Oreo snacks on AR with Snapchat lenses, digital stickers

Brief:

Oreo is rolling out a European campaign with image-messaging app Snapchat that celebrates "the playful side within all of us," Campaign reported. The "Oreo People" effort includes special packaging with Snapcodes that mobile users can scan to unlock a cookie-themed augmented reality (AR) lens, filters and digital stickers of "Oreoji" characters.
The Mondelez-owned brand is placing the Snapcodes on 134 million product packages throughout Europe. Oreo fans in the U.K. can access a video game that challenges players to virtually "zorb" — roll downhill inside a transparent ball — while dodging obstacles.
Ad agency Elvis developed the campaign, which also includes content on digital and social platforms, as well as in-store activations and an "Oreo People" tag on TV ads. Elvis has worked with Mondelez's Cadbury candy brand since 2014.

Insight:

Oreo's development of a Snapchat campaign could help it to reach younger audiences who are more likely to favor the image-messaging app over traditional TV advertisements or social media rivals like Facebook and Twitter. Snapchat was forecast to have 5 million U.K. users between 18 and 24, compared to 4.5 million for Facebook, per researcher eMarketer. More broadly, Snapchat's European user base gradually shrank to about 59 million people in Q3 2018 after peaking at 62 million in Q1 2018, a decline that likely was related to the app's redesign. Fun mobile activations like Oreo's digital stickers and AR lenses could help to draw users to the social app and keep them on the platform.

The Mondelez cookie brand has become a popular product line with Generation Z through its continual introductions of new flavors that invite them to re-experience a brand that's been around for more than 100 years. In the U.S., the brand last week introduced a limited-edition "Most Stuf" version of the sandwich cookie that's packed with extra filling.

Oreo has run successful social media and mobile campaigns to engage viewers in creative ways, including a partnership with Dunkin' to promote new flavors of doughnuts and coffee through Twitter. Oreo last year introduced a mobile scavenger hunt that gave players clues on where to find hidden virtual cookies in everyday objects, then used image-recognition technology to confirm the player found the digital Oreo that was overlaid on the real world via a smartphone camera.