Dive Brief:

• Mondelez International's Oreo brand has created an impenetrable vault, called the Global Oreo Vault, to ensure the sandwich cookies survive a potential asteroid impact in early November, according to details the company shared with Marketing Dive. Inside the facility are shelves full of Oreos, powdered milk and the cookie's secret recipe.
• Oreo's vault is inspired by — and down the road from — Svalbard, Norway's Global Seed Vault, a repository of many of the world's crop seeds built to survive an apocalyptic event.
• With this effort, the brand is having some fun with online conversations about what a tough year 2020 has been, and has released a 5-minute mockumentary-style video about the making of the vault on YouTube. Clips from the video and other content also appear on Twitter.

Dive Insight:

Though the likelihood of Asteroid 2018VP1 crashing into the Earth is exceedingly slight at 0.41%, the brand — recognizing 2020 has already seen its share of unlikely events — is shining a light on how it is taking no chances with its beloved cookie in an attempt to insert the brand into the conversation. The brand assures the vault is real and located at 78°08'58.1"N, 16°01'59.7", just down the road from the Global Seed Vault, and that its contents will remain safe until the asteroid threat has passed. Inside the vault, the cookie packages are wrapped in mylar, which can withstand temperatures from -80 degrees to 300 degrees Fahrenheit. The protective wrap is also impervious to chemical reactions, moisture and air, ensuring the cookies remain fresh for decades.

At the same time, Oreo seeks to engage consumers with digital content about a topic that has captured the attention of many and uses a popular mockumentary style to have some fun with it, as evident in lines from the video like: "I've been in the cookie business for 22 years and I've never had a challenge like this."

The video follows the vault's creation, enlisting a real astronomer to explain the asteroid's nominal threat, alongside actor portrayals of Oreo brand executives and a Norwegian architect hired to design the facility.

"These global vault opportunities don't come around too often, so I accepted [the challenge]," the architect, identified as Markus Thorland of Johansdotter Architectur, says in the video.

The vault was inspired by a Twitter user Oliviagordn, who wrote on Oct. 3: "So apparently there's an asteroid coming to Earth soon. I wonder who will save the Oreos?" In response, the brand last week tweeted it had been "working day and night" on the problem to save the cookie.

Oreo has been particularly successful in generating online buzz for itself with regular new flavor introductions, the ability for consumers to ask questions of Alexa, partnerships with brands and media platforms that attract young followers and online cache, and online stunts to keep consumers engaged.

In 2013, the brand's marketing received kudos when it capitalized on an unexpected power outage during the Super Bowl. More recently, Oreo created the "Playful Network," which enabled people to stay connected by sending personalized Oreo packages to one another during the pandemic.