Dive Brief:
- Oscar Mayer created an online video generator where visitors can enter text that will then be converted into a bacon font. The bacon-based message can then be downloaded or shared on social media as the brand looks to start more "baconversations."
- However, the video generator only allows messages up to 16 characters in length, according to Yahoo, and it appears as though punctuation and numbers do not translate well with bacon.
- After a few seconds, messages put through the video generator show a package of Oscar Mayer naturally hardwood smoked bacon, though the videos are looping, so the text returns afterward. Visitors can immediately post their bacon-inspired words of wisdom on Facebook or can download the video to share elsewhere.
Dive Insight:
Oscar Mayer is hoping a general love of bacon — and its video generator's baked-in social shareability — will go a long way for engaging consumers and raising brand awareness. The technology powering the text generator is fun to behold, automatically cooking up user-generated messages and assembling them out of bacon strips.
However, the hard cap on characters requires a little bit of imagination and cleverness on the user's end to really get any sort of 'baconversation' started.
Past promotions have gained traction from a similar combination of ease-of-use, novelty and a strong social sharing aspect. For Valentine's Day, Snuggles lent the voice of its mascot Snuggle Bear to a feature that let users create custom video serenades. The campaign reached an estimated audience of 140 million, with some 50,000 videos created by site visitors.
Other recent efforts include Avocados from Mexico's Super Bowl campaign, which touted a branded microsite that tied to its TV spot through an interactive virtual smartphone visitors could play with.
