Brief:

• Stacy's Pita Chips will link to the "Female Founder Finder", a geotargeted directory of more than 13,000 women-owned businesses, with QR codes on its packaging, per an announcement emailed to Mobile Marketer. Stacy's is marketed by PepsiCo's Frito-Lay snacks unit.
• The directory includes 30 brands and companies founded by women who are participating in the 2020 Stacy's Rise Project, the brand's grant and mentorship program. More than 1,600 applicants applied to the program, which launched in July with 15 women who were awarded a $10,000 grant, executive mentorship and professional advertising services. Stacy's last month expanded the program to include 15 Black women, citing a study that found only 0.2% of venture capital funding goes to women of color a year.
• The effort aims to help consumers find and support female entrepreneurs. Stacy's is urging social media users to participate in conversations about women-owned businesses by following the #StacysRiseProject and #ShareForHer hashtags on social media.

Insight:

Stacy's campaign to help women in their professional networking efforts is notable for making its packaging a gateway to geotargeted content accessed through QR codes. As the brand notes, QR codes have seen a resurgence this year as the pandemic urges people to use a variety of contactless technologies. With improvements to smartphone camera software, QR codes can be easily scanned without requiring mobile users to download a separate app. The geotargeted directory of women-owned businesses helps to narrow the search results to nearby companies.

The campaign is likely to appeal to younger consumers who are more likely to consume snack foods, and who tend to favor brands that support causes, such as helping women advance in the workplace. Stacy's "Rise of the Female Founder" survey found that 67% of consumers wished it were easier to find products and services from female-founded businesses and 79% wanted to see more female-founded businesses in their communities. Stacy's developed the directory of women-owned businesses in a collaboration with Hello Alice, a multichannel platform for women and what it describes as "New Majority" owners consisting of people of color, immigrants, LGBTQ people, veterans and physically disabled entrepreneurs.

The QR code campaign is inspired by the Stacy's Rise Project theme of #ShareForHer for 2020, and its consumer survey that also found that the top two ways for consumers to find new products are through online search (50%) and word-of-mouth recommendations (45%). 

A variety of brands have printed QR codes on their packaging to engage consumers with a branded experience or to provide more information. Stacy's sister brand Pepsi this year printed QR codes on its cans to unlock an AR experience for soccer fans, and share it on social media, while Trident Gum last summer ran a campaign that let mobile users scan a QR code in its packaging to create music beats with an AR filter on photo-sharing app Instagram. Morton Salt plans to add QR codes to its rebranded product line, letting consumers open an augmented reality (AR) experience that includes interactions with its mascot and recipe recommendations. 

Stacy's campaign comes as snack foods have seen higher growth as homebound consumers seek comfort food and make more meals at home during the pandemic. For parent company PepsiCo, Frito-Lay has been a bright spot of revenue gains that outpaced the growth in its soft drinks business, which has taken a hit as many bars, restaurants and hotels operate at limited capacity. Frito-Lay North America saw 7% sales growth in Q3 from a year earlier, helping to drive a 5.3% gain in total revenue of $18.1 billion for PepsiCo, per a quarterly report.