Lay’s is one of the tastiest snack brands that has successfully stood the test of time by staying just as relevant as when people first started choosing it. Not only has Lay’s made a name for itself in the local American markets but has made inroads into other major Asian and European markets too.
Throughout its journey, Lay’s has found good support in social media platforms like Facebook which has helped it amplify its brand message. Here’s how Lay’s used Facebook to drive engagement from its target audience and leveraged its potential for boosting its online presence and reach.
1. Lay’s Thailand
In Thailand, Lay’s is well known for its traditional flavors such as tom yum, Thai chili paste, and seafood dip.
Their Objective
Lay’s Thailand wanted to compare the brand performance of a standalone campaign of in-stream video ads to the performance of its business-as-usual campaign.
Solution & Approach
As the snack brand’s new line of chips included flavors inspired by international dishes, the company launched a campaign titled “Lay’s Travel” that was meant to remind people of places they wanted to travel to and give them a taste of those locales.
Looking to attract people interested in snacks and traveling, Lay’s Thailand worked with Meta Business Partner Mindshare to create mobile-optimized in-stream video ads that showcased chip flavors from around the world including cream cheese and garlic, cheeseburger, and spicy Korean ramen. In addition to Facebook Feed, the videos also appeared as ad breaks in travel-related content on Facebook Watch.
The Result
The Facebook campaign by Lay’s performed tremendously well as it witnessed a 6.3-point higher lift in ad recall from campaigns with in-stream video ads as compared to campaigns without these video ads. Similarly, Lay’s also saw a 5.8-point higher lift in brand awareness from campaigns with in-stream video ads.
2. Lay’s Poland
With the UEFA Champions League in full swing, Lay’s Poland thought of raising interest in the league through smart product placement.
Their Objective
Lay’s wanted to take advantage of its UEFA Champions League sponsorship in Poland to increase sales and engagement.
Solution & Approach
As part of its local sponsorship of the UEFA Champions League TV coverage, Lay’s enlisted Jakub “Kuba” Błaszczykowski—a Polish football legend—to engage with fans. By recruiting Kuba as an ambassador, Lay’s hoped to provide a local link to the European contest.
Lay’s realized that while most football fans watch the matches on a TV screen, many also use a mobile phone at the same time to stay in touch with other matches and chat with friends. So it decided to use its spokesperson Kuba to get involved in these football conversations.
Working with its agency VMLY&R Poland and Wandlee, Lay’s created a Messenger experience where people could chat to “Virtual Kuba” about football and more. The Virtual Kuba Messenger experience was full of attractions, games, and quizzes. One highlight was an interactive game that used augmented reality (AR) technology. From Messenger, people could launch a game using “selfie mode” in their mobile phone camera to play virtual “keepy-uppy” by bouncing a football on their head to accumulate points. People who visited the experience could also win tickets to the tournament, including the final, and meet Kuba in person.
The Result
The Facebook campaign turned out to be a major success for Lay’s as it brought in 135,000 unique visitors, who spent 4 minutes on average while engaging with Lay’s. Also, the campaign resulted in 154,000 Facebook live views.
3. Lay’s Spain
Lay’s Spain wanted to see how effective its Gourmet range was, for which the snacks brand teamed up with Facebook for heightened awareness.
Their Objective
Lay’s Spain wanted to test the effectiveness of digital advertising platforms with a digital-only Christmas campaign to raise awareness and boost sales of its Lay’s Gourmet range.
Solution & Approach
PepsiCo launched a fully digital campaign for Lay’s Gourmet and conducted a customer mix modeling study with analytics specialist Kantar to gauge the potential of large digital platforms to attract new customers, drive incremental sales, and optimize return on investment. PepsiCo also wanted to assess the impact of Facebook in-stream video ads in an online-only campaign that would rely extensively on video.
PepsiCo worked with Meta teams to ensure the ad creative was properly adapted to the in-stream video format: showing the brand early in the ads, using clear campaign messaging, and focusing on the product. PepsiCo also ran video ads on Instagram as video ads in feeds and Reels.
In addition to Facebook and Instagram, PepsiCo also placed ads on other major digital platforms. The customer mix modeling study enabled PepsiCo to see how the different digital media platforms complemented one another in reaching key Lay’s targets.
The Result
Lay’s Spain’s Facebook campaign performed extraordinarily well as 36% of its sales increase came from Facebook in-stream video ads. Also, the campaign led to a 3.3X return on investment for Facebook in-stream video ads.
Wrapping Up
While Lay’s is undoubtedly a huge name in the snack food industry ever since its inception, its growth among GenZ and millennials can be largely attributed to its efforts at augmenting its online presence. And much of its success in that regard has come on the back of Facebook which has helped it execute impactful campaigns.
Facebook has become one of the most sought mediums for brands to reach their target audience and drive maximum awareness. With a plethora of features that Facebook offers from video ads and augmented reality ads to Facebook pixels and automatic placements, Facebook has truly emerged as a highly reliable platform for brands to get their message across to their potential consumers. All you have to do is have a solid idea about how you want to use this platform to raise awareness around your brand.