You know you’re onto something when your hashtag trends higher than the president’s impeachment trial. Mr. Peanut’s death and rebirth both owned social media in their respective moments. Our celebration of Mr. Peanut’s life brought brand Twitter together in a way rarely seen. On Super Bowl night, Planters was the only brand to be trending at #1 on Twitter. With 11 billion total impressions, our R.I.Peanut campaign didn’t just influence pop culture, it helped create it.

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. But we couldn’t just let the old-timer slip into retirement and obscurity. He had to go out with a bang. So we decided to kill our mascot, a first for any brand. We couldn’t get rid of this advertising icon completely, so after a period of mourning and celebration, he was reborn on the world’s biggest stage. We reinvented Mr. Peanut for a new generation as Baby Nut, a reincarnated mascot that would eventually grow up into a new and improved Mr. Peanut. We were able to create two cultural touchstones with one campaign.

Planters and its iconic mascot, Mr. Peanut, had lost its touch on culture and relevance with younger audiences. To change that, we gathered data through our agency's Volume Model. We created thousands of pieces of content across social, and qualitatively and quantitatively analyzed them to understand where consumer attention is. After collecting 10+ months of data, we had multiple revelations about Mr. Peanut’s role in culture. He was an icon, but he had almost become wallpaper. This led to the big idea – we need to lose something to appreciate how much we loved it. In order for fans to realize their admiration for figures, it often requires something drastic to happen. We studied losses in pop culture, and particularly how people react to those losses on social media, we knew we had to kill Mr. Peanut. He had to go out in a blaze of glory.

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.