally become part of their culture. So, Pringles partnered with two characters that this generation know and love, Rick and Morty. And we built a buzzworthy, earned-centric narrative around that show’s premise: Rick & Morty are known for traveling to terrifying universes. So, we trapped them in the worst universe imaginable for our target: Advertising. This storytelling idea would then play out in PR and across all of Pringles’ media channels for the duration of 2020.

It started with Rick and Morty getting trapped in the biggest advertising stage on earth: A commercial during Super Bowl. The film was immediately described not as an ad, but a typically mind-bending, condensed episode of the show. Once the film had aired, we then trapped Rick and Morty in every conceivable media at Pringles’ disposal, for the duration of 2020. This turned all Pringles’ advertising into entertainment. Beyond the episode-like short film, Rick’s alter ego, got trapped in a new flavor: Pickle Rick Pringles. A Twitter Bot Morty got trapped on social, shilling Pringles to anyone who’d listen. MortyBot then pawned Pringles at Adult Swim Fest and Adult Swim Con. We even seized the show’s mobile game to become a platform to sell Pringles. Besides all this, entertaining social content was created; including a gamified Snapchat Lens and Instagram filter, as well as social videos posted throughout the year.

Every part of initiative broke records for Pringles. The campaign generated 1.2B earned media impressions, appearing in almost every major news, media and trend outlet. Pringles and Rick and Morty’s year-long social campaign attracted more than 122.6 Million Organic impressions and 27M organic Video Views. The campaign trended on Reddit week of launch. Pickle Rick Pringles was a #3 trending item on Reddit. The Pocket Morty’s mobile game integration gained 9.5M impressions and 1M Video Views. Pickle Rick Pringles sold out. Twice. And overall product sales lifts outperformed competitive networks from 4Q 2019 – 2Q 2020. With Pringles growing +13% in gross sales volume over 2020. Which was a record for the brand.