British snack brand Walkers partnered with the Spice Girls on a video spot that launched its #BestEverFan competition. The campaign is part of the brand’s effort to promote its reformulated cheese and onion flavored crisps and appeal to a Gen Z and millennial audience.
To coincide with the Spice World reunion tour, Walkers is giving one fan the chance to meet the girls on tour. The 90-second spot promoting the campaign shows the girls live televised as they surprise their Best Ever Fan, played by comedian Guz Khan. Much to their chagrin, the fan refuses to share his Walkers cheese and onion crisps resulting in the girls leaving without him, and instead with the fan’s mother who agrees that he should’ve shared his crisps.
“We want to rejuvenate the brand. Although we are in a very good position as the number one crisp brand, we are really trying to reconnect with customers. The whole idea is to not make this an ad but make it a story that people want to be part of,” Walkers marketing director Fernando Kahane told Marketing Week.
With promotion across television, social media and movie theaters, Kahana estimates that the spot will reach 17 million in the first eight hours post-launch, and 70 percent of the British population in the first week. The spot first aired during Britain’s Got Talent.
Walkers announced the competition on its Twitter with a 23-second video spot of the girls encouraging entrants to “Sing us a song, show us your moves—whatever it takes” and tag Walkers with the hashtag #BestEverFan. The video garnered 1.45 million views in nine days.
The campaign marks Walkers’ first ad with the Spice Girls in 22 years and a push to increase engagement with younger customers, likely resulting in ample user-generated content. In 1997, the brand partnered with the pop sensation to launch its cheese and chives flavor crisps with the Spice Girls featured on packs. As part of the campaign, one 20-second video spot gives a behind-the-scenes glimpse of the girls in their makeup room, Walkers bag in hand, talking about a handful of the 16 million prizes fans could win when purchasing one of their limited edition Walkers Crisps.
