Tags: Product Innovation / Award Winning / Comedy / Custom Video / Recipes / Brand Awareness / Brand Association / Upper Funnel / Custom Production
Cheetos tasked the Amazon Brand Innovation Lab team with strengthening the brand’s connection to recipes among their Gen Z audience during the holidays. In order to break through a cluttered time with a skeptical audience, we needed to do something totally unexpected.
Looking at social trends, we found a natural insight that customers were crushing up Cheetos to incorporate into their recipes. What better way to get more people to adopt this trend than by making it easier for them to create Cheetle?
Introducing the Cheetos Duster—a brand new product that grinds Cheetos into the perfect cooking ingredient. We bundled the duster with Cheetos products to capitalize on the social phenomenon of Cheetos-cooking, and created a tongue-in-cheek infomercial touting the wonders of Cheetos dust. The team also created a complementary recipe hub to showcase the tasty dishes Cheetle can create, and a FireTV landing page.
Results
The Cheetos Duster went live for purchase on 11/15/2022 and sold out within 2 hours, becoming the #1 Mixer/Blender on Black Friday. The Cheetos Duster has earned 12.7 Billion impressions, 443 press mentions, 38% new-to-brand purchases and a 149% increase in year-over-year sales. Additionally, the Cheetos Duster has sold for up to 10x the original sales price on ebay.
Awards
Gold Plus Winner | Internationalist Awards: Ecommerce
Best Brand Partnership Winner | Digiday Awards: B2C
Amazon Brand Innovation Lab:
Creative Lead: Elana Black
Creative Director: Sarah Betts
Principal Content Producer: Rad Olievschi
Senior Art Director: Roxy Dalton
Senior Copywriter: Seth Mollerup
Design Director: Joseph Dasaro
Design Technologist: Alec Kunkel
Manager, Solutions Management: Shana Weber
Solutions Manager: Roey Feuerstein
Principal Brand Strategist: Jonathan Lum
Interactive Designer: Cassie Xu
Sr. Marketing Manager: Gina Avila
Head of US CPG & Grocery: Joseph Delhommer
Account Executive: Jeremy Kaplan
Account Executive: Jess Segal
Director: Mike Bernstein, Superprime Films
Editor: Jamie Connors, Gattie + Lopez
Colorist: Gene Curley, Nice Shoes
Tags: Experiential / Virtual Reality / Brand Awareness / Upper Funnel / Custom Production
Amazon Brand Innovation Lab partnered with Frito-Lay to create the Cheetos Hands Free House, a 4-day experiential event at SXSW in Austin, TX, transporting guests to a world where their daily lives became completely hands-free. This innovative “home” included Amazon tech-enabled entry, smudge-free remote controls and Alexa voice-controlled experiences. The house allowed guests to take part in a variety of activities (IMDb content, Cheeto-inspired food recipes & more), all while leaving Cheetle* dust on their hands (and nowhere else!).
For those that were unable to attend SXSW, we also created a parallel VR-enabled online experience where users could digitally explore each room with a 360 degree-view, find tips & tricks to create their own hands-free home, and get their Cheetle-dusted hands on Amazon tech and Cheetos products to live their best hands-free lives.
* Cheetle [chet-l] – Noun – Powdery residue left on one’s fingertips after eating Cheetos.
Result:
The activation exceeded the attendance goal by 18%, gathering 1 billion total impressions. We garnered over 11 million impressions across Instagram, Facebook and Twitter, and #handsfreehouse earned 8 million views on TikTok.
Check out the immersive online experience here
Awards:
GOLD One Show Pencil: Integrated: Integrated Campaign
Shorty Awards: WINNER, Event & Experiential
Cannes Lions Shortlist 2022: Brand Experience & Activation Excellence in Brand Experience >360 Integrated Brand Experience
Amazon Brand Innovation Lab
Creative Director: Elana Black
Design Technologist: Alex Mejias
UX Designer: Yury Lizunov
Producer: Rad Olievschi
Senior Solutions Manager: Shana Weber
Production Partner: VTPro
Media Partner: OMD
Tags: Augmented Reality / Brand Awareness / Full Funnel / COVID Resilient / Reward-based Advertising / Custom Animation
While Kinder Joy is well-known in international markets, the brand is seeking to gain awareness in the U.S, since its American launch in 2017. Leading up to Easter 2022, Kinder Joy wanted to be top of mind for consumers in the U.S., seeking long-term brand awareness and near-term holiday sales.
Amazon Brand Innovation Lab reimagined the classic Easter "egg hunt" as an augmented reality Kinder Joy egg hunt the whole family could enjoy.
Our team developed an augmented reality Kinder Joy egg hunt experience exclusively accessible on the Amazon platform. The AR experience provided users of all ages the opportunity to explore their own environs seeking out a series of Kinder Joy eggs with a variety of toy characters. In the spirit of the holiday, those who collected all six eggs were rewarded with a redeemable coupon for the Kinder Joy product exclusively on Amazon.
Amazon Brand Innovation Lab
Sr. Creative Lead: Elana Black
Sr. Copywriter: Sim LeCompte
Design Technologist: Hanna Arfine
Design: Matthew Zagada
UX Design: Zoe Zheng
Production: Rad Olievschi
Animation: Art & Graft
When the customer taps on each egg, a toy is revealed.
Tags: Cause Advertising / Brand Awareness / Upper Funnel / COVID Resilient
At the onset of the COVID pandemic in 2020, Frito-Lay sought to execute a digital campaign that emphasized Lay’s potato chips’ ability to connect one another, while being culturally sensitive to the unprecedented moment in time.
Lay’s Sending Joy – a campaign celebrating “Joy Givers”, real people who bring joy to their communities through selfless acts of kindness and charity.
Amazon Brand Innovation Lab researched, identified, and selected multiple “Joy Givers” to highlight in documentary-style videos for their philanthropic efforts supporting vulnerable communities. Each of these Joy Givers became the recipient of gratitude via an unexpected delivery from Amazon featuring a pop-up picnic, delicious Lay’s potato chips, a familiar face on a Fire tablet and a surprise monetary donation from Frito-Lay to their organizations.
Amazon Custom Ads Team
Sr. Creative Lead: Elana Black
Sr. Copywriter: Sim Lecompte
Creative Director: Joseph Delhommer
Producer: Rad Olievschi
Program Manager: Theresa Tang
One of our Joy Givers was Jacqueline Norvell, known as the Brown Bag Lady. Before and during the pandemic, she gave thousands of meals to people experiencing homelessness in Skid Row, Los Angeles. We thought she deserved some joy too.
Our second Joy Giver was John Jones, who founded the East Side Riders Bike Club to help keep youth from joining gangs by encouraging bike-riding and feeding his Los Angeles community. We planned a surprise to give some joy back to John.
The campaign was promoted through 15-second cut-downs on Streaming TV, Fire TV, IMDb (see below), as well as banner ads across Amazon that drove to the Lay’s Brand Store on Amazon.
Campaign Objective
Drive increased brand awareness and overall association between Cheetos Popcorn and streaming for a Gen-Z audience. Tap into Amazon's suite of products to create an innovative, tech-forward streaming and content experience that builds on Cheetos' commitment to a "hands-free" lifestyle.
Insight
The average customer spends 40 hours per year searching for something to watch. That's a lot of time spent aimlessly scrolling with the remote...especially if you have Cheetle-covered fingertips. So how can we help customers scroll less and snack more on movie night?
Idea
Welcome to Chester's Watchlist—a brand-new, hands-free way to quickly find a movie to watch, courtesy of pop culture expert Chester Cheetah.
We launched a branded Alexa experience that allows customers to ask, "What's Chester watching?" to generate movie and snacking suggestions, plus a $5 credit toward Cheetos Popcorn. This first-of-its-kind campaign also extends across a custom Fire TV hub and Brand Store execution, and is being supported by three original streaming TV spots, audio ads, and banner media.
Creative Lead: Elana Black
Creative Director: Sarah Betts
Sr. Copywriter: Victoria Spagnuolo
Exec Producer: Rad Olievschi
Solutions Manager: Roey Feuerstein
Brand Strategist: Jonathan Lum
Design Technologist: Alec Kunkel
IX Designer: Kingyin Cheung
Director: Camille Boyer
Production Company: L’Eloi
Editor: Jamie Connors
Tags: Native Advertising / Brand Awareness / Full Funnel / COVID Resilient / Multi-Brand Campaign / Scalable Campaign / Video Production
Seeking to capitalize on the then-upcoming Global Running Day during the height of the COVID pandemic, global running brands were looking for full funnel advertising executions associated with online sales channels.
Amazon Brand Innovation Lab created a multi-brand campaign featuring New Balance and Under Armour to celebrate Global Running Day and empower customers to embrace running through Amazon offerings such as storytelling video, Alexa routines, music playlists, running products and customer product reviews.
In one of Amazon Advertising’s first custom activations produced entirely remote during COVID, we featured brand-sponsored professional athletes who filmed their own footage using smart phones with detailed direction from the creative team (due to the shelter in place order). The campaign featured first-person interviews with Emma Coburn—Olympic Medalist & World Champion for New Balance, and Natasha Hastings—Olympic Gold Medalist & World Champion for Under Armour.
Amazon’s Global Running Day campaign has become the longest-running multi-brand offering on the Amazon advertising platform. With repeat advertisers every year since inception, it has become one of Amazon Advertisings most successful scalable programs.
Amazon Custom Ads
Creative Director: Chris Martinez
Senior Art Director: Elana Black
Copywriter: Sim LeCompte
UX Design: Zoe Zheng
Producer: Carrie Schaer
Motion Graphics: Cassandra Krul
Design Technologist: Hanna Arfine
Tags: Full Funnel / Product Launch / Sample Boxes / Influencer Marketing / Custom Animation
The Coca-Cola Company was seeking to drive awareness for its new product line smartwater+, a premium water supplement tailored for consumers to pair with their particular wellness, which launched exclusively on Amazon in 2021.
Amazon’s “A Smarter Way to Hydrate” campaign showcased smartwater+ as a premium hydration product that promoted a fulfilling and active lifestyle.
Amazon Brand Innovation Lab executed a full funnel campaign that featured 15-second animated video, premium sample boxes sent to 100 influencers, a custom landing page, and Amazon DSP and streaming TV ads across Amazon.
Amazon Custom Ads
Sr. Creative Lead: Elana Black
UX Designer: Zibin Michael Yuan
Sr. Copywriter: Sim LeCompte
Creative Director: Joseph Delhommer
Producer: Rad Olievschi
Program Manager: Theresa Tang
Animation: Hornet (Bee Grandinetti)
Amazon Tags: Native Advertising / Data-Driven / Advertorial / Scalable Campaign / Custom Photography
Amazon Trend Report, a first-of-its-kind advertising product that provides brand clients the ability to showcase products in trending categories backed by quantitative proprietary data. The Amazon Custom Advertising team utilized proprietary anonymized data to uncover emerging trends and feature products, both paid product placements and organically curated products, that exemplify the season’s top trends. These trends combined the voice of the consumer, the data of Amazon, and the latest product offerings of Amazon’s top brands.
In its inaugural campaign, Amazon Trend Report featured New Balance, Adidas and Bose in a guide showcasing trending products in fitness, tech and beyond for the all-important “New Year, New You” timing.
Creative Director: Chris Martinez
Senior Art Director: Elana Black
Photographer: Ilan Rubin
See the archived experience here
Tags: Native Advertising / Fashion / Full Funnel/ Custom Production
Degree Women came to Amazon seeking to drive awareness and consideration for their Black & White Deodorant. The client wanted to associate its brand with fashion to showcase how the product helped with longevity of nice black & white apparel, preventing white marks or yellow stains.
To complement Degree’s existing Rerun The Classics campaign, we developed “5 pieces styled 5 ways” to demonstrate the versatility of high-quality basics and associate the brand with fashion. Our goal was to instill confidence in Degree Women customers to invest in high-quality black & white staples, knowing the right deodorant could make them last longer.
The Brand Innovation Lab created a custom experience featuring 5 pieces styled 5 ways. Amazon curated a shoppable core collection of five items (white sleeveless, black button-down, white blouse, black tank and black dress) and styled each clothing items 5 different ways, for a total of 25 unique featured looks. The campaign depicted the product through a premium lens with high-quality photography showing clean underarms in our photographs, cinemagraphs and videos. Through a custom landing page experience, AVA and AAP placements, Amazon connected the product to fashion and helped Degree Black & White customers feel confident in their quality clothing purchases.
Creative Director: Michael Lowenstern
Senior Art Director: Elana Black
Copywriter: Luisa Diodato
UX Designer: Zibin Michael Yuan
Design Technologist: Lauren Giaccobo
Producer: Josh Eisenman
White Tank & 5 Looks
Black Tank & 5 Looks
Black Button-Down & 5 Looks
White Blouse & 5 Looks