Hiding cookies in plain sight isn’t only relatable, according to Fast Company, it’s “ingenious.” With partners across food, cooking, fashion, and cars, this campaign was all about surprising and delighting fans, and sharing the idea far and wide. Giving fans exactly what they were asking for—protection from the cookie thieves in their lives—while giving OREO Thins their long awaited moment in the spotlight. A moment that, thanks to a perfect combination of PR, social, influencers, and perfectly hidden cookie packs, led this campaign to be the most successful campaign in the history of the THINS brand.

OREO THINS were up against awareness issues. Our brief was to establish OREO Thins as a cultural icon in its own right, while weaving in the holistic OREO “Stay Playful” messaging. While the OREO brand is all about making kids happy, THINS, because they’re thinner and lighter, are the perfect OREO for adults. So our objective was to create a campaign for adults, with packaging at the center—3,000 packs limited edition packs—and the right content and story to live across multiple channels and engage fans.

After seeing parents complain on Twitter about kids stealing their OREO Thins, we knew we needed to take drastic measures to protect their cookies.

We partnered with four brands to create limited-edition camo-packs disguised as stuff kids would never go near. While it might seem backwards, to raise awareness for THINS, we gave half of the visual and branding on the pack to brands that have nothing to do with cookies.

The side of each pack looked like something completely different than a regular old pack of cookies—a Better Home & Gardens cookbook, a pack of Green Giant frozen vegetables, a Ford Owners Manual, and a box of Hanes T-Shirts. Each pack was created to be hidden in a different room.

The idea started on social, and came to life on social, asking fans to share the ways they hid THINS in order to win a limited-edition pack.

Our key message was simple—because they’re thinner and lighter, THINS are the perfect OREO for adults. Fans were already complaining on Twitter about kids stealing their cookies, so we honed in. Our approach was to give cookie lovers exactly what they were asking for—protection for their cookies, in a playful way, with the best partners. Partners who shared the idea across their networks, because who hasn’t thought about hiding their cookies before? From a PR perspective, we shared the news far and wide, underscoring that THINS are the perfect cookie for parents. And by kicking off the idea with relatable celebrity parents Kevin and Danielle Jonas, there was an immediate connection to the idea, and a CTA for parents to share their best hiding spots.

Extensive PR drove excitement, conversation and major buzz solidifying OREO THINS as the cookie for adults. We started with embargoed outreach the week before launch, which led into broad pitching and sustaining well past it.

The hero element for the campaign was the four limited-edition camo packs, designed to authentically represent each brand. The campaign ran on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and TikTok with gifs and in-situation images to show how they worked to perfectly protect your cookies. We amplified the news with celebrity parents Kevin and Danielle Jonas and three other influencers, and sent a mailer kit with the packs to parent influencers and media outlets from a very wide spectrum (food sites to car publications). We also asked parents to share their hiding places using #thinsprotectionprogram, for a chance to win one of the 3,000 exclusive packs and a sweet $25K sweepstakes grand prize.

By hiding the product, we ended up making THINS more visible than ever. The THINS Protection Program was the most successful campaign in the history of the THINS brand. And we gave parents a safe way to eat their cookies while successfully repositioning Thins as the OREO for adults. And ONLY adults!

While the campaign was running, 43 different brands joined us and shared their own hiding places. And brands like Axe and Xbox even created ads just for us.

All in all, the campaign earned 8.5M+ organic impressions, 271 media placements, 800K+ social engagement, and increased THINS mentions by 1,019%.